Evans Confident He Can Add a Bat

The Dodgers’ plans to revive the worst offense in the National League suffered another blow Monday when the Arizona Diamondbacks completed a nine-player trade with the Milwaukee Brewers to acquire first baseman Richie Sexson, a player the Dodgers wanted as a cornerstone in their 2004 lineup.

The Diamondbacks’ acquisition of Sexson comes less than a week after the Chicago Cubs completed a trade for Derrek Lee, another high-profile first baseman targeted by the Dodgers.

Nonetheless, Dodger General Manager Dan Evans said he remains convinced the Dodgers can add punch to an offense that scored 17 fewer runs than the dreadful Detroit Tigers and was the primary reason the Dodgers missed the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season.

A baseball official said Monday the Dodgers are pursuing a trade for Kansas City center fielder Carlos Beltran, who would fill the team’s need for a right-handed power hitter behind Shawn Green. Beltran, a switch hitter, hit .307 with 26 home runs and 100 runs batted in last season for the Royals.

Evans declined to comment on a possible deal for Beltran but confirmed the Dodgers remained interested in several free agents, including Japanese shortstop Kazuo Matsui and Korean first baseman Seung-Yeop Lee, whom team officials met with recently.

The Dodgers’ inability to land Sexson or Derrek Lee wasn’t for a lack of effort. Two baseball officials said the Dodgers offered catcher Paul Lo Duca and pitching prospect Joel Hanrahan to the Brewers in exchange for Sexson. Milwaukee was reluctant to complete the deal, the sources said, because the Dodgers refused to include outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, their minor league player of the year.

“[Evans] was very, very persistent in trying to get Richie wearing a Dodgers uniform,” Brewer General Manager Doug Melvin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He worked his tail off. He called at all hours, every day of the week.

“I talked to Danny [Monday] morning, but we weren’t able to match up with the Dodgers. He didn’t have the players close enough to the big leagues to fill some of our holes.”

Evans said proposed deals for Sexson and Derrek Lee didn’t work out in part because the players had only one year remaining on their contracts.

“A guy who’s a short-term commitment shouldn’t be a player we would move elite players or prospects for,” Evans said.

Evans said he did not consider the acquisition of Sexson by a division rival troubling, and he hailed the exit of longtime Dodger nemesis Curt Schilling, whose trade by the Diamondbacks to the Boston Red Sox was finalized when he passed a physical.

“We wish him the very best in the American League,” Evans said.

Sexson, who hit .272 with 45 homers and 124 RBIs, joins an Arizona roster that last season did not include anyone who hit more than 26 homers. The Diamondbacks also received left-hander Shane Nance and a player to be named. The Brewers received infielders Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey and Lyle Overbay in addition to catcher Chad Moeller and left-handers Jorge De La Rosa and Chris Capuano.

Evans said the Dodgers’ glut of quality pitching could help them trade for offense, though it appears the team has lost reliever Paul Quantrill, who declined to exercise his $3.1-million option and is reportedly close to signing a two-year deal with the New York Yankees for an estimated $6 million.

“We just continue to move on,” Evans said. “There are a lot of interesting fits out there, and we’re just trying to figure out the best way to make it work for us in 2004 and beyond.”

Times staff writer Jason Reid contributed to this report.