Major League Baseball

Broxton, Dodgers want to put his 2010 in the past

Published Feb. 18, 2011 10:52 p.m. ET

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Whatever went wrong for Jonathan Broxton in the second half last season, he's ready to put it behind. So are the Los Angeles Dodgers and new manager Don Mattingly.

''The snowball got rolling and he got caught up in it,'' Mattingly said.

The normally reliable closer with the 100 mph fastball got the save for the NL in the All-Star game, but completely fell apart in the final months. He eventually lost his job to Hong-Chih Kuo.

Broxton threw from a mound Friday for the first time in spring training. He looked to be at ease during a 25-pitch bullpen session.

''Last year is last year. It's gone,'' he said a day earlier. ''Time to move forward.''

At 6-foot-4 and 295 pounds, Broxton is one of the more imposing closers in baseball. For the first half of 2010, Broxton was pitching as well as ever, earning 19 saves and posting an ERA that dipped as low as 0.86.

Broxton's struggles actually began in a loss to the New York Yankees on June 27 in which he gave up four earned runs in an inning.

In the month of July, his ERA was 7.45. It got slightly better in August (4.63), but by then, Broxton had lost the closer's role. His confidence shaken, Broxton posted an 8.59 ERA in September to close the year with a 4.04 ERA, the highest since his first season in the major leagues.

So why would Mattingly exude so much faith in Broxton, making him the team's closer once again, without seeing if the right-hander had regained his confidence?

''Looking at his whole body of work, I have confidence that he's going to bounce back and do what he's done the majority of his career,'' Mattingly said. ''I don't think he's a headcase. I think it's happened to a lot of guys.''

Broxton's second-half struggles were a big part of the Dodgers' troubles. They were 49-39 going into the All-Star break, but went 31-43 the rest of the way to fall to fourth in the NL West.

''There's nothing you can do about last year other than learn from the experience,'''' Mattingly said. ''We're asking our whole club to learn from that experience, those that were here, and hopefully it's painful enough that we're not going to let it happen again this year.''

NOTES: Pitcher Dana Eveland, a non-roster invitee, is expected to be out ''a matter of weeks, not days,'' Mattingly said. Eveland strained a hamstring on Thursday, the first day of workouts, while doing running drills. ... Veteran infielder Jamey Carroll added to the growing list of position players already appearing at camp on Friday, which is his birthday. He's 37. ... Mattingly said he met with catcher A.J. Ellis on Friday to ''talk to him about his situation and basically where he fits.'' Ellis was in line to be the No. 2 catcher on the roster before the team signed Dioner Navarro in the offseason.

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