No Deals Yet for Malone

General Manager Kevin Malone has been unable to find suitable deals as the clock continues to tick toward Saturday’s non-waiver trading deadline.

Not that he isn’t trying.

“I’ve been on the phone a lot lately,” Malone said. “It seems that teams are interested in our young pitchers, but we like them too. At this point, there aren’t any deals that are attractive that can be made.”

Trade speculation continues to swirl around first baseman Eric Karros, who began Tuesday needing 29 home runs to become the all-time Los Angeles franchise leader. Karros declined comment Tuesday about the persistent rumors, but his agent, Jeff Moorad, said that the situation needs to be resolved once and for all.

“Any human being has his limits, and this really has been going on too long,” Moorad said. “If they [the Dodgers] are not going to make a long-term commitment to him, then maybe it is in everyone’s best interest to move on right now. I mean, enough is enough.”

After another typically slow start, Karros entered Tuesday’s game batting .290 with a team-leading 23 home runs and 63 runs batted in. Karros is owed $5 million next season under the final year of his contract.

“You can beat Eric down with trade rumors, you can beat him down by sitting him down [taking him out of the lineup] at inappropriate times and you can beat him down emotionally and psychologically,” Moorad said. “But you can’t beat Eric down on the field, and you can’t beat down his work ethic.

“Eric has a lot of baseball left in him, and we never imagined Eric playing for another organization. If he has to, so be it, but this has to stop one way or another.”

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ ROBINSON CHECO (0-0, 17.18 ERA)

vs.

REDS’ DENNYS REYES (2-1, 2.01 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7:30 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports West 2.

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

* Update--Checo returns to the mound for the Dodgers, who are wondering if that’s a good thing. The right-hander will be recalled from triple-A Albuquerque today to take the spot in the starting rotation vacated Saturday when left-hander Carlos Perez was demoted to the bullpen. Checo pitched horribly in two relief appearances during April at Dodger Stadium before being optioned to Albuquerque. He went 3-6 with a 4.36 earned-run average in 14 starts for the Dukes. Reyes is making his first start of the season. This marks the left-hander’s second appearance against his former team.