Baldwin Not High on Dodger Priorities

The agent for pitcher James Baldwin intimated Monday that the Dodgers misled him.

Rex Gary expressed his frustration at the baseball winter meetings, saying he was confused by the actions of General Manager Dan Evans, who declined to offer Baldwin arbitration by last Friday’s deadline.

The Dodgers could still re-sign Baldwin in May, but Evans is exploring other options and the free-agent right-hander is not in the club’s plans. Gary said he’s still trying to determine what went wrong.

“We were told in October that bringing back James was a priority and it was clearly something that we were very much interested in,” he said.

“Something, and I’m at a loss what, changed over time. What happened? I don’t know.”

Baldwin was 3-6 with a 4.20 earned-run average in 12 starts for the Dodgers .

“I just felt that Chan Ho [Park, whom the Dodgers offered arbitration] was a guy that I wanted to retain the ability to arbitrate with and the ability to sign,” Evans said. “We thought there were other options out there that were better than Baldwin and that were better than [Terry] Adams.”

Oakland Athletic General Manager Billy Beane arrived in Boston and was expected to continue talks with Evans about a trade that would send outfielder Gary Sheffield to the Bay Area and bring outfielder Jermaine Dye and closer Billy Koch to Los Angeles.

“We have some things going on here,” Beane said. “Whether or not they’re consummated time will tell. I’ll sort of leave it at that.”