With power low, Colletti must work the phones

“Can you hear me?”

Yes.

“CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Um, yes, I can hear you.

“Oh, oh, OK,” Ned Colletti says. “Just walked out of the store with this new cellphone. I have no idea how it works.”

A new cellphone?

“Cracked my old one in the Dominican Republic a couple of weeks ago,” he says. “Kept it together during the winter meetings with Scotch tape.”

So buying a new one means you plan to keep pounding the tiny keys and looking for a giant bat?

“If I can ever figure out how this thing works,” he says.

Good. Figure it out. A city is listening.

Colletti, the Dodgers’ general manager, returned home this weekend with an appointment at a Hawthorne cellphone store, and a mandate from history.

He has made some good moves this winter. But none of them will matter if he doesn’t add a power hitter.

He has put his team in a position to win the National League West. But the Dodgers may go winless in the postseason -- again -- if he doesn’t add a power hitter.

Anyone can reach the October pageantry with pitching and defense. But almost nobody can reach the November parades without a power hitter.

In the last 15 years, only one World Series winner fielded a lineup without a 25-homer guy.

Only three champions had no players with more than 100 runs batted in.

The Dodgers currently have nobody on their roster who is a lock to reach or surpass either milestone.

“I know all this,” Colletti says. “That’s why we’re not locked down yet. There’s still things we’re trying to do.”

They’ve done much. But without a power hitter, none of it quite fits.

Without a power hitter, Juan Pierre is just an expensive leadoff hitter with a funny-looking cap.

With a power hitter, he can be a run machine.

Without a power hitter, Jason Schmidt is just another 15-game winner with funny facial hair.

With a power hitter, he can be a World Series force.

Without a power hitter, Luis Gonzalez is just another old guy with warning-track power.

With a power hitter, he can be a clubhouse leader and late-inning hero.

This season could represent Jeff Kent’s last productive summer, and Nomar Garciaparra’s last good swings, and Derek Lowe’s last September push.

This season could be the Dodgers’ best chance to capitalize on the May-September combination that was formed last year.

This season, with their pitching and speed already in place, they have a legitimate chance at a World Series championship.

But only if Colletti takes a chance on a power hitter.

“I know, when you have a chance to win, you have to take advantage of that opportunity,” he says.

Even if it means trading Brad Penny.

OK, especially if it means trading Brad Penny.

The combination of Penny and one of the Dodgers’ prospects would fetch a hitter like Toronto’s Vernon Wells or Atlanta’s Andruw Jones.

Yes, both players are available because they will be free agents after next season. So, yes, that means they could be high-priced rentals.

But if they give the Dodgers a chance to win a championship, wouldn’t that make them priceless rentals?

The same save-our-kids Dodgers fans Colletti smartly ignored last summer when he traded prospects to make the playoffs are surely hoping he will listen to them now.

He shouldn’t. And he won’t.

“If it takes a kid or two to acquire somebody we really like, then we’ll do it,” Colletti says. “If there’s a player out there who can make a difference, and if we can have him for a little while, we’ll do it.”

So why not package Penny with Andre Ethier?

The kid outfielder was a star during the middle of the summer, but in the final two months of the season he had one homer and 15 RBIs and batted .264. His batting average in the second half of the season was 77 points lower than his average in the first half.

He’s a great kid, but what if opposing pitchers have figured him out? What if he’s just Jayson Werth with a bigger smile?

Or, what’s wrong with packaging Penny with Matt Kemp?

After Kemp’s initial power surge last summer, he looked lost against the curveball and is still clearly a year away from making a regular impact. Considering he may never field the position well enough to play center field, why not take advantage of his potential in a trade right now?

“The two most important currencies in baseball are pitching and youth, and we have both,” Colletti says.

There is a thought that the Dodgers may wait until spring training to make this deal. They might want to see whether Chad Billingsley is ready to replace Penny in the rotation. There is also a thought that the Dodgers can wait even longer, hoping that general managers with veteran sluggers facing free agency will feel enough heat to make the deal for less.

That is, quite simply, why Gonzalez was signed. He gives Colletti not only a left fielder, but the leverage to hold out for a better deal.

Much has been accomplished. But much is still at stake.

Owner Frank McCourt’s reputation is on a roll. The Dodgers will finally have that $100-million payroll that was promised. The clubhouse is being filled with good guys. They are already the best team in the West.

All they need is one power hitter to make them one of the best teams in baseball.

But not just any power hitter.

You know all this talk that Colletti is considering filing tampering charges against the Boston Red Sox, who quickly gave a former Dodgers outfielder a $37-million raise after he opted out of his Dodgers contract?

Don’t worry, Colletti isn’t going to pursue it, perhaps fearing that the Dodgers would actually win the grievance and, horror of horrors, the Red Sox would be forced to give J.D. Drew back.