Creditors where creditors are due

By Dylan Hernandez

June 28, 2011 12 AM PT

Five players who are no longer on the Dodgers are among the team’s top dozen creditors, according to the team’s bankruptcy filing.

The Dodgers’ two largest creditors are Manny Ramirez and Andruw Jones.

Ramirez signed a two-year, $45-million contract with the Dodgers before the 2009 season that called for more than half of his salary to be deferred. He will receive his final payment on June 30, 2013.

Jones, who hit .158 with three home runs in his only season with the Dodgers, agreed to restructure his two-year, $36.2-million deal in exchange for his release after the 2008 season. He is owed money until 2014.

Juan Pierre, who was traded to the Chicago White Sox after the 2009 season, is owed $3.5 million. The Dodgers are also on the hook for $3.5 million they agreed to send to the White Sox to help cover the remainder of Pierre’s salary.

The other two former players to make the list are almost a decade removed from their final appearances with the club: pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii and outfielder Marquis Grissom.

Ishii was 36-25 with a 4.30 earned-run average with the Dodgers from 2002-2004. His deal called for $4.5 million in salary deferrals, according to people familiar with his contract who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss it. Ishii started receiving the deferred payments in 2008; he will receive his last installment at the end of this year.

Grissom’s last game for the Dodgers was in 2002. When the Dodgers acquired him from the Milwaukee Brewers in 2001, they inherited the final two years of a five-year, $25-million contract extension he had signed with the Cleveland Indians.

According to people familiar with the contract but not authorized to publicly discuss it, the deal called for $1 million of Grissom’s 2001 salary and $1.5 million of his 2002 salary to be deferred at 6% interest. Grissom, who batted .245 over those two seasons with the Dodgers, started to receive his deferred salary when he turned 40 in 2007.

Also listed among the Dodgers’ creditors are seven minor leaguers, including 2010 first-round pick Zach Lee. A two-sport star, Lee was awarded a $5.25-million bonus to walk away from a football scholarship at Louisiana State. The bonus was spread over five years and backloaded as a means of spreading the financial burden and discouraging Lee from returning to football.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

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Owe! What a tangled web

Who the Dodgers owe, the amounts and the reasons, after the club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection:

Rk Creditor Amount Type

1 Manny Ramirez $20,992,086 contract

2 Andruw Jones $11,075,000 contract

3 Hiroki Kuroda $4,483,516 contract

4 Rafael Furcal $3,725,275 contract

5 Chicago White Sox $3,500,000 contract

6 Ted Lilly $3,423,077 contract

7 Zach Lee $3,400,000 contract