Critical Time for Lasorda

Call off the National League wild-card chase. The Dodgers have won it.

“I guarantee we’re going to make the playoffs,” Tom Lasorda said in Cooperstown on Sunday. “I told our players that and I believe it. I told them we would catch the Giants and we have. Now we’re going to catch the Cubs.”

If Lasorda says it, it must be true.

As we know from listening to him over the years, he is not one of those excitable guys who gets caught in the moment and says things he doesn’t absolutely, positively believe.

Like on Saturday, when he donned his Dodger uniform again for batting practice before the old-timers’ game at Yankee Stadium, hit a blooper into shallow right field and called it a double. He probably believed he could have legged it out.

So perhaps we shouldn’t trust everything he says. But, when he guarantees that the Dodgers will be in the playoffs, that’s different because he’s in a position to make that happen.

Whether he will succeed could be determined before the end of this week. His first real test as the Dodgers’ interim general manager is to acquire another quality starting pitcher, a move that is no longer optional, since Ismael Valdes was put on the 15-day disabled list Monday because of a strained stomach muscle.

In retrospect, Dodger historians will look back on this season as a series of weeks that shook the team to its foundation--the week Rupert Murdoch was approved as the owner, the week Mike Piazza was traded, the week Hideo Nomo was banished, the week Fred Claire and Bill Russell were fired and the week two much-ballyhooed prospects were sacrificed for Jeff Shaw.

This week probably will not be as tumultuous, but it could prove equally significant in determining the Dodgers’ future.

Starting tonight in Philadelphia and continuing when they arrive Friday in New York, the Dodgers play their next six games against two of the four teams ahead of them in the wild-card race.

Winning both series will establish them as serious contenders, and, if they do proceed to the playoffs, the team’s first major announcement of the off-season will be that the “interim” has been excised from Lasorda’s title.

As baseball’s rookie executive of the year, Dodger President Bob Graziano couldn’t very well repay Lasorda by sending him back to the banquet circuit.

With so much at stake for both himself and the team, it’s no wonder Lasorda has been eager to engage in more bold moves before Friday’s trading deadline. He has not been secretive about his desire to add a reliable hitter who can play left field, perhaps Rafael Palmiero from Baltimore, and a starting pitcher to replace injured Ramon Martinez.

After Valdes’ discouraging medical report Monday, the focus should shift to a starting pitcher.

But not to Randy Johnson.

Let the Yankees and Indians try to outbid each other for him.

At best, his presence wouldn’t guarantee more than one victory in the first round of the playoffs. At worst, he would be as inconsistent with the Dodgers as he has been this season with the Mariners. His 9-9 record and 4.35 ERA have reduced him to the Medium Unit.

“Randy has had his intensity at times,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “Has it always been there? I haven’t seen it.”

One time when he did see it, Johnson attacked teammate David Segui, for still unexplained reasons, in the clubhouse.

Maybe a change of clubhouses would improve Johnson’s mood. Maybe not.

In any case, the Mariners aren’t discounting him. Putting out the word that they will trade him only if the offer is too good to refuse, they would require at least three players from the Dodgers--Antonio Osuna, Wilton Guerrero and a prospect, if the Mariners could find one in the Dodgers’ suddenly barren farm system.

An additional concern is that Johnson isn’t signed beyond this season.

Lasorda should concentrate on Toronto’s Juan Guzman, St. Louis’ Todd Stottlemyre and Montreal’s Carlos Perez. Only Guzman would be better than the Dodgers’ No. 4 starter in the Dodgers’ revived rotation, presuming Valdes comes back as strong as he has been recently, but Perez would be a better choice. He’s left-handed and would come cheaper than either Guzman or Stottlemyre.

Lasorda, however, isn’t seeking advice.

That’s probably wise. I would have advised him against trading Paul Konerko and Dennis Reyes for Shaw. I wouldn’t have been alone. Several people in the Dodger organization are still fuming because they think Lasorda gave up too much.

But maybe Lasorda knows something we don’t. Maybe he knows Konerko is a man without a position who will prove to be another Billy Ashley. Maybe Lasorda knows Reyes is years away from developing into a reliable starter. Maybe he’s wrong on both counts. Maybe he will return next season to his former role as the Dodgers’ goodwill ambassador.

Until then, regardless of his interim status, it’s his team.

Because of Shaw’s presence in the bullpen, it’s a better one than when Lasorda took over. It could be better still after Eric Young and Bobby Bonilla return this week from the disabled list, especially if Bonilla regains his hitting touch. That’s crucial for the Dodgers.

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VALDES ON DISABLED LIST: C5