Dodgers Should Start Getting Used to This Losing Feeling

So much for Randy Johnson. Now the Dodgers turn to Kevin Brown. Another lost cause? Another chance to prove they have become one of baseball’s most user-friendly teams?

A hard and cynical line, perhaps, but if Johnson never figured to sign with the Dodgers, neither does Brown.

Of course, General Manager Kevin Malone has no alternative but to explore the possibility.

On the first day of December, the Dodgers are still without the No. 1 caliber pitcher and left-handed power hitter that were their primary winter objectives.

Mo Vaughn, the leading left-handed hitter on the free-agent market, agreed to a six-year, $80-million contract with the Angels.

The Dodgers, who would have had to trade first baseman Eric Karros to open a position for Vaughn, did not bid.

Johnson, along with Brown the only No. 1 caliber pitchers among the free agents, agreed to a four-year, $52.4-million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday, choosing home cooking over comparable offers from the Dodgers, Angels and Texas Rangers.

No surprise--to Malone or anyone else.

Johnson lives in the Phoenix area and his No. 1 criterion was to join a team that trained or played in Arizona. He would have preferred an American League team, but if he was going to the National League it wouldn’t have been to a team that trains in Florida and is an hour by air--given the option of living year-round at home.

Were the Dodgers merely used to drive up the market?

“I don’t think we were used at all,” Malone said. “I think at various stages he was leaning toward coming here. He had some quality options, and he chose to do what was in the best interest of his family.

“Money was important but wasn’t his top priority. I’m happy for him. I have to respect that decision.

“He has a new home and young children. I knew that’s where his emphasis was from the first day I visited him in Arizona.”

The Dodgers, however, put on a full-court press that included Fox executives Chase Carey and Peter Chernin stressing family and Dodger history.

Whether they will do the same with Brown is uncertain, but if they knew Johnson was a longshot, they have to know the buzz about Brown--that he wants a six-year contract, that he would prefer to move closer to his Georgia home, that if he were going to play in the West again he would return to the San Diego Padres.

Baseball sources say that Fox initially expressed no interest in a six-year commitment to a power pitcher, but the loss of Johnson--who has set the market price for Brown with his Diamondback deal--may force them to join this new bidding war, even though it is another they would seem to have little chance of winning. Given the criteria, it would seem they are nothing more than leverage again.

“Kevin Brown is about winning and so are the Dodgers,” Malone said. “I’ve already had several conversations with Scott Boras and expect to have more.”

Malone, of course, inherited a financial and artistic mess and faces a difficult job straightening it out. He retained closer Jeff Shaw with a renegotiated contract, signed free-agent center fielder Devon White and free-agent reliever Alan Mills, and traded Bobby Bonilla for reliever Mel Rojas in a deal that would have been best announced at the city dump.

Acknowledging the absence of a left-handed hitter who might balance the lineup and a front-line pitcher to replace Ramon Martinez, Malone maintained Monday that the Dodgers are an improved team, that the overall pitching staff is comparable to any in the National League and that his is the team to beat in the West.

“We had a lot of areas that needed improvement, and sometimes you can’t accomplish everything in one year,” he said. “We have a lot of work still to do, but we have a lot of time in which to do it.”

Vaughn and Johnson are gone. Brown is a longshot. The Dodgers will still have a payroll of more than $70 million with a litany of uncertainty that goes beyond that absence of left-handed power and rotation stopper. Can they find a left-handed reliever? Is Adrian Beltre ready? Can they untangle the Jose Vizcaino-Mark Grudzielanek shortstop knot? Can they hope for more than .218 from Charles Johnson, who may go to $5 million in arbitration? Can they contain the time bomb that is Gary Sheffield and keep Raul Mondesi on the right behavioral road? Do they have a bench?

Disney has stolen the play from Fox on the local baseball stage, and Malone will be determined to make a move at the winter meetings starting Dec. 11 in Nashville, if not before.

A key remains second baseman Eric Young. Can the Dodgers, for instance, afford to trade their leadoff hitter--resulting in Grudzielanek’s moving to second base--to the New York Mets for left-handed hitting catcher Todd Hundley? That would let them trade Johnson for a pitcher, possibly to Baltimore for left-handed reliever Arthur Rhodes. The Dodgers would prefer to give up Todd Hollandsworth and Antonio Osuna in a Hundley deal, but they still can’t be assured that Hundley’s reconstructed elbow will allow him to catch regularly.

Malone is encumbered by big contracts and has little flexibility or maneuverability. There is little left in free-agent pitching except Tim Belcher, Mark Clark, Pete Schourek and others like them. There is little hope of a trade for a No. 1 pitcher, since few teams are deep enough to give one up and the Dodgers lack the prospects necessary to trade for a Roger Clemens.

“We haven’t added a Mo Vaughn to the middle of the lineup, but to some degree I think Devon White can pick up the left-handed slack,” Malone said. “There is no question that a Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown can elevate a pitching staff, but I still think our rotation matches up well with any in the league, and I definitely think we have the best team in the division.”

It is a stretch to think a rotation of Chan Ho Park, Ismael Valdes, Carlos Perez, Darren Dreifort and Dave Mlicki compares to that of the Braves or even that of the Diamondbacks with Johnson, Todd Stottlemyre and Armando Reynoso joining Andy Benes, Omar Daal and Brian Anderson.

The Diamondbacks are in position to trade a pitcher for a hitter--possibly sending Benes and a prospect to the Angels for Jim Edmonds--which would transform the second-year team into a legitimate contender in a division in which the Dodgers, with all of their uncertainties, may indeed be the best team.

Of course, it is a long time till April and much can change in a division that may hinge on where Kevin Brown lands. The feeling here is that Los Angeles would be a surprise. The same surprise that Randy Johnson would have been.