Dodgers Didn’t Need to Do This

Hello? Anybody here? Anybody left?

You are wading through rubble that, only 48 hours ago, was a special baseball team.

You are sifting through the fallen chunks and thick dust of a Dodger clubhouse that led the league in comeback wins, in last-gasp effort, in unmitigated belief.

You knew that the team could use a few swipes of a paint brush. You had no idea its owner would attack it with a wrecking ball.

Stepping carefully over uprooted cornerstones, you’re looking for words of inspiration, so you seek the guy who epitomizes the word.

Paul Lo Duca? You in there? No?

Hopping over ripped foundations, you search for other signs of strength, the kind that are found in baseball’s best bullpen.

Guillermo Mota? ¿Estas aqui? ¿Hola?

They are clearly gone, but, wait a minute. The only way anyone would gut this team would be to acquire the gutsiest pitcher in the game, right? A Cy Young winner, a World Series champion, the one guy who might make it all worth it.

Randy Johnson? Hello? Hello?

*

It could be worse.

Paul DePodesta could also be your gardener.

The lawn needs trimming? Fire up the backhoe.

The trees need pruning? Timberrr!

In reshaping the Dodger lineup this weekend by subtracting strengths and adding questions and whiffing on Johnson, the Dodger general manager could be a genius.

Then again, he could be Edward Scissorhands.

We won’t know the results until October, and surely his quick-draw acquisition of Milton Bradley this spring has earned him some benefit of the doubt, but one thing about DePodesta has become clear.

He not only types on his beloved computer, he occasionally picks it up and throws it through the front window, preconceived notions flying, accepted truths melting.

The week started with the best team in the National League since July 1 requiring one ace starting pitcher to have a legitimate shot at a world championship.

The week has ended with the Dodgers acquiring an almost-ace starter, a slumping first baseman and an aging outfielder in trades that sent away a clubhouse leader and fan favorite, an important bullpen bridge, and the team’s best speed in Dave Roberts.

This all would have been fine, even Lo Duca’s departure, if the guy coming back was Randy Johnson.

Seems like DePodesta made Friday’s deal with the Florida Marlins only because he thought it would lead to Johnson.

Sounds like once the Arizona Diamondbacks gained all the leverage Friday night, they made additional demands on the Dodgers (Edwin Jackson?) that made the trade unworkable.

Looks like the rookie general manager put the cart before the ace.

Like he got snookered?

“No, I would have made that deal with the Marlins anyway, it put us in a real good position, we needed to have a starter to get us through a five- or seven-game series in October, and we have that,” he said.

But at what cost?

Will they now have enough to even get to October?

“It’s like you have a three-year lease on a car, it has a couple of dents, you go in to get it fixed ... but then the salesman shows you a new shiny car that’s even nicer, and you take it,” DePodesta said.

But it’s not the shine that wins championships, it’s the insides, and today the Dodgers are hurting on the insides.

They have their starting pitcher in Brad Penny except, after the sixth inning this season, batters are hitting .326 against him. After he has thrown 106 pitches, batters are hitting .571 against him.

In other words, he’s the sort of hard thrower who needs a bullpen.

Yet the bullpen that helped the Dodgers to a 45-0 record when leading after seven innings has been depleted.

Witness Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Padres. The Dodgers are now 45-1 when leading after seven.

Trading Mota, who was the consistent eighth-inning bridge to Eric Gagne, means other relievers must adopt expanded and different roles, a tough task this late in the season.

Why mess with the best part of the team, the part that can help win championships in October?

“We still have four guys down there throwing 95-plus,” DePodesta said. “We’ll be fine.”

The Dodgers also added some power in first baseman Hee Seop Choi and outfielder Steve Finley, but both come with asterisks.

Choi is known for his smart at-bats but, at the time of the trade, he was on a string of weak at-bats, two home runs in five weeks, and a season-long .234 average with runners in scoring position. With the Marlins, he was known as a rally killer.

As for Finley, hitting .184 in July, he can still hit home runs, but his presence requires Bradley to move to an uncomfortable position.

Together, do they make up for the loss of Lo Duca?

On paper, perhaps. But these Dodgers didn’t become a first-place team with paper. Among baseball’s top teams, the Dodgers were the least likely contenders on paper.

They have done it, for the first time in a long time, with a sense of teamwork and sacrifice and smarts. They have done it with what Lo Duca brought into that clubhouse every day during each of his four seasons as a full-time Dodger.

Why mess with a team work ethic that has taken all four of those seasons to instill?

“The last 36 hours have been extremely emotional for everyone in our clubhouse, including me,” DePodesta said.

Thirty-six hours that will be judged by the next two months, all of which Paul DePodesta will spend on a tightrope, his daring, his triumph, his tumble.

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.