Dodgers Show Hand and Turn Up an Ace

The only thing worse than missing the playoffs with a $110-million player payroll, the Dodgers decided, would have been missing the playoffs by a game or two because they refused to add $1.5 million to that payroll. So the Dodgers anted up Thursday, acquiring pitcher James Baldwin from the Chicago White Sox and adding a veteran starter to an injury-riddled rotation without sacrificing a top prospect.

The teams agreed on financial considerations Thursday, only hours before Baldwin was scheduled to start for the White Sox at Cleveland. Baldwin will instead start Sunday for the Dodgers, a team half a game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West and leading the NL wild-card race despite losing ace Kevin Brown to injury after losing starters Andy Ashby and Darren Dreifort to season-ending injuries.

The White Sox agreed to pay $500,000 of the approximately $2 million remaining on Baldwin’s contract. They had no intention of re-signing Baldwin, a free agent-to-be, and agreed to accept two marginal prospects--left-hander Onan Masaoka and right-hander Gary Majewski--and journeyman minor league outfielder Jeff Barry in exchange for the Dodgers picking up that $1.5-million tab.

Baldwin, 30, is 7-5 with a 4.61 earned-run average. He won a career-high 14 games last season and appeared in the All-Star game and the division series. He has won five of his last six starts this season.

“We needed to do something,” catcher Chad Kreuter said. “We’ve been needing to do something since Kevin got hurt. You could say we needed to do something way before that, because Ashby got hurt and Dreifort got hurt.

“But Kevin going down was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’ve been winning. If we want to keep winning, you have to do something to get a guy to give us innings. If you don’t, it’ll catch up with us.”

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy called the trade “a fantastic deal” that made “a very loud statement” to him, to players, to fans and to opposing clubs that the Dodgers were playing to win.

Still, Dodger Chairman Bob Daly had been reluctant to add to the payroll and suggested the deal would not have been completed if the White Sox had insisted on the Dodgers paying all of Baldwin’s salary--”the money consideration was a very important part of the deal,” Daly said--and if the team had not played itself into a position where one pitcher could make a difference. The Dodgers have won 11 of 13 games and 21 of 28.

“Once I heard the news, it boosted me up,” outfielder Shawn Green said. “I’m excited, not only to get him, but to know the organization will do its part to get the pieces we need to win.”

In Baldwin, the Dodgers acquired an enigmatic pitcher who had long frustrated the White Sox, one who was labeled a future ace as a prospect but instead developed into a reliable inning-eater. He has won at least 11 games in each of his five full seasons in the majors, with an ERA between 4.42 and 5.32.

Chicago Manager Jerry Manuel, asked Thursday whether the trade indicated the White Sox had given up on the season, told Chicago reporters that, “I think we have probably grown somewhat impatient with J.B., not necessarily with the team.”

Kreuter caught Baldwin from 1996-98--”He was my Chan Ho [Park] when I was with the White Sox,” Kreuter said--and said Baldwin has the stuff and the experience to join Park at the head of the rotation.

“Over the last couple of years, he’s demonstrated when healthy he can pitch big games,” Kreuter said. “He’s a front-line guy. But I don’t know how healthy he is. It’s usually one year before you’re really at 100% again.”

Baldwin underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in October. Dave Wallace, the Dodgers’ interim general manager, said the teams had exchanged medical records and the Dodgers did not make the deal contingent on Baldwin passing a physical. Baldwin has yet to regain full velocity, clocked at 93 to 94 mph last season and closer to 90 mph this season.

“My velocity is coming back, and once that comes back, it’s going to be a whole different ballgame,” Baldwin said.

If Baldwin can provide six quality innings per start, and if Brown can return by September, the Dodgers believe the veteran trio of Brown, Baldwin and Park can ease the burden on young starters Eric Gagne and Luke Prokopec and point the way toward October.

“The young guys will feel the pressure the later the season goes,” outfielder Gary Sheffield said. “The more pressure you can keep off those guys, the better it is.”

Said Wallace of Baldwin: “He’s not going to come in here and go undefeated. But he’ll come in and compete and give us a chance to win.”

Baldwin said he was sad to leave the only organization he had ever known but happy that weeks of trade speculation had ended with him returning to a pennant race.

“I just want to . . . keep things rolling for those guys,” he said.

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Baldwin’s Career Statistics

Right-hander James Baldwin’s numbers during his major league career, spent with the Chicago White Sox:

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Year W-L ERA G GS CG SHO IP 1995 0-1 12.89 6 4 0 0 14.2 1996 11-6 4.42 28 28 0 0 169.0 1997 12-15 5.27 32 32 1 0 200.0 1998 13-6 5.32 37 24 1 0 159.0 1999 12-13 5.10 35 33 1 0 199.1 2000 14-7 4.65 39 28 2 1 178.0 2001 7-5 4.61 17 16 2 1 95.2 Tot 69-53 5.04 184 165 7 2 666

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Year H R ER HR HBP BB SO 1999 32 22 21 6 0 9 10 1996 168 88 83 24 4 57 127 1997 205 128 117 19 5 83 140 1998 176 103 94 18 10 60 108 1999 219 119 113 34 7 81 123 2000 185 96 92 34 8 59 116 2001 109 56 49 15 4 38 42 Tot 1,015 1,094 612 569 150 38 387

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