Dodgers Have Lots of Work to Do

The race may be over for the Dodgers, but the standings don’t reflect the entire story.

There are no magic numbers in the payroll ledger, either.

New General Manager Dan Evans will inherit payroll and personnel crises almost defying solution but requiring immediate decisions.

It’s a tangled web involving an inflated payroll, inflexible contracts, key injuries and innumerable needs that, considering the still-barren farm system, can only be filled by raising the payroll to new and record heights.

The point, Dodger loyalists, is that Evans, with counsel from Dave Wallace and chairman Bob Daly, of course, is heading into a winter potentially more difficult than a summer that ends with the Dodgers still looking for their first World Series visit since 1988.

Where to start?

Well, although baseball has differing methods of calculating payroll, the final tally for the Dodgers in 2001, including obligations to released players--such as Carlos Perez, Gregg Olson and F.P. Santangelo--and buyouts to players the Dodgers don’t want back, will be between $117 million and $122 million, according to calculations by The Times and industry sources.

Only the New York Yankees, who will be bidding for a fourth consecutive World Series title, and the disintegrating Boston Red Sox are also in that stratosphere. No other clubs came close to the Dodgers and Red Sox when it came to paying more and receiving less.

Now, of course, it would be one thing if Evans could erase the slate, turn the page and start fresh, but he can’t.

The Dodgers already have 13 players under contract for next year at $88.1 million. In completing the 25-man roster, Evans will have to take the payroll over $100 million again, probably well over. He will try to move existing contracts to create roster and financial flexibility, but it won’t be easy.

There are myriad issues complicating the job, among them:

* How does he rebuild the rotation, considering Chan Ho Park, Terry Adams and James Baldwin could leave as free agents, and there are no guarantees regarding the surgically repaired injuries to Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby and Darren Dreifort?

The latter three alone must be paid $31.5 million next year, impacting what the Dodgers can offer Park and Adams, who will demand top dollar in a pitching-thin market.

Park is probably gone. The Dodgers are exasperated with agent Scott Boras and fear a $20-million-a-year bidding war for his enigmatic client.

Adams and Baldwin are more economical pursuits, but even their re-signings are no sure thing. The worst-case scenario: A rotation of Eric Gagne, Luke Prokopec, Terry Mulholland, Jeff Williams and nightly prayers.

* If the rotation isn’t quagmire enough, how does he romance Oakland free agent Johnny Damon and improve the center field/leadoff situation when there is no trade interest in the woeful Marquis Grissom and Tom Goodwin, who are owed $8.25 million next year?

How does he romance Oakland free agent Jason Giambi and improve the first base production when there is no trade interest in Eric Karros, who has an ailing bat and an aching back and is owed $6.5 million next year?

How does he make improvements at shortstop, where Alex Cora’s defense isn’t good enough to compensate for his weak hitting?

How does he trade Mark Grudzielanek, whose salary jumps to $5 million next year, when there was no interest last spring, when former general manager Kevin Malone was trying to trade him?

What does he decide about closer Jeff Shaw and his $7.05-million option, considering Shaw’s inconsistency down the stretch and Matt Herges’ apparent unreadiness to fill the role?

There are no easy answers to any of those questions, but Shaw could supply one by retiring. That would save about $6 million, subtracting his buyout, but still leave a question as to whom the closer would be.

* Amid all of that, there is one other potential powder keg. Gary Sheffield has followed the advice of agent Boras and swallowed the contract dissatisfaction that he expressed so vehemently in the spring. It is still there, however, and Sheffield could let it fly again when the season ends.

He will make $9.5 million next year--Shawn Green will make $3.25 million more--and Sheffield is the one player who might fetch two or three prospects, enabling the Dodgers to go younger and cheaper.

The Dodgers were unable to get comparable value while trying to trade Sheffield under duress in March. It could be different now, although he still has contract provisions limiting the market and hasn’t exactly enhanced his status down the stretch.

Sheffield would like to play with Barry Bonds, and the Dodgers might have interest in Bonds as a free agent, but only if they could first trade Sheffield, freeing up the position and the money.

It all represents a tough challenge for Evans, and the key, scouts believe, is not to be misled by the club’s late elimination.

The Dodgers displayed resiliency and resolve while remaining a threat in the division and wild-card races until the next-to-last week of an interesting season, but the pitching injuries proved pivotal, and their 4-10 record after play resumed on Sept. 17 exposed some hard realities regarding the areas they have to improve.

It would be easy to suggest that the Dodgers go back to Step 1, starting over with young players, telling fans that they are going to rebuild for two or three years, but they have too much money invested in guaranteed contracts and not enough young players in the system to make that dramatic move.

It may be that the new management team will have to take gradual steps, employing more sense than dollars.

Too often in the recent past, it has been the other way around, which is why there is no easy fix for the fix they’re in now.