Hopefully, Evans Won’t Phone It In

The big news Tuesday was, the Dodger general manager promptly returned a phone call.

Seriously. Within four hours. With his secretary phoning twice to say the return call was coming.

The bigger news Tuesday was that anyone would consider this big news.

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Two months into the off-season, and everyone is missing the point.

The Dodgers’ biggest need is not for a closer, or a center fielder, or a shortstop, or another pitcher.

The Dodgers’ biggest need is for a leader.

They need someone to work the league, nudge the players, assure the fans.

They need a firm voice, a single vision.

They need not only front-office action, but accountability.

They need Dan Evans, the new general manager, to behave like one.

Starting like, today.

Trades are forming. Free agent signings are looming. The winter meetings are soon beginning.

This is Evans’ chance to remedy a slow start.

As slow as James Baldwin’s walk from the mound.

Since joining the organization last summer after spending most of his career pushing Chicago White Sox paperwork, Evans has made two good acquisitions, and four lousy ones.

The good ones are personnel guys, so nobody cares. Those would be gurus Bill Bavasi and John Boles.

The lousy ones are players, so nobody forgets. Those would be Baldwin, Mike Trombley, Terry Mulholland and Omar Daal.

A guy can make these early mistakes if he either has the credentials of a veteran, or the ability to talk like one.

So far, Evans has neither.

His biggest personnel challenge is not in his bullpen or center field, but in his mirror. He needs to dispel the overwhelming notion that he is overwhelmed.

“I wouldn’t say overwhelmed,” he said Tuesday. “I’ve had a lot on my plate in these first few months. I’ve been hiring a lot of people. The workload has been enormous.

“I had to prioritize. I could not call everybody back every day.”

Oh yeah, returned phone calls. A small thing for small organizations. A huge thing for the Dodgers.

Evans began the winter by waiting several days to return a phone call from agent Scott Boras about pitcher Chan Ho Park.

Sure, the Dodgers can’t afford Park, but what if Boras was calling to say Park would play for nothing? That’s silly, but how can his best pitcher not be a priority?

Then, the Newark Star-Ledger reported that Evans waited more than two weeks to return the New York Mets’ inquiries about Gary Sheffield.

Sure, maybe Evans isn’t sold on trading Sheffield, but what if the Mets were calling to give back Mike Piazza? That’s silly, but not as silly as failing to explore anything that could make your team better.

Evans said that, with the hiring of farm director Bavasi--filling one of a dozen vacant positions in the Dodger system--he now has the time to put his stamp on the major league team.

“I’m up to date with all the clubs, all the agents, I’m ready to go,” he said.

Good idea, because the legacy of the Dodger general manager has always included that stamp.

He was always someone who, seemingly with his mere presence, could make the team better. He gave the Dodgers not only its players, but its personality.

Under Branch Rickey, they were bold. Under Buzzie Bavasi, they were smart. Under Al Campanis, they swaggered.

These days they have been, well, invisible.

Seemingly involved in no trade talks or important free-agent signings. Issuing no mandates. Outlining no plans.

Evans has issued important new orders for his major league scouts to begin scouting their own minor leaguers-much like the New York Yankees-so more smart deals can be made.

But then, to a staff with several questionable arms and heads, he adds Omar Daal?

All of this makes some folks wonder if, instead of preparing the team to win, the Dodgers are preparing the team to sell.

For an organization that will probably draw less than 3 million fans this season for the first time inseven years, that is not a good perception.

A strong Dodger general manager changes all that.

No offense to Mitch Kupchak, but no sports job in this town is more forceful or visible.

Nobody is in the papers as much as the Dodger general manager. Nobody is discussed as much on the radio. Nobody is more second-guessed in the supermarket.

“I realized this was that kind of job, it makes you very accountable, and I’m fine with that,” Evans said. “This can be the premier job in the game.”

It was, once.

Can Evans make it that way again?

He says he wants to build the team around pitching and defense-”That’s how teams have won at Dodger Stadium, I want to get back to that,” he said.

But in the next breath, he intimates that he may not be able to improve at the center field/leadoff spot.

Folks inside the Dodger offices say he is incredibly organized and ego-free, compiling his organizational plan with help from everyone from Dave Wallace to Jim Tracy.

But what exactly is that plan? And will it include more than a closer? And is the idea to win, or rebuild?

Only Dan Evans knows for sure.

While the rest of us wait on hold.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.