Dodgers plan to stay the course

Ned Colletti reminisced about his childhood, shook every hand extended in his direction, smiled broadly for the cameras. This was his first day on the job, his first job as a general manager.

When the last story had been told, Colletti went to work, and we had no idea what to expect. We couldn’t help thinking about Joe Nathan, and wondering.

Frank McCourt, the owner, had stood before those cameras a few weeks earlier, in that same room at Dodger Stadium. McCourt did not smile.

He had fired Paul DePodesta as general manager, only 20 months after he hired him. The Dodgers had lost 91 games. McCourt declared he wanted to win, now.

He imported Colletti from San Francisco, the West Coast home to the “win, now” philosophy. As the longtime assistant to Brian Sabean, the Giants’ general manager, Colletti helped trade prospects for veterans, then more prospects for more veterans, all in an effort to win the World Series with Barry Bonds.

The Giants won no rings. They did get to the World Series once and to the playoffs four times in seven years. They also traded so many prospects -- and gave up so many draft picks in signing free agents -- that last place could be theirs well beyond this summer.

Nathan was one of those prospects. For one year of catcher A.J. Pierzynski, the Giants handed three pitching prospects to the Minnesota Twins. Nathan developed into a two-time All-Star closer, Francisco Liriano into an All-Star starter and Boof Bonser into a decent starter.

With the Dodgers, Colletti inherited a loaded farm system, and temptation surely beckoned. But he has now been on the job for 20 months, winning without trading any of his best prospects.

Win, now. Win, later. On the eve of baseball’s summer trading season, Colletti has established his identity, blending young players into a pennant race.

“That’s the trick,” he said. “Historically, teams try to do one of two things, generally speaking. They’re either selling off the kids, mortgaging the future for today, or they’re rebuilding and they’ll live with the mistakes. We’re trying to do both at the same time.”

Break in one or two rookies a year, and that’s major league progress, usually for a bad team. Then look at the Dodgers: Russell Martin catching, James Loney at first base, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier in the outfield, Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton on the pitching staff.

Break up that core? Not unless Miguel Cabrera becomes available.

Colletti said he would like to trade for a starting pitcher, a relief pitcher and a power hitter. The best pitcher available could be Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox, and he is priced accordingly, at least for now.

Colletti would not discuss specific trade proposals, regarding Buehrle or anyone else, but he did say that one club had asked for “two of our better young players and one that will play in the big leagues in the next 12 months.”

If that’s Buehrle, here’s a translation: Kemp, Billingsley or Broxton and double-A shortstop Chin-Lung Hu, playing in today’s All-Star Futures Game.

Buehrle is eligible for free agency this fall. Cabrera, the Marlins’ All-Star third baseman, could not leave until 2009.

“I’m not afraid of trading a young player,” Colletti said. “We would give up kids this year if it was going to be a defining player, and a player we’d have for a little while.”

The Dodgers need pitching depth now, not so much if Randy Wolf and Hong-Chih Kuo come back soon. They might try more kids, possibly double-A relievers Jonathan Meloan and Greg Miller. They could patch their rotation with Jose Contreras of the White Sox, if he starts pitching better. They could gamble on oft-injured A.J. Burnett of the Toronto Blue Jays, who pitched alongside Brad Penny with the Marlins. They could bring back Odalis Perez from the Kansas City Royals, since they’re paying his salary anyway. (Just kidding. We think.)

This is about the point in this column where a long-suffering Dodgers fan might stop reading and rush to fire off an e-mail, urging that the Dodgers go for broke so they might win a postseason series for the first time since 1988.

But the National League West tilts nicely toward the Dodgers in the long term, for the most ruthless of reasons: money. In order for McCourt to meet his goal of selling 4 million tickets a year, he needs a consistent contender, not a one-shot wonder.

The Dodgers run a $108-million payroll, twice that of their rivals in San Diego, Arizona and Colorado. They can buy what they need, in a salary dump now or in free agency this fall, without sacrificing their best prospects. The more Loneys and Kemps playing at minimum wage, the more money available for free agents.

We see Loney and Kemp in the lineup, and we’re not so worried about Joe Nathan anymore.

“It’s more about a certain franchise at a certain place in time,” said Colletti, the old Giants lieutenant. “When you have a player as great as Barry Bonds, you have to maximize every year you have him. There’s obviously a shelf life of a great player.”

That shelf life expires soon. As a contender, the Giants already have expired. To a Dodgers fan, that’s a great year right there.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com