LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Dodgers head into a new season nearing
the end of the Frank McCourt era, with a sale of the team scheduled to
be finalized by the end of April.
It will be a welcome change for
the front office, the team and its fans, who stayed away in droves in
2011 when off-the-field developments overshadowed anything Clayton
Kershaw, Matt Kemp and the Dodgers did on it. As owner, McCourt fought
with his former wife, Jamie; Commissioner Bud Selig; and his creditors,
tying up the team's purse strings.
"It will be good to get
another chapter going," general manager Ned Colletti said. "These have
been a different couple of years, but change is coming."
McCourt
gets to select the winner of the bankruptcy auction from among potential
ownership groups cleared by Major League Baseball. The sale is due to
be closed April 30, coinciding with the deadline for him to make a $131
million divorce settlement payment to Jamie.
The team's future
finances will be determined by new ownership, while Colletti and
second-year manager Don Mattingly, both hired by previous regimes, will
find themselves at the whim of whomever takes control of a storied
franchise fallen on hard times. The Dodgers finished third in the NL
West with an 82-79 record last year and missed the postseason for the
second straight year.
With nothing at stake in September,
Mattingly rallied the Dodgers to play hard. They won nine of their final
12 games to finish above .500 and avoid the club's first back-to-back
losing seasons since 1986-87.
"It's pretty easy for me to keep
focused on where we're trying to go," Mattingly said about the ownership
chaos. "My priority in the whole thing was to get our club to play the
best baseball that we could. Obviously, it's a distraction but it's not
something that you can control or worry about."
Colletti had a
limited budget in the offseason, opposite of the situation down
Interstate 5 in Anaheim. The Angels grabbed the headlines by signing
coveted free agents Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, with owner Arte
Moreno shelling out millions to lock up Pujols for 10 years and Wilson
for five.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, used the money they saved by
letting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda go to sign veteran pitchers Chris Capuano
and Aaron Harang. They'll round out a rotation led by Kershaw, the NL Cy
Young Award winner, along with Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly.
Kershaw
and Kemp provided the Dodgers' highlights last year, and they are the
bedrock of a roster that new ownership can build around once there's
money to chase big-name free agents in 2013.
"It's guys like Clayton who have to go out and show that they can do it again," Mattingly said.
Kershaw
led the majors with a 2.28 ERA, tied for the NL lead with 21 wins and
topped the league with 248 strikeouts. The 23-year-old left-hander is
eager to move on to this season.
"All that stuff's over with," he
said. "I'm getting to the point where I'm more and more comfortable.
I'm still the young guy on the staff. We still have four veteran guys in
there. Experience-wise I'm still not anywhere close to those guys."
Kemp
hit .324, led the NL with 39 home runs and had a major league-leading
126 RBIs, losing the NL MVP award to Milwaukee's Ryan Braun. Along the
way, he earned a Gold Glove award, stole 40 bases and matured into a
complete player.
Can Kemp equal or his surpass those numbers this season?
"Anything's possible, man, that's just the way I look at it," he said.
Two veterans who will be expected to deliver are right fielder Andre Ethier and first baseman James Loney.
Ethier
started last year promisingly enough with a 30-game hitting streak over
April and May. But he dealt with an injured right knee in the second
half, when his numbers tailed off, and surgery cut his season short. The
two-time All-Star has fully recovered, but whether he regains his power
has yet to be seen. Ethier had 23 homers each of the last two seasons.
Loney
took a long time to get going, eventually, hitting .388 with seven
homers in his last 35 games and will retain his starting job. He was
arrested in the offseason on suspicion of driving under the influence,
but charges were not filed.
Ethier and Loney need big seasons to help both the Dodgers and themselves. Both are eligible for free agency after the season.
The
bullpen remains an issue, with Javy Guerra and Kenley Jansen sharing
the closers role last season. Guerra had 21 saves in 23 chances as a
rookie, while Jansen struck out 96 batters in 52 2-3 innings.
The
Dodgers added Mark Ellis, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Adam Kennedy to their
infield in the offseason, with Ellis likely the starter at second base.
Shortstop Dee Gordon showed promise as a rookie, stealing 24 bases. Juan
Uribe will likely start at third, trying to put behind a disappointing
2011 in which he was bothered by a hip flexor and missed the final month
of the season.
"The guys that we have coming back from last year
either do what they did last year or just stay healthy and we'll be
great," Kershaw predicted. "The guys that we added can only help us, so I
think we've got a good shot. Especially if we can build off the last
month and a half, two months of the season and remember what that felt
like."
The Dodgers open the season April 4 at San Diego. Their home opener is April 10 against Pittsburgh.
