Malone Gets Heavy Job to Lift Dodgers

It has been 55 years since the Dodgers picked an outsider as their general manager. Their choice then was Branch Rickey.

If they chose as wisely Friday in selecting Kevin Malone for the job, the Dodgers have the man who can restore order and direction to an organization that has become a shell of the dynasty built by Rickey.

In signing a guaranteed, four-year contract with club options, worth about $500,000 a year, the 41-year-old Malone leaves his position as assistant general manager of the Baltimore Orioles to step into an organization run by a media empire trying to learn baseball, directed on the field by a rookie manager and dependent on a roster marked by holes and question marks.

Welcome home, Kevin.

“This organization is a diamond that just needs to be polished,” said Malone, who called Southern California home from 1985 to 1988, when he was a scout for the Angels and Montreal Expos, focusing on the San Fernando Valley.

The first man Malone must focus on now is Manager Glenn Hoffman, who was given the job June 22 when Bill Russell was fired, along with Fred Claire, the executive vice president who functioned as general manager.

It was thought that Hoffman would have to make the playoffs to retain his job. Now, with the Dodgers all but mathematically out of contention, the decision falls to Malone, who has been told that Hoffman’s fate rests in his hands.

“We have to decide if Glenn is the right guy for the job,” Malone said. “I got to know him a little and I like him and respect him. But are his talents best suited to being the manager of the L.A. Dodgers or would it be better strategically to put him in another area of the organization?”

If Malone decides to look elsewhere, several names have surfaced:

* Kevin Kennedy, the former Texas Ranger and Boston Red Sox manager who was close to Malone when both were with the Expos.

* Felipe Alou, the current Expo manager who would have to get out of his contract.

* Jim Leyland, the Florida Marlin manager whose name always surfaces when there are attractive openings. Leyland has said before that he prefers to remain in the East.

Once he settles on a manager, Malone must work on his roster. Pitchers Ramon Martinez, Brian Bohanon, Mark Guthrie, and outfielder Jim Eisenreich are free agents, and reliever Jeff Shaw can demand a trade. In addition, pitchers Ismael Valdes, Darren Dreifort and Carlos Perez, catcher Charles Johnson and shortstop Mark Grudzielanek are eligible for arbitration.

And then there are the Dodgers’ minor league teams, the scouting department and other aspects of the organization, all of which will be under Malone’s microscope.

“My job is to help everybody be the best that they can be,” Malone said. “There are some tough decisions that have to be made.”

Malone enjoys the administrative end of his job, he said, but at heart, will always be a scout.

“Evaluating talent is my forte,” he said.

Drafted as a second baseman by the Cleveland Indians, Malone turned to scouting when he realized his talents as a player were limited.

After leaving the Angels, Malone became a scout for the Expos in 1988 and was also a coach-hitting instructor for Jamestown in the Class A New York-Penn League. He spent three years scouting for the Minnesota Twins before returning to the Expos in 1991. In Montreal, Malone rose to the post of general manager, a job he held for two seasons. In 1995, Baseball Weekly called him “the best GM in the game.”

But Malone decided that Montreal, where there always seemed to be a shortage of money, was not the best place for a young general manager to be.

So he moved on to Baltimore, where he has worked under General Manager Pat Gillick.

With Gillick thought to be leaving, Malone seemed a logical choice to replace him.

“I had a few discussions with Joe Foss [Oriole vice chairman for business and finance] regarding the future of the Orioles,” Malone said. “It was implied that I was the No. 1 candidate to replace Pat Gillick, but there was never any proposal or offer made. It was implied over the course of time that the offer would present itself, but it hadn’t.”

In the meantime, the Dodgers’ search for a new general manager had moved into high gear. When Tom Lasorda was named to replace Claire, it was on an interim basis. Some thought that Lasorda intended to remove the interim from his title, but he insists that was never the plan.

“That was not a consideration,” President Bob Graziano said. “He never expressed an interest in keeping the job.”

No argument from Lasorda, 70.

“This job should belong to a younger person,” he said. “I believed that from Day 1.”

With the hiring of Malone, Lasorda has been given the title of senior vice president.

The Dodgers interviewed a series of candidates in recent weeks. Marlin General Manager Dave Dombrowski was thought to be the favorite, although Graziano insists, “Until we were finished with the process, there was no pecking order.”

But when Dombrowski agreed to stay with the Marlins on Wednesday, it took the Dodgers less than 48 hours to put Malone at the top of their list.

In the days when he was scouting in the Valley and living everywhere from Sherman Oaks to Van Nuys to Canyon Country, Malone, a basketball fan since his collegiate days at Louisville, spent his spare time officiating high school basketball games.

He acknowledges he handed out his share of technical fouls.

“I was a little less mature, a little more hot-headed,” he said.

He’d better be over that. He’ll need a cool hand and a clear head if he is to guide the Dodgers back to the heights they enjoyed the last time they ventured outside the family to find a leader.

Ross Newhan contributed to this report.

* DODGERS LOSE: A first-inning, run-scoring single by Andy Sheets was all Padres needed in 1-0 win. C5