Cora’s Still Glad Rodriguez Isn’t Here

Throughout the 2000 season there was a feeling that Alex Cora and Kevin Elster were merely keeping the shortstop position warm for impending free agent Alex Rodriguez.

But with Elster retiring and the Dodgers skipping the $252-million A-Rod Sweepstakes at the winter meetings, Cora entered spring training knowing that he was the Dodgers’ projected opening-day shortstop.

“For me, well, it meant I was going to play here, I was going to play short here and that was something I really wanted,” Cora said. “But I wasn’t going to get mad if he would have signed here. That’s part of the game, that’s part of the way it is.”

Dodger fans will get a look at Rodriguez at short in a limited Chavez Ravine engagement beginning tonight as his Texas Rangers begin a three-game interleague series here.

“Like I’ve said from the get-go,” Cora said, “he’s a great player, and if you don’t talk about that as an organization, that you want probably the best player in the big leagues, then you’re not doing your job.”

Had Rodriguez become a Dodger, one of the off-season rumors had the Dodgers dealing Mark Grudzielanek and moving Cora to second base. Cora insists that he was not worried about his job.

“To tell you the truth, we talked two or three times in the off-season,” Cora said of Rodriguez. “I know him from Miami and he played with my brother [Joey, with the Seattle Mariners]. We’re not best friends, but we know each other and we talk here and there and I was happy for him. It was a perfect scenario for him, a perfect situation.”

It has been anything but perfect for Cora thus far, though. A three-hit game Saturday raised his batting average to .220, but Cora sat Sunday against left-handed Angel starter Jarrod Washburn. Cora also has committed a team-high 11 errors, the second-most among National League shortstops before Sunday.

Still, Cora, 25, remains positive and credits Manager Jim Tracy.

“He’s still giving me shots and I feel much better,” Cora said. “In the past when I’d struggle I’d start panicking, thinking, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen?’ But [Tracy] trusts me. For some managers it’s hard to trust a guy that’s batting .200 and probably leads the league in errors.”

Tracy said he doesn’t want Cora to panic. Besides, Cora is out of options and the Dodgers have no viable shortstop prospects in the minor leagues.

“As I’ve told him from the start of the season, ‘Go out there and be a real good shortstop for us and the offensive part of it, we’ll deal with it as it comes,’ ” Tracy said. “He’s a good situational hitter.

“I don’t buy the fact that you need a shortstop that has to hit .300 or .320 in order to be a successful club.”

Nor, apparently, does Tracy believe it necessary to pay a shortstop $252 million.

“I know what they want from me, what they ask of me,” Cora said. “They want me to play good defense and be a leader out there in the infield and ‘offensively’ whatever I do is a plus.”

Cora smiled when asked what he would prefer--$252 million or a shot at a World Series ring.

“Ask [Rodriguez],” Cora said.

ON DECK

Opponent--Texas Rangers, three games.

Site--Dodger Stadium.

Tonight--7.

TV--Fox Sports Net 2 today and Wednesday, Channel 5 Tuesday.

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

Records--Dodgers 34-29, Rangers 21-40.

Record vs. Rangers (2000)--2-1.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ LUKE PROKOPEC

(6-2, 3.90 ERA)

vs.

RANGERS’ DARREN OLIVER

(4-2, 6.81 ERA)

Update--Right-handed rookie Prokopec never has faced the Rangers and the left-handed Oliver is 1-1 with a 6.91 earned-run average in three appearances against the Dodgers.

Tuesday, 7 p.m.--Darren Dreifort (3-5, 4.88 ERA) vs. Mike Judd (1-0, 4.44 ERA).

Wednesday, 7 p.m.--Giovanni Carrara (0-1, 0.96 ERA) vs. Kenny Rogers (3-3, 5.34 ERA).

Tickets--(323) 224-1448.