Dodgers Are Sorely Lacking in Leaders

The new Dodger Way is guidance by MRI, with test results providing an excuse and an initiative for a franchise devoid of leadership to escape a messy situation.

It’s fortunate for everyone in the Dodger domain that an exam showed an 80% tear in Milton Bradley’s left patella tendon, an injury that will shelve him for the foreseeable future. This way the Dodgers don’t have to deal with issues such as how he can share the same dugout with Jeff Kent after Bradley added a racial accelerant to an already combustible feud, why Bradley defied Manager Jim Tracy’s instructions to keep the matter in house and what those two players were doing on the same team in the first place.

Dodger owner Frank McCourt and General Manager Paul DePodesta met twice with Bradley over the last two days, but Bradley’s injury instantly -- and conveniently -- made any talk of a suspension hypothetical.

“I’m not going to answer a hypothetical,” DePodesta said.

When asked whether Bradley would be back next year, all DePodesta could offer was “We’ll see what the future holds.”

I’m going to use this next DePodesta quote out of context, because on its own it summarizes exactly how I feel about this ugly Bradley-Kent episode: “A lot’s been made about these two individuals, but what this is really about, for me, is this is about our team and about our organization.”

What this represents is organizational failure.

DePodesta talked about reaffirming with Bradley and every other employee the importance of “being a Dodger and what the values are of this organization.” But what are those values? What does this team stand for? Why should anyone root for the players when they don’t even like each other?

What do the Dodgers have to offer?

Because here’s a short list of what they appear to lack:

An owner who has shown a commitment to spend whatever it takes to field a winner.

A general manager who has shown a grasp of all the nuances of assembling a roster.

A manager who has a firm grip on the team.

The Dodgers look like a mess right now, with no one but themselves to blame.

One thing you didn’t hear among the many accolades for Kent when the Dodgers signed him was “good guy for the clubhouse.” It turned out to be one of the few free-agent signings that delivered exactly what was expected: He has put up strong numbers (a .294 average with 22 home runs and 83 runs batted in) and hasn’t been hosting barbecues for his teammates.

And what made the Dodgers think that would mesh with a player as sensitive as Bradley?

I was at Angel Stadium on Sunday morning when the sports sections scattered around the clubhouses were filled with Kent’s beef with Bradley for failing to score on a Kent double against Florida on Saturday, and Bradley’s reaction.

The only surprise among the players was that it took so long for an incident like this to happen.

Tracy said he met with Bradley and Kent on Sunday morning.

“I said everything that I felt at the time was necessary to be said so that the situation would not escalate, due to the fact that when it initially occurred it was a completely internal thing and could have remained that way,” Tracy said. “But because it went outside the walls of the clubhouse, it became what it became.”

It became a media circus, which obscured how this is not only a player-player issue, but a player-manager issue. Bradley did what he wanted, regardless of Tracy’s desire. Although Bradley has made strides in controlling his anger, he still hasn’t eliminated the core problem: putting his own needs and feelings ahead of the team.

And when the team got back to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, Bradley took the matter a step further by saying Kent “doesn’t know how to deal with African American people.”

Now if you’re going to imply a guy is racist, you’d better bring the strong evidence.

I asked civil-rights attorney Paul Hoffman whether Bradley’s accusations would have any weight if he were involved in a racial discrimination case. In short, no.

“Often in race cases, you’re proving racial discrimination either by disparate treatment: Only African Americans are treated one way and everyone else is treated another way. Or you have evidence of intent, words or something.”

It’s all about establishing precedent, which is difficult because Kent has a reputation for not getting along with people of all colors.

“If you were building your case in a person in Kent’s position, [you’d say] he behaved that way in Houston, he behaved that way in San Francisco,” Hoffman said. “Whether Kent got along with [Barry] Bonds ... Bonds is such a unique individual, is it about race or is it about ego? Those are the difficulties you get into.”

Tracy said Kent was not a racist. I don’t know Kent well enough to say one way or another. Kent said he isn’t.

All we know is something prompted Bradley to say what he did.

And so the episode continues, unresolved for now while Bradley has his leg examined, the team missing a sense of unity as much as Bradley’s bat.

“As a Dodger fan, you say, ‘Why?’ ” Hoffman said. “This team has enough problems.”

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.