Dodgers Stay Busy

The Winter Meetings haven't even started yet but the Dodgers continue to stay busy. Very busy. Here's a run-down of what's transpired over the last couple of weeks since the team re-signed Hiroki Kuroda:

• The Dodgers finally announced their coaching staff for 2011, bringing back former Dodger great Davey Lopes as their new first base coach. Lopes was part of the great Dodger infield of the mid- to late-70s and early-80's that included Steve Garvey, Bill Russell and Ron Cey. Also joining new manager Don Mattingly's staff is former Royals manager Trey Hillman as bench coach, former Dodger Tim Wallach as the third base coach, former Dodger pinch-hitting specialist Dave Hansen as hitting instructor, and carry-overs Jeff Pentland, promoted from hitting instructor to primary hitting coach, Rick Honeycutt as pitching coach, Ken Howell as bullpen coach and Manny Mota as assistant coach.
• One day after Thanksgiving, the Dodgers reached a deal with free agent pitcher Jon Garland and signed him to a one-year deal worth $5M plus incentives with a vesting option for $8M for 2012 based on pitching 190 innings in 2011. Garland will slide into the fifth spot in the Dodgers rotation, which now looks as good and as deep as any in the majors. He pitched briefly for the Dodgers at the end of the 2009 season when they acquired him from Arizona at the waiver trade deadline at the end of August.
• Three days later, the Dodgers "stole" World Series hero Juan Uribe away from the Giants, and inked him to a three-year, $21M deal to take over the everyday second base duties. While the years and money might be a bit much, the Dodgers were vying for Uribe's services with several other teams, including the Giants, so they stepped up to get the deal done. This has to be a double-whammy for the Giants and their fans. Uribe solidifies the middle-infield defense and gives them a little more power in the middle of the lineup. He'll likely slide over to third base in 2012 after Casey Blake's current three-year contract expires after this coming season.
• As a result of the Uribe signing, the Dodgers turned around and traded incumbent second baseman Ryan Theriot to St. Louis for reliever Blake Hawksworth. Theriot was a non-tender candidate for the Dodgers, so the Dodgers did well getting something in return for him.
• The Dodgers then did non-tender three players, including reliever George Sherrill and catcher Russell Martin. The Sherrill move came as no surprise, but non-tendering Martin came as a bit of a surprise for a number of reasons, and yet it didn't for several reasons, as well. Martin will be just 28 at the start of next season, but he's regressed steadily over the past three seasons since 2007, in large part because he's probably fatigued from having caught the most games in the majors during that span. He was due a hefty pay raise through arbitration and the Dodgers had some reservations about him receiving a raise. To complicate matters, Martin had a freak hip injury last season that ended his season when he landed awkwardly on home plate trying to score on a base hit. There were concerns he might have torn his labrum but fortunately it was just a fracture. Still, the Dodgers had every reason to be hesitant. They tried to iron out a deal with him, and the Martin camp made an offer of $5M plus $1M in incentives, but the Dodgers were only willing to go as high as $4.2M plus the $1M, just $120k more than $4.04M the Dodgers would have had to pay Martin had they gone to arbitration with him and won. In other words, they haggled over a measly (by baseball standards) $800k. They also attempted to trade him, and six teams showed an interest in Martin to a point where the Dodgers almost sent him to the Yankees for catcher Francisco Cervelli. But eventually that fell through, and the Dodgers opted to non-tender Martin, making him a free agent. The Dodgers still want Martin back in the fold, but in a different role. They'd like him to platoon behind the plate, and play some third base, second base and left field. The interest is mutual, and they continue to talk. But now the Dodgers have competition from those same six teams who called them about a possible trade before they non-tendered him.
• In light of the whole Martin thing, the Dodgers protected themselves, and turned around and re-signed another catcher, Rod Barajas, to a one-year, $3.25M deal. That's a lot for an aging 35-year old catcher who really only had two good weeks all last year, both coming after he was sent to the Dodgers from the Mets in late August after making just $500k from the Mets last season. I'm not sure that really justifies a raise, but the Dodgers wanted to make sure they were covered at the position. And if the Dodgers are able to re-sign Martin, as well, he and Barajas would platoon behind the plate, making Barajas' contract look even worse being that he would be just a part-time player. You would think, despite his regression the last three years and his hip injury last year, that Martin at 28 is more deserving of a $5M deal compared to a 35-year old catcher getting a $2.75M raise based on two weeks.

This gets us caught up and brings us to the Winter Meetings, which officially get underway tomorrow. The Dodgers still have a little work to do, such as solidifying the catching situation, finding a suitable right-handed platoon partner for Jay Gibbons in left field (Matt Diaz comes to mind, though bringing back Adrian Beltre to play third base again and moving Casey Blake to left to platoon with Gibbons sounds juicier!) and filling out the bullpen. They had been rumored to be interested in free agent Jesse Crain.

Stay tuned. More to come as the Winter Meetings get closer (though apparently they already have started tonight as former Dodger outfielder Jayson Werth has signed a seven-year, $126M deal with the Washington Nationals).