Dodgers Must Make Right Moves to Close the Deal

So the Dodgers had a big trade in them after all.

Chan Ho Park for Hideo Nomo.

Their future for their past.

A 28-year-old pitcher with Cy Young potential for a 33-year-old who, two years ago, couldn’t even pitch his way out of the minor leagues with the Chicago Cubs.

By allowing Park to leave as a free agent Thursday, at the same time they signed Nomo, would seem like the worst Dodger swap since we were introduced to Delino DeShields.

But look closer.

And let’s hope the Dodgers are doing the same.

Park wanted Kevin Brown-type money, despite having pitched with none of Brown’s fire.

Nomo came for half the price.

Park wilted in big games like popcorn in a rain delay.

Nomo is the only active pitcher who has thrown two no-hitters.

Last year, Park struck out 218 and walked 91.

Last year, Nomo struck out 220 and walked 96.

Park held opposing hitters to a .216 average.

Nomo, in a league with one extra hitter in the lineup, held opponents to a .231 average.

The immediate difference between the two pitchers is negligible.

Where Nomo has the advantage is in what happens next.

Will the Dodgers use the money they’re saving on him to pay a new closer?

If so, then it appears they’ve done the right thing.

Given their recent moves, the Dodgers will understand if we withhold judgment until then.

As strange as it sounds, this could work.

The Dodgers needed starting pitching depth.

Last year’s American League strikeout leader would provide that.

(Yeah, with the Boston Red Sox, he struck out seven more batters than Roger Clemens.)

The Dodgers properly dumped Nomo 31/2 years ago when it appeared he had lost his baffling touch.

The last two seasons--21 wins for two bad teams, 401 strikeouts, one no-hitter--would indicate that he has found it again.

When Nomo left here early in the summer of 1998, he was struggling to coordinate his mechanics with the constrictions of off-season elbow surgery.

He is not the first pitcher to need a couple of years to figure that out.

When Nomo left here, he had been alienated in an organization that had lost his mentor, Dave Wallace.

Wallace is back, albeit stationed in Florida as an assistant general manager, and Nomo seems thrilled.

Through an interpreter Thursday, Nomo said, “[Wallace] knows my pitching well, my feelings well. If I have problems, I can lean on him for his advice.”

Finally, when Nomo left here, there were severe communication problems that limited the help he could receive.

Now, there is a man on the Dodger staff who speaks Japanese, learned it when he worked in Japanese baseball.

That would be pitching coach Jim Colborn.

“He’s as durable as there is in the game,” Dodger General Manager Dan Evans said of Nomo. “He gives us innings and strikeouts.”

On a staff full of rehabilitating arms, you can’t have enough innings.

With a pot-holed defense, you can’t have enough strikeouts.

Of course, Chan Ho Park would also give you both.

But at what price?

He wants an ace’s salary, but his concentration went AWOL whenever the Dodgers needed an ace.

Certainly, in that first game after the Sept. 11 tragedies, there were communication problems and semantics problems.

But still....

If Park’s head is in the game when he takes the mound as a reliever against the San Diego Padres, then the Dodgers stay in the pennant race until the end.

With the beginning momentum of a long and emotional home stand at stake, they might never have needed him more than on the night of Sept. 17.

And where was he?

Five batters, three walks, one double, one single, one passed ball, one phantom Achilles’ tendon injury that allowed him to flee the field.

That’s where.

At the time, he had allowed 11 runs in his last 32/3 innings.

He would finish the year by giving up the record-setting 71st home run to San Francisco’s Barry Bonds amid another faint first-inning performance.

And he wanted to be paid like the Dodgers’ best pitcher?

So now they have replaced him with a familiar face up to his old tricks.

If this is about Hideo Nomo’s popularity, of course, it’s a mistake. By the time he left here after four years, the fans were booing him like he was Kip Gross.

This is not about a old mania. It’s about a veteran consistency.

We welcome him back with a damp handshake.

While waiting for the other cleat to drop.

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