Colletti OK with young players

Citing the high asking prices for top players on the trade market and the lack of quality among free agents, Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti hinted Monday that Manager Joe Torre could be the team’s only high-profile acquisition of the off-season.

That would leave the Dodgers with a team that again would be short on experience, something Colletti and Torre said they didn’t mind when speaking at a news conference announcing their exhibition game at the Coliseum against the Boston Red Sox on March 29.

“There’s potential for change, but as we look at the young players that we played a lot this past year, we’re less likely to fill in [positions with veterans] as much as we have in the past and more likely we’ll give the younger players a greater opportunity,” Colletti said. “I’m curious to see how our young players, who really had a chance this past year to play full time, I’m curious to see what another year does.”

Torre said he is “comfortable” with the team’s nucleus being what it is today. Torre said that despite the reliance on youth, he is convinced that owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are “determined to bring a winner here.”

“I’ve managed teams that when you present [something] to the organization, they say, ‘We can’t do it today,’ ” Torre said. “That’s not the case here.”

Colletti called pitching a “constant priority” and Torre said that facet of the game would be the key to the team’s success. But Colletti said that trade demands for “the pitching that draws your attention is the same” as those for a middle-of-the-order bat -- that is, very high and more than the Dodgers are willing to part with.

When the Dodgers approached the Florida Marlins about All-Star third baseman Miguel Cabrera, they were asked for four players in return.

The top pitcher on the trading block, Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins, is a free agent at the end of the 2008 season and has a no-trade clause in his contract. Signing him would not only cost the Dodgers multiple players, but probably also a six-year contract extension that would start in 2009 and be worth in the neighborhood of $20 million per season.

The Dodgers made that kind of commitment to Kevin Brown when they signed him to a seven-year deal that made him baseball’s first $100-million player leading up to the 1999 season. Brown was frequently injured and averaged nine wins over the duration of the contract.

The Dodgers have approached the Baltimore Orioles about left-hander Erik Bedard, but those talks have stalled, according to a baseball source. The Orioles are waiting to see the outcome of the Dodgers’ pursuit of Cabrera because the players they want for Bedard could be the same players that the Marlins are seeking in exchange for Cabrera.

A more affordable option could be Hiroki Kuroda, a free-agent pitcher from Japan.

Outside of the signing of Torre, the off-season has been a relatively quiet one for the Dodgers, as they never made offers to center fielder Torii Hunter and third baseman Mike Lowell.

Their scheduled meeting Sunday with Hunter, 32, was called off when Hunter signed with the Angels on Wednesday. Lowell, 33, was seeking a four- or five-year deal to part with the Boston Red Sox, but the Dodgers had something shorter in mind. Lowell re-signed with Boston for three years.

But two other free agents of interest remain on the market: center fielders Aaron Rowand and Andruw Jones.

Rowand grew up in Glendora, and his agent, Craig Landis, has said that the Gold Glove winner counts the Dodgers among his top potential destinations. But there are questions whether he can hit for power outside of hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Jones’ batting average dipped to a career-low .222 last season with Atlanta, but he hit 26 home runs and drove in 94 runs. He also won his 10th Gold Glove in a row.

Kosuke Fukudome, a free-agent outfielder from Japan, doesn’t appear to be a priority for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers have expressed an interest in free-agent first baseman Tony Clark, said his agent, John Boggs.

Clark, 35, split time with Conor Jackson at first base for Arizona last season but managed to hit 17 home runs and drive in 51 runs. He has a two-year offer to return to the Diamondbacks.

Proceeds from the Dodgers’ exhibition game at the Coliseum will be donated to the ThinkCure project, which raises money for cancer research. The Dodgers started ThinkCure in July with the ambition of making it its version of the Jimmy Fund, the longtime Red Sox-supported charity.

The Dodgers played at the Coliseum from 1958 to 1961.

Torre recalled that the only hit he got in a series that he played in the venue as a member of the Milwaukee Braves in 1961 was a “skimming fly ball” down the screen in left field, which was only 251 feet from the plate. Sandy Koufax was the pitcher.

“I certainly didn’t hurt the ball or the screen,” Torre said.

That screen will be even closer March 29, somewhere in the vicinity of 200 feet.

Charles Steinberg has been hired by the Dodgers as executive president of marketing and public relations and will serve as the chief marketing officer. Steinberg was vice president of public affairs for the Red Sox. . . . Rodney McCray was hired as a roving minor league instructor.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com