Evans Takes Pride in Signing of Nomo

Go ahead and criticize Dodger General Manager Dan Evans for those deals to acquire Mike Trombley, Terry Mulholland, Tyler Houston, Todd Hundley and Daryle Ward, and decisions to sign Fred McGriff and let Marquis Grissom go.

But those who denounce Evans should not forget a critical four-day period in December 2001, when the GM made two moves that saved the Dodgers millions and kept the team in playoff contention in 2002 and 2003.

Evans was pressured by some within (and many outside) the organization to sign Chan Ho Park to a multiyear deal that winter. But, weary of Park’s contract demands (in the five-year, $60-million range) and his second-half fade in 2001, Evans did not offer a multiyear contract to Park.

Instead, on the advice of former team executive Dave Wallace, Evans used a fraction of that money to sign Hideo Nomo to a two-year, $12.25-million deal with an $8-million option for a third year on Dec. 20, 2001. Three days later, Park signed a five-year, $65-million deal with Texas.

Talk about a turnaround. While Park went 9-8 with a 5.75 earned-run average in 2002, going on the disabled list twice, and is 1-3 with a 7.58 ERA in seven starts in an injury-plagued 2003, Nomo has been rock-solid for the Dodgers.

With 7 2/3 shutout innings in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Arizona, a victory that provided some much-needed momentum on a critical trip that continues today in Philadelphia, Nomo improved to 12-8 with a 2.65 ERA, fourth-best in the National League. He ranks fifth in the league with 135 strikeouts and has limited opponents to a .200 average, best in the major leagues.

This on the heels of a superb 2002 season, when Nomo went 16-6 with a 3.39 ERA and helped keep the injury-ravaged Dodgers in playoff contention throughout the second half.

“It was one of the key moves we made, but not just because of what’s happened with Chan Ho in Texas,” Evans said. “It gave us the ability to get Nomo and [Kazuhisa] Ishii. We really restocked our shelves.”

In addition, the Dodgers used one of the two draft picks they received as compensation from the Rangers to sign pitcher Greg Miller, who quickly developed into one of the Dodgers’ top prospects.

But most important, an organization that was already saddled with the bloated contracts of Darren Dreifort (five years, $55.4 million), Andy Ashby (three years, $22.6 million) and, to an extent, Kevin Brown (seven years, $106.5 million), was not handcuffed by another albatross of a contract.

Evans has been limited by the Dodgers’ massive payroll for more than a year; imagine what little financial flexibility he would have had if the Dodgers had Park, who has been on the DL twice this season because of back and rib-cage injuries and hasn’t pitched in almost two months?

“I didn’t feel Chan Ho was going to give us enough production for the dollars we were going to have to spend on him,” Evans said. “Some on our staff had doubts about him, and he threw poorly in the second half of 2001. We felt we could have used the money we would have spent on Chan Ho in a number of ways.”

Nomo was a wise choice. With 163 innings pitched this season, Nomo needs 12 more innings for his 2004 option to vest. That would turn Nomo’s contract into a three-year deal for about $21 million, a bargain for what the Dodgers have received in return -- a front-of-the-rotation starter whose intestinal fortitude, unlike Park’s, has never been questioned.

“We felt we needed a guy who would be resilient, a tough guy who would take the ball and give you innings -- that was Nomo’s biggest appeal,” Evans said. “He gives you a tremendous effort and quality innings every time he takes the mound.”

Nomo, who will make his next start Saturday in Atlanta, showed that tenacity again Sunday when, after walking No. 3 batter Luis Gonzalez to put runners on first and second with two out in the third inning, he fell behind cleanup batter Shea Hillenbrand with a 3-and-0 count.

But Nomo came back with a strike, and on a 3-and-1 pitch, he got Hillenbrand, who began the game with six hits in six at-bats against Nomo, to pop to short, ending the inning.

“Tom Seaver used to say there are five outs that dictate the outcome of the game, and Hideo gives you the feeling he’s going to get those outs,” Evans said. “He never gives in.”