Dodgers Seem to Have Embraced Chaos Theory

By Tim Brown

Dec. 17, 2004 12 AM PT

Maybe it only looks like chaos.

The Dodgers had the time and composure to present Paul DePodesta with a birthday cake Thursday -- he’s 32 -- so, really, how crazy could it be?

Frank McCourt, the Dodger owner and potentially their third baseman next season, months ago handed the off-season to DePodesta, tousled his hair, told him to get on with it.

And so, on Thursday, Adrian Beltre left for good.

And DePodesta became entrenched in a three-way trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees that could send out Shawn Green, Brad Penny and Yhency Brazoban and bring back Javier Vazquez, among others. The heart of the deal would send Randy Johnson to the Yankees.

And then he talked to Scott Boras about Derek Lowe and J.D. Drew. And then Matt Clement went home to think about a Dodger offer, one among many.

All of which left McCourt to talk about ... the money thing.

As in the perception that he has very little, and that the Dodgers somehow, someway just got outbid in a rout by the Seattle Mariners for their 25-year-old MVP runner-up, and that we’re about to hear he has just spent $3 million on Pee Wee Reese’s tea set.

Not so, McCourt said, and not just about the tea set (although it is lovely).

Had DePodesta thought it prudent to spend $64 million over five years for Beltre, according to McCourt, today’s news conference would have been in Chavez Ravine, not Seattle.

“There were no limitations whatsoever imposed by me,” McCourt said.

The Dodgers spent about $100 million on payroll last season and, he said, intend to again this season. If $17 million of that had been for Beltre, he said, then he’d have pressed Beltre’s uniform.

“I’m as disappointed as our biggest fan,” he said.

But not in DePodesta. Not in the least. On the day he lost his best hitter, McCourt actually was quite buoyant, because he trusts DePodesta’s plan, and he believes in the alternatives that now present themselves, even if they’re not quite as simple as giving Beltre $13 million a year.

Hey, it’s not a bad way to go through life. The only complication -- today’s Beltre is tomorrow’s Jeff Kent. Which, by the way, people would have jumped at a year or two ago.

“All of these decisions, in a manner of speaking, happen for reasons,” McCourt said. “We had plenty of money earmarked to sign Adrian. It won’t be him playing third base, and I’m disappointed in it. But we have the money. I’m going to spend it.

“It certainly allows us a great deal of flexibility to go in many directions. That wasn’t our plan. Our plan was to sign Adrian. But that’s why you need more than one plan in place.”

The man sounded sincere.

When he showed up from Boston going on a year ago, all crisp collars and hard handshakes and puppy energy, he too was drawn to Beltre.

He liked the kid.

He watched him play baseball.

And then, he said, he absolutely loved him.

Like everybody in town -- notably DePodesta -- McCourt didn’t have much of a chance to say goodbye. One day the Dodgers were rooting around for a starting pitcher and a catcher, the next Beltre was off to Seattle and the Dodgers were holding Joe Randa and Tony Batista up to the light, the Dodger offer to Beltre having been determined to be unreasonably weak.

The Dodgers wouldn’t view it as such, of course.

Their last bid -- not to be confused with a final bid, which they apparently never did make -- potentially was for seven years, or through Beltre’s 32nd birthday. But they were a bit short on the average annual value, about $3 million short, theirs being something closer to $10 million.

Yeah, Beltre is gone and the wide view is that the Dodgers hardly tried. Tim Hudson is in Atlanta, and the Dodgers were left out. Carlos Beltran is available, and the Dodgers haven’t yet made that phone call, and won’t.

“It’s been made perfectly clear to us that we probably needn’t bother,” DePodesta said of Beltran. “He has interested parties for places he’d rather be.”

The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, to name four.

“We were told early on,” DePodesta said, “that he probably wasn’t a fit for us.”

The assumption the Dodgers would match offers for Beltre that weren’t too wild turned out to be inaccurate, so DePodesta has made the leap from refining his division champion to rebuilding it.

In the end, there were three possibilities: The Dodgers didn’t want to spend the money, the Dodgers didn’t think Beltre was worth the money, or the Dodgers were caught flat-footed in negotiations that moved too quickly for them.

The reality lies somewhere within the commas.

Last month, McCourt met with Boras and Beltre. He told them to call if they wanted to. They didn’t.

“At the end of the day, people have to understand there are two sides of a contract,” he said. “You can’t control the outcome necessarily. You can do the best you can do. We wanted the player. We were aggressive in pursuing the player. I was hopeful. At the end of the day, it was Adrian’s decision.”

Beltre might see it as the Dodgers’ decision. They were the ones who were outbid.

“I don’t want to get into the details,” McCourt said. “I wasn’t the one leading the conversations. But I’ll tell you, I never said, ‘Stop at a certain point.’ ”

The Dodgers had two plans, and “stop” certainly was in one of them. Plan A just walked. And maybe everybody ought to go ahead and embrace the chaos.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

DodgersToday

A look at the

Dodger lineup as it stands today:

Cesar Izturis, ss

Alex Cora, 2b

Shawn Green, rf

Jeff Kent, 3b

Milton Bradley, cf

Jayson Werth, lf

Hee-Seop Choi, 1b