Bad News for Lowell and Dodgers

It was difficult to tell Tuesday who got stuck worse: the Dodgers or Mike Lowell, the run producer they most coveted as a possible panacea for their paralyzed offense.

Oh, sure, Lowell played the PC card and put a good face on the announcement by the Florida Marlins that they will not trade their third baseman during the season, but bet this:

The National League’s home run leader was hoping to get to a legitimate playoff contender as intently as the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs wanted to acquire him.

Lowell had said as much in a candid interview with this reporter Monday.

Addressing the persistent rumors out of Los Angeles and Chicago, he said he was excited and flattered to be pursued by two organizations with a rich tradition, even envisioned himself wearing a Dodger or Cub uniform (“it’s human nature”) and added:

“The best scenario at this point of my career would be to play for a pennant contender. I’ve established myself as a major league player. Now I want to win ... “

An impossibility with the hometown Marlins?

Lowell wouldn’t say that Monday, but he expressed frustration with the ongoing financial restrictions, the pattern of “always chipping off the one or two players we need [he cited Cliff Floyd and Kevin Millar as examples]” and said he had been basically left in limbo by an upper management that doesn’t communicate with its players.

“I don’t know if they’re happy I’m doing well or not,” Lowell had said. “I don’t know if they feel I’ve increased their financial burden or trade burden.”

Lowell got an answer of sorts Tuesday.

Owner Jeffrey Loria and General Manager Larry Beinfest asked him into Manager Jack McKeon’s clubhouse office and told him he would not be going to the Dodgers, Cubs or any other team during the season. They asked him to have his agent prepare a multiyear contract offer and said they would prepare one of their own.

“From a rumor standpoint, at least I don’t have to keep answering all those questions,” Lowell said when he left the meeting, seeming to search for positives in a decision that had to reverberate some 3,000 miles.

The Dodgers had run so many scouts in and out of Florida that they should have taken a lease on a spare bedroom at Lowell’s Miami house.

Whether there was ever a trade fit is problematic.

The Dodgers would have needed to include (or separately trade) Adrian Beltre, and the Marlins had no interest in a third baseman who makes the same $3.7 million Lowell does and who has far fewer credentials.

Now, amid the fraying seams at Dodger Stadium, where players are openly saying that General Manager Dan Evans has to make a move and Manager Jim Tracy deflects questions about his anemic lineups to the GM (the Dodgers have some punch in the blame game, at least), the options are dwindling.

If Lowell, in the process of driving in 90 or more runs for the fourth consecutive season, would have represented a blockbuster addition, there doesn’t seem to be anything in the market like him (certainly not the fading Roberto Alomar, who was traded to the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday as the New York Mets began cleaning house while picking up the tab).

Besides, with Brian Jordan headed for knee surgery, the need now is for an outfielder, which additionally reduces the candidates and probably takes Beltre out of the equation, forcing the now besieged Evans -- already restricted by contract complexities -- to try to deal from his limited pool of prospects.

Evans met with his senior scouts and advisors after the Marlins’ announcement. He didn’t specifically address the loss of Lowell, although he may have been subtly questioning the sincerity of what the Marlins are saying.

“I don’t believe in ever closing doors,” he said, “because you don’t know how things are going to change. Between now and the 31st of July, you don’t know where each of these clubs are going to go in their decision making. We have to react and adjust.”

The Dodgers may not be in a panic situation, as Evans continues to insist, but it’s the same area code. They remain last in virtually all of the National League’s offensive categories and must cope with the dreaded San Diego Padres and fast-closing Arizona Diamondbacks this week.

Here in Miami, Lowell seemed almost sad he wasn’t winging west to help.

“Another day, another dollar,” he sighed, picking up his glove and heading for batting practice, resigned to a full year in Pro Player Purgatory.

Of course, the Marlins are among many clubs that have said one thing and done the opposite a few days (or even hours) later.

However, Lowell said he didn’t expect what would be a “disingenuous” retreat, even though the announcement was perceived by some as public relations grandstanding.

“If they had been serious about a multiyear proposal, they would have made one right there,” a person close to the organization said.

Perhaps. The one certainty is that it will be interesting to see what follows.

The Marlins, who have annihilated the East division-leading Atlanta Braves, 28-2, in winning the first two games of a three-game series here, are on the fringe of the wild-card race.

If, in announcing that the NL home run leader and hometown product wouldn’t be traded, the Marlins were trying to end the speculation and reassure the fan base, such as it is, what happens to arbitration-eligible first baseman Derrick Lee and free-agency eligible second baseman Luis Castillo?

Will they also be retained, or will they be gone -- as some here suspect -- by the trade deadline?

That’s the kind of question that concerns Lowell, who can’t become a free agent until after the 2004 season and said he would want to know the Marlins’ long-term plans before signing a multiyear extension.

“I’ve always dreamed of playing my whole career here, but I want to play for a winner,” he said, having just learned that he wouldn’t be doing his winning with the Dodgers or Cubs, so that he would have to come up with another vision.