Evans May Regret Karros Trade

The Dodgers’ offensive struggle this year has made one thing clear: Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek weren’t the problem.

Karros refused the opportunity to make that point when contacted in Chicago, where he and Grudzielanek have responded to their roles with the contending Cubs.

In fact, he wouldn’t say much about the Dodgers, period, except to note that as much as General Manager Dan Evans “tried to downplay” his shoulder problems and surgery of last year, he is “healthy for the first time in two years,” having put his back and shoulder ailments behind him.

Healthy enough, at 35, to be looking beyond this season.

“I’ve started close to 50 games and am hitting close to .340 in my starts and I think I’ve proven to anybody who’s seen me that there’s no question I can be run out there every day and play at a much higher level than I played at the last two years,” Karros said.

“There’s no question if I continue at this level the rest of the year that I would like to try and find an opportunity where I can at least compete for a job or play every day.

“Whether that opportunity is out there I don’t know, but the way I’ve played this year I know I can do it.”

Karros and Grudzielanek, representing the right side of the Dodger infield, were traded for Todd Hundley and Chad Hermansen in December.

The Cubs couldn’t wait to deal the overpaid and underachieving Hundley.

The Dodgers couldn’t wait to deal two players perceived to have become thorns in Manager Jim Tracy’s side.

The company line was this:

The Dodgers were looking to free payroll while opening first base for more production than the ailing Karros had provided while hitting 28 home runs in the 2001 and 2002 seasons and opening second base for better defense (and, perhaps, more offense) than Grudzielanek had provided while batting .271 in each of the previous two seasons.

The reality was that Karros and Grudzielanek had expressed differences to Tracy over playing time and lineup roles, culminating in a late-season shouting match between Grudzielanek and Tracy that everyone in the clubhouse heard because the manager never had time to close the door.

The Dodgers felt they had no choice but to trade both, finding a taker -- many in the industry had thought that would be an impossibility -- in the Cubs.

How has it worked out at the All-Star break?

There are complexities that make it difficult to analyze, but the Dodgers might like to have it back for several reasons.

For one, the trade was never the payroll-freeing transaction the Dodgers portrayed it to be.

It was more of a wash in the overall accounting, and it is soon to become a burden.

The Dodgers were so eager to move Karros and Grudzielanek that they are picking up $2 million of the $13.5 million that they are being paid this year and they are responsible for the $6.5 million Hundley is owed next year, when they would have been out from under the Karros and Grudzielanek contracts and basically had a ton of money to play with because they also will be out from under the Brian Jordan and Andy Ashby contracts.

Given those financial considerations, the Dodgers might also like to have it back because it has simply not worked out from a production standpoint.

The Dodgers could not have anticipated, perhaps, that Fred McGriff would experience successive stints on the disabled list, but then he is 39.

With the team unwilling to go over the luxury tax threshold by giving a multiyear contract to the younger and more versatile Cliff Floyd as the replacement for Karros, the sidelined McGriff is batting .249 with 10 home runs in 237 at-bats.

Karros, platooning or sharing time with Hee Seop Choi, has slugged almost as many home runs (eight) in 42 fewer at-bats while posting a .321 average.

Grudzielanek, meantime, is batting .301 at the top of the lineup, the position he favors but Tracy was unwilling to commit to, and while he is clearly not the defensive player Alex Cora is, the difference of 65 or so points in their batting averages looms large in the Dodgers’ overall struggle.

In addition, the Dodgers have received no help from Hundley, the injury-prone catcher whose salary and medical charts they were forced to assume in dumping Karros and Grudzielanek.

Hundley has been out almost all season because of a disk injury that required surgery.

Much of that is behind Karros, who said he would like to be playing regularly but was told up front by Manager Dusty Baker that he would be sharing time with Choi, was “challenged” by Baker to respond to the assignment and now, feeling he has, “I’d anticipate, as the season progresses and we remain in the race, Dusty would use the guy who gives us the best chance to win.”

At the All-Star break of the first of his 16 professional seasons with any organization other than the Dodgers, coming off the disappointment and disenchantment of the last two years,

Karros characterized Baker as being everything he had heard about him (“the man definitely does make a difference”) and said the Cubs have the pitching to win the National League Central.

“I just hope management decides it wants to win,” he said, referring to a needed willingness to deal from its depth of prospects to acquire offensive help, especially considering the recent loss of center fielder Corey Patterson because of injury.

“This has been a great experience,” Karros said. “Everybody who plays major league ball should have the opportunity to play one summer in Chicago, to experience the atmosphere in that park and with these fans.

“I think this is probably as close to being like what it was back in the ‘50s or ‘40s, or even the feeling of what it was like when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, and there was a more intimate sort of feeling and guys could walk to the park every day, which I do.”

Well, the Dodgers told Karros and Grudzielanek to take a hike. Now they may regret it.