Dodgers need help, but not by mortgaging future

One glance at the combined contributions of James Loney, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp in the Dodgers’ 8-6 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday -- four for 12, four runs scored, one home run, four runs batted in -- explains why General Manager Ned Colletti is hesitant to trade any of those promising youngsters for short-term help.

One glance at the combined contributions of the Dodgers’ pitching staff in nine games since the All-Star break -- a 5.22 earned-run average, 102 hits in 81 innings and only one starter able to last seven innings -- makes it equally clear that Colletti will have to do something before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline to avoid a repeat of last season’s maddening one-round-and-out playoff performance.

Here’s all you need to know:

The cleanest performance by a Dodgers starter in the last five games came from Brett Tomko, a six-inning effort Friday in which he didn’t give up an earned run. And Manager Grady Little said Saturday he will no longer tell reporters which relievers will be available each day, ostensibly because he doesn’t want to give opponents an edge.

It’s more likely that he can’t be sure from minute to minute whose shoulder hasn’t fallen off from overuse.

Someone please make sure the battery on Colletti’s cellphone is fully charged. The man has business to transact.

Before he makes a move, Colletti wants to assess the status of left-hander Randy Wolf, who’s scheduled to test his sore shoulder in a bullpen session today and in a rehabilitation start Wednesday.

A healthy Wolf could fortify a rotation that has featured a rotating cast of characters after Brad Penny and Derek Lowe and a black hole where the fourth and fifth starters should be. If Wolf can be effective, a trade for a quality starter would be less urgent.

“We need Wolf back,” Colletti said. “If today was the trading deadline, the best acquisition we could add is Wolf, based on the other names that are being out there.”

Colletti is also determined not to overpay for a late acquisition, and that’s going to take some bargaining. Pitching is a valuable commodity, one that few teams wouldn’t want to add. Any team willing to part with a useful pitcher will have the leverage to ask for the moon.

Or for Ethier, Kemp or Loney, key pieces of the Dodgers’ 25-man roster.

By trading one of them to fill a hole the Dodgers could easily create a crater, leaving them no better in years to come.

Colletti praised Penny’s gritty effort Saturday in closing the Mets down after giving up four runs -- three earned -- in the first three innings, and he acknowledged that his starters have been “looking for their second wind” since the All-Star break.

But that’s not going to push him into making a trade yet.

“If you’ve got pitching that you’re going to move, why are you going to move it July 20? You’re gonna move it July 30, July 31,” he said.

“They’re gonna wait until somebody really cries uncle and gives up the last player that they refuse to give up today.”

Will the Dodgers be the team that cries uncle?

“I don’t know,” Colletti said, laughing. “I hope we’re not put in that position.”

More instability from his starters will put him in a bind. He’s also concerned about finding not only a role player but someone with the character and class to fit in as seamlessly as pitcher Greg Maddux and outfielder Marlon Anderson did last season.

“We’ve got our scouts everywhere, checking everybody. We’ll be well-prepared as the days go on,” Colletti said. “This time of year, one day’s like one week.

“We’re in a decent spot as far as how much we’ve seen, who we’ve seen and the information that the guys have gathered.”

He knew enough to pass up the New York Yankees’ offer of reliever Scott Proctor for infielder Wilson Betemit.

“Right now, the names that are out there, the players that are out there, they’re gonna have to get better. There’s nothing intriguing out there,” Colletti said.

“There’s nobody out there that you could say, ‘We bring him in like Maddux a year ago, and we’re gonna be definitively better for it.’

“If I wanted to call around and offer up three guys that played here today, in this game,” he said of Ethier, Kemp and Loney, “I could probably scare up somebody. I’m not sure that’s what I want to do.”

It can’t be just anybody, not for any of those three. Colletti added Russell Martin’s name to that trio in marveling at how the experience of a playoff push last season has accelerated the maturation of what could be a strong core for years to come.

“They seem to be in a position where they’re not awestruck,” he said. “They’re not taken by the situation. They seem to be prepared to take on the situation. And that’s a sign of turning the corner.

“That said, we’re on a million-mile march. We have a long way to go.”

And many decisions to make along the way.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.