Salaries Cap Dodgers’ Offense

It can be said of the Dodger offense that what you see is what you get.

That’s a chilling prospect for a pitching staff that faces disk damage if it has to carry the offense through a long summer.

However, the cold reality is that given the large and inflexible contracts handcuffing General Manager Dan Evans and management’s rigid determination--for now, at least--to avoid expanding a $102-million payroll, it’s unlikely the Dodgers will be adding a proven run producer any time soon.

That’s not to say Evans doesn’t have scouts out surveying the market, but for now it seems they’re just staying in practice.

“Our roster is more complicated than most teams,” Evans acknowledged. “I don’t have the maneuverability I’d like to have and hope to have in a few years, but that doesn’t preclude us from producing enough offense.

“I knew going into the season that we wouldn’t have the best offense, that we’d be somewhere in the middle of the pack, and I’m OK with that.

“I didn’t expect an offensive juggernaut.”

Good thing, since the Dodger offense has been more naught than juggernaut.

In some ways, as Evans put it, his club has been dodging a bullet.

The Dodgers began play Saturday night against the Montreal Expos six games over .500 despite having been shut out a major league-high eight times. It seems that a $102-million payroll these days buys good pitching, good defense and ... well, you can only stretch a dollar so far.

Maybe the return of Dave Roberts Friday and the anticipated return of Brian Jordan from nagging injuries, and a four-game series with Montreal--none of them started by the Expos’ talented Javier Vazquez--will revitalize an offense last or close to it in most National League categories. The Dodgers scored 12 runs--a bonanza for them--in winning the series’ first two games.

They dominated the National League in the early to mid-1960s with great pitching and the stolen base gymnastics of Maury Wills, but whether they can keep pace in the wickedly tough West on pitching alone is problematic. NL hitting is down overall, but then the Dodgers alone have contributed significantly to that slide.

“If we were asking people to perform at a level beyond their capability I’d be more concerned,” Evans said. “I’m not going to panic. These guys are going to hit. We don’t have to score six or seven runs a game.”

Scoring one or two has been troublesome. Thus, the roster complexities Evans inherited from Kevin Malone, although the Sheriff wasn’t operating in a vacuum. All of his major investments needed the approval of Fox superiors.

As it is, said the general manager of an NL West team, “Dan is in a difficult situation when he picks up the phone. He has a lot of players he can’t move because of their age or contract situation, sometimes both. He has to hope he can get enough out of them to justify what they’re making.”

It’s a numbing prospect.

Consider that Kevin Brown, 37 and coming off elbow surgery, is owed $45 million for three years beyond 2002, and that Shawn Green, struggling in the middle of the lineup and benched Saturday night, is owed $47 million for that same period, and that Darren Dreifort, sidelined after his second elbow reconstruction, is owed $45 million for a similar span.

Then there’s first baseman Eric Karros, 34 and in his third consecutive season of power falloff, who is owed $8 million next year with a $9-million vesting option in 2004; starter Andy Ashby, 34 and coming off elbow surgery, who is owed $8 million next year with an $8.5-million vesting option in 2004; infielder Mark Grudzielanek, whom the Dodgers have unsuccessfully tried to trade and is guaranteed $6 million over the next two years, and the newly acquired Jordan, who would love to be with his family in Atlanta and, at 35, is guaranteed $9 million next year (if he doesn’t exercise his trade rights) and will receive either $10.5 million through a 2004 option or a $2.5-million buyout.

Of course, the Dodgers got out from under Gary Sheffield’s obligation (and diatribes) in obtaining Jordan and won’t have to pay Marquis Grissom $5 million next year.

Then again, they still had to pick up the final $3.75 million owed Tom Goodwin despite his recent release, which is enough to create breakfast indigestion on a peaceful Sunday.

The bottom line is that Evans--further handcuffed by the lack of substantial help from the farm system and limited as to where he would plug in a new hitter unless Jordan is moved to center and the promising Roberts is benched--seems to have only two realistic options when considering a trade for help on offense.

He could deal pitcher Omar Daal, who has enhanced his marketability with his excellent and critical performances as a starter and reliever--but who also represents the Dodgers’ only insurance policy if Brown, Ashby or another pitcher is injured.

He could trade third baseman Adrian Beltre, but if Beltre would be attractive to other clubs because of his age (23), potential and modest contract, he remains attractive to the Dodgers for those same reasons, although he has frustrated some in the organization by failing to provide the power associated with his position.

It is not a stretch to think the Philadelphia Phillies would jump at Beltre in trade for Scott Rolen, whose determination to leave Philadelphia as a free agent at the end of the season is underscored by his personality clashes with Manager Larry Bowa.

Rolen would pump up the Dodger offense in a hurry, but it would be foolish to give up Beltre without first reaching a contract agreement with Rolen, which would require about $15 million a year, probably more than the Dodgers are willing to pay considering their operating losses--$54 million in 2001, according to baseball’s figures, or an estimated $29 million, according to Forbes.

Commissioner Bud Selig recently was asked about the Forbes story challenging baseball’s financial figures and said:

“I guess I could go to Princeton and talk about Einstein’s theory of relativity and I wouldn’t know anything more about it than Forbes knows about our numbers.”

Even Einstein might not be able to help Evans work his way out of the Dodgers’ roster equation.