Andre Ethier and a contract extension with new Dodgers' ownership

Andre Ethier: $15 million man?

On this glorious day when the sale of the Dodgers is official, there is scuttlebutt the ownership is looking to hash out a contract extension with Andre Ethier.

Bill Shaikin, L.A. Times:

"Colletti met w Ethier's agent Fri at Dodger Stadium. No deal imminent, but that could be first order of business for new #Dodgers owners."

Jon Heyman, CBS Sports:

"doesnt sound like anythings close with ethier. but with new group in place, chances for deal improve drastically. #dodgers"

I wrote in June the Dodgers needed to trade Ethier, but I am coming around on the Dodgers giving him an extension. BUT, it needs to be under ideal terms and after more than just a month of good ball.

This is Ethier's stat line through 23 games: .276/.330/.540, five home runs, 24 RBI, six doubles. Those are pretty solid numbers, even if the batting average and on-base percentage are lower than his career averages (.291/.363).

At this time last year, Ethier was absolutely tearing the cover off the ball: .382/.450/.539, two home runs, 13 RBI and eight doubles. We all know what happened the rest of the way (.271/.350/.394 in 112 games).

I'm not saying Ethier is going to regress like that, but I want to see him play at a high level for more than a month before the Dodgers think about extending him. Even though the free agent market is thin in terms of hitters this winter, it wouldn't make any sense to overpay for Ethier.

His power appears to be back and he is hitting left-handed pitching better (.273/.351/.485), which is fantastic. But we have to remember this is a small sample size. Let's see where he is in another month.

So, what kind of deal should he get? That remains to be seen.

He's never been an elite player and he likely never will, so don't worry about Matt Holliday or Jayson Werth money (I recognize they aren't elite players -- although Holliday is good -- but they're getting paid as such).

Ethier is making $10.95 million this season, which is his last under team control. Some Similar Batter scores (according to Baseball-Reference) include Hunter Pence, Brad Hawpe and Corey Hart. Pence and Hart are pretty good comparisons. Hawpe made his living off Coors Field, so I'm not counting him.

Pence, still under team control for one more season, is making $10.4 million this year. There's not telling what he'd get on the open market at this point.

Hart signed a 3-year extension with the Brewers in August 2010. He's making $9 million this season and $10 million the next.

So, where does Ethier fall in here? Well, we have to factor in the fact he just turned 30 and is coming off knee surgery. So far, the knee looks great. But the Dodgers shouldn't give him an extension longer than four guaranteed years.

Here's what I'm thinking (and this is as much as I'd be willing to go, personally):

4 years, $60 million with two options years
2013: $12M, 2014: $13M, 2015: $15M, 2016: $16M, 2017: $16M (option with $2M buyout), 2018: $16M (option with $2M buyout)

The Dodgers would also have to include the usual bonuses for All-Star appearances, Silver Slugger awards and other postseason hardware.

Stan Kasten, the Dodgers' new president, has never been one to dole out huge amounts of money for free agents or his team's own pending free agents, so I'm confident a deal such as this could be worked out between the two.

Contrary to popular (my?) belief, maybe Ethier actually wants to stay in Los Angeles. At this point it could be mutually beneficial.

Matt Kemp wants Ethier to be extended. If Matt Kemp wants it, the Dodgers should make it happen -- on their terms.

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As mentioned above, the new ownership group is officially in and Frank McCourt is official out. Mark Walter, Kasten and Magic Johhnson take over. It's a great day for Dodger fans.

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Here's my latest piece at Chad Moriyama with an excerpt. It's about the resurgence of Ethan Martin and if he can keep it up.

"There has been no harsher critic of Ethan Martin than myself.

While I once rated him as the Dodgers second-best prospect, he has since fallen flat on his face and my rankings have reflected that. This season, however, he’s showing signs of putting it all together for the first time as a professional baseball player."

Podcast: 'Dugout Blues' episode No. 4, plus a couple of news items

Sorry for the delay, but Jared Massey and I finally got the latest podcast up.

In this edition, Jared and I talk about the Dodgers' week that was, a somewhat resurgent James Loney, some strong minor-league performances and our trip to see the Quakes in person in Rancho Cucamonga.

Podomatic link
iTunes link

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The Dodgers optioned Nathan Eovladi back to Double-A and activated Todd Coffey from the 15-day disabled list.

I wrote last week the Dodgers need to be careful with Eovaldi and not to screw with his development. This whole "pitching-one-inning-per-start" thing and then calling him up to not appear in a game is precisely what I was talking about.

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The Dodgers' sale is expected to be official today. Bill Shaikin has you covered, as he has for the last two years.

Podcast: 'Dugout Blues' episode No. 1

In conjunction with Jared Massey of LA Dugout, I present to you the first episode of "Dugout Blues," a weekly podcast about the Dodgers and their minor league affiliates.

Click here to stream it or download it.

Massey and I discuss the ownership sale, Spring Training and compare Top 10 prospect lists.

Enjoy.

A thank you to Bill Shaikin, Molly Knight and Josh Fisher

With the Los Angeles Dodgers' ownership saga essentially over, it's time to thank three people who were key in covering this entire mess since October 2009.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Molly Knight of ESPN the Magazine and Josh Fisher of Dodger Divorce all did an amazing job of covering this story and adapting to the changing environment of it.

Some might say they were just doing their job -- and they were -- but they absolutely crushed it. As an aspiring journalist, I am envious of the work they did on this situation and hope to be able to cover something of this magnitude in my soon-to-be-career.

A lot of people covered the Dodgers' ownership situation, but these three, in particular, knocked it out of the park.

From writing an in-depth piece on the McCourts that shed light on things behind the scene, including the hiring of Ned Colletti (Knight), devoting a website to the divorce and digging through countless pages of court documents (Fisher) to telling us McCourt would not be controlling the parking lots (Shaikin, which isn't giving him his due for all the coverage) -- these three were on top of everything and shows why journalism is still such an important skill.

So, to the three of you, thank you from every Dodger fan out there (I feel I can speak for them all). Keep up the great work. And here's hoping the Dodgers and their fans don't ever have to go through this mess again.

Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Dodgers' owner

The short list of people affiliated with the Dodgers' organization who are recognizable by one name just grew by one.

There's Vin, Tommy, Jackie, Sandy and now Magic.

The ownership group led by Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten was chosen tonight as the winners of the auction. Initial reports put the sale at $2.15 billion, or 2,150 million dollars.

Ken Gurnick was the first to report the news.

The only blemish in this deal is the parking lots are not included.

"Current owner Frank McCourt and certain affiliates of the purchasers will also be forming a joint venture, which will acquire the Chavez Ravine property for an additional $150 million."

Now, that's not to say the group only needed to kick in an extra $150 million to get the lots. I'm sure if that were the case, it would have been done. However, it's not the end of the world. It sucks McCourt is still involved, but it's a minor part, which is better than him keeping the team completely.

Update (March 27, 9:44 p.m.): From Bill Shaikin:

"Parking lots will be controlled by Magic's group."

Outstanding.

Mark Walter will be the controlling owner. The bankruptcy court must still approve the sale on April 13.

This is a fantastic day for Dodger fans. This has been a long time coming. With Johnson, there is the tie to Los Angeles -- something that's been missing since the O'Malley days. Stan Kasten, one of those behind the great Braves' runs of the 1990s and part of the rebuilding Washington Nationals, might be the most underrated part of this deal.

Some, myself included, were expecting the Steve Cohen/Patrick Soon-Shiong group to have the largest bid. We were hoping McCourt would do the "right" thing and choose the Johnson group, even if the money wasn't as high. Well, apparently that wasn't an issue.

But back to Magic. The guy is one of the most popular athletes in Los Angeles sports history. The importance of that cannot be understated. This is akin to Kobe Bryant buying the Lakers in 15 years, but it's probably not even on that level. In the end, there couldn't have been a better person to be the face of this franchise.

Johnson's experience as part owner of the Lakers will help him when it comes to being part owner of the Dodgers. Here's a statement from Johnson:

"I am thrilled to be part of the historic Dodger franchise and intend to build on the fantastic foundation laid by Frank McCourt as we drive the Dodgers back to the front page of the sports section in our wonderful community of Los Angeles."

Now, things aren't suddenly going to change. Ned Colletti still needs to go and the Dodgers need to commit to the draft and international scouting. I had been holding off writing my season prediction post until seeing who was going to be the new owner. I'm not going to give everything away, but the postseason might not be that far out of reach.

This is a great day, folks. Revel in it. Things are looking up.

Go Blue!

Photo credit: Rafael Amado Deras on Flickr (Johnson)

Spring Training battles emerging, plus roster cuts and ownership news

The Dodgers made their second round of Spring Training cuts today, reassigning Jeff Baisley, Gorman Erickson, Matt Wallach and Lance Zawadzki to minor league camp. The Dodgers also gave Alberto Castillo his outright release.

Absolutely no surprises here. The only two of note in the group are Erickson and Wallach. Erickson will likely begin the season in Chattanooga with the Lookouts after getting a taste of Double-A late last season. Wallach, who spent 76 of his 79 games with the Lookouts last season, should back up Tim Federowicz in Albuquerque with the Isotopes.

The roster sits at 49 players. It obviously has to be down to 25 before Opening Day. There are a few interesting battles developing.

Jerry Sands vs. Josh Fields
- This isn't exactly a position battle, but both players are right-handed and aiming for bench spots. Sands, my No. 1 prospect a year ago, hasn't exactly lit up Spring Training while Fields has. However, this could (and should) come down to playing time. The Dodgers aren't going to platoon Andre Ethier and James Loney and Juan Rivera (with his $4.5 million contract) is certainly not going to sit. So, it seems Sands will begin the season in Triple-A.

Fields played part of last season in Japan and is making a str0ng case to be on the Dodgers' bench to start the season. I could see it happening because the bench, as constructed, looks to lack power -- not just right-handed power.

Justin Sellers vs. Ivan De Jesus
- Sellers has the edge in this matchup due to his ability to play shortstop. Without Sellers, there is no viable backup option to Dee Gordon (and no, Jerry Hairston is not viable). Sellers is also hitting well in Spring Training and had a couple moments with the team last year.

De Jesus has long since been in the team's doghouse (at least it seems that way) and just suffered an injury to his left oblique. It's not known how serious it is, but that, coupled with the fact he hasn't hit well and can't play shortstop more than in a pinch, should really about seal it for Sellers.

John Grabow vs. Josh Lindblom
- Grabow was signed earlier in December and I predicted he'd make the club out of Spring Training. So far, Grabow has thrown 4 2/3 innings of scoreless ball and has six strikeouts. He's making quite the case to be the Dodgers' second lefty out of the bullpen.

Lindblom has been fine so far, but he has options remaining and the fact that Scott Elbert is the only left-hander could lead the team to sending him to Triple-A. Matt Guerrier has back issues right now and could open a door for Lindblom to make the team if he starts the season on the disabled list.

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Bill Shaikin brings us news of something huge going on in the Dodgers' ownership race.

"Patrick Soon-Shiong, the richest man in Los Angeles, has joined the Dodgers bid group led by hedge-fund billionaire Steven Cohen.

The alliance is the strongest indication yet of Cohen's intention to present outgoing owner Frank McCourt with a final bid that reflects prominent local support rather than just overwhelming East Coast money.

If McCourt were to accept the Cohen bid, he would be rejecting one led by local icon Magic Johnson. Soon-Shiong has held several meetings with McCourt since the Dodgers were put up for sale in November, according to people familiar with the process."

Well, that about settles that. With Soon-Shiong joining Cohen's group, a group that reportedly has the most up-front money included in its bid (roughly $500 million), it's hard to see how the richest man in Los Angeles joining the group is anything but good Cohen.

Speculation was Soon-Shiong was to join the Johnson-Stan Kasten group, but that obviously never materialized.

Cohen also reportedly has interest in bringing in former Cardinals' and Athletics' manager Tony LaRussa, recently retired, to oversee baseball operations for the club. While the prospect isn 't exciting, despite LaRussa winning two World Series titles in St. Louis and one in Oakland, it's about time we start to accept it and get used to it.

Mike Petriello has a good post on it while trying to look on the bright side of today's breaking news.

"Now, I’ve been pretty clear how against Cohen I’ve been since the beginning of this process. Now that it seems he’s the clear frontrunner, I’m trying to look on the bright side here, and there’s one massive bright side: Cohen and Soon-Shiong are estimated to be worth over $15 billion between the two of them. That means we may not have to worry so much about whether a record-setting purchase price would impact the ability to invest in the team and stadium; it also means that we may not have to worry about a large amount of debt being a part of the purchase price."

There should be a lot of news in the last two weeks of the saga. April 1 is the day all Dodger fans are anxious and eager to see.

Photo credit: wisely on Flickr

Breaking down FanGraphs' Top 15 Dodgers' prospect list

Marc Hulet of FanGraphs today published his Top 15 Dodgers' prospects list, and the first eight are pretty standard, but there are a few inclusions I don't agree with.

Here's this list:

1. Zach Lee
2. Nathan Eovaldi
3. Chris Reed
4. Allen Webster
5. Garrett Gould
6. Chris Withrow
7. Alfredo Silverio
8. Joc Pederson
9. Tim Federowicz
10. Josh Lindblom
11. Alex Santana
12. Shawn Tolleson
13. James Baldwin
14. Ivan De Jesus
15. Aaron Miller

The top two are good in my book, but I have a hard time seeing Reed ranked ahead of Webster -- but to each his own. And admittedly, I may have ranked Reed a tad low in my Top 50 (No. 19), but there's no going back on it now.

Gould, Withrow, Silverio and Pederson are all solid in the 5-8 slots, but then we get to Federowicz at No. 9.

I still don't get the appeal of this guy. Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus ranked him as the Dodgers' 13th-best prospect earlier this week, but Baseball America has Federowicz ranked No. 10. Everything I've read and seen doesn't lead me to believe Federowicz is a Top-15 prospect in the Dodgers' system. Yes, the system is weak (ranked No. 23 by BA and No. 27 by Top Prospect Alert), but an all-glove, no-bat catcher doesn't exactly scream "top prospect" to me.

But that's not even the most curious inclusion on this list. Santana -- toolsy and young as he may be -- is not anywhere near the Top 20, let alone the Top 10, Dodger prospects. The kid is raw and needs a couple years to get to this level.

I like DeJesus, but he's no longer a Top 20-25 prospect in this system. He's likely going to start in Triple-A and doesn't have much of a chance with the Dodgers.

Hulet wrote this, which is a head-scratcher:

"De Jesus hit .328 recently in the Puerto Rico Winter League and has nothing left to prove in the minors. He should be a solid big league starter at second base."

If that was truly the case, methinks Hulet would have ranked DeJesus ahead of guys like Santana, Lindblom and Federowicz. Unfortunately, I don't see it happening.

Miller at No. 15 is pushing it, but he's been held back by injuries. Still, I don't see him as more than a reliever at this point. His 2012 will be telling for his future.

Other news and notes:

Brandon Lennox of True Blue L.A. is down to the Top 70 Dodger prospects in his countdown. His 80-71 rankings include Matt Kirkland, Jeffrey Hunt and Greg Wilborn.

Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. writes about the possibility of former Dodger executive Derrick Hall, Diamondbacks' president and CEO, returning to the Dodgers after the team is sold.

Stephen quoted Yahoo Sports' Steve Henson's article on Hall:

"It’s why several of the groups seeking to purchase the Dodgers have contacted Hall to become the CEO should their bid win."

However, John Gambadoro of 620 KTAR-AM in Phoenix, tweeted otherwise.

"Derrick Hall would not be interested in President job of the Dodgers. Yahoo sports speculated he would be a candidate for potential owners"

Stephen points out the Dodgers haven't had an "official" team president since Dennis Mannion was relieved of his duties in October 2010.

Jim Bowden of ESPN LA speculates that Stan Kroenke is the front-runner to win the bidding for the Dodgers, citing the ability to move the Rams back to Los Angeles. However, it'd mean Frank McCourt would still be in the picture, which immediately turns me off.

Number of prospective Dodgers' owners down to eight

It isn't often that $1 billion isn't enough money, but that was exactly the case for a lot of prospective Dodger bidders on Friday.

Two of the biggest names -- Mark Cuban and Dennis Gilbert -- were informed their initial bids did not get them to the second round.

Gilbert getting ousted is not too shocking, as Frank McCourt gets to make the final decision and Gilbert is buddy-buddy with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig (not exactly McCourt's favorite person right now).

Cuban has stood firm on the amount of money he'd spend on the Dodgers -- or any baseball team, for that matter. Cuban told this to the Los Angeles Times in November:

"'I don't think the Dodgers franchise is worth twice what the Rangers are worth.'"

Besides, he's only (using this loosely) worth upward of $2.3 billion, so it would have been really surprising to see him put up more than half his net worth to buy the Dodgers. But he's a smart man and I'm sure he could have found a way to make it work.

Cuban's been weary of buying the Dodgers for too much since November, so it's not that surprising he's out after the first round.

I know when the Dodgers first went on the market, a lot of folks wanted Cuban to end up owning the team. He's proven with the Dallas Mavericks that he'll spend the money to win. But this could be a good thing for everyone involved.

The Orel Hershiser-Steve Garvey group is also out of the bidding.

The confirmed remaining bidders are:

• Steve Cohen
• Stanley Gold/Roy Disney
• Leo Hindery/Marc Utay
• Magic Johnson/Stan Kasten
• Stan Kroenke
• Josh Macciello
• Peter O'Malley
• Joe Torre/Rick Caruso

Macciello confirmed, on his Twitter account, that he's still in it -- at least, one could deduce that from this:

"love That Pearl Jam song 'I'm still alive'"

So there you have it. The Johnson-Kasten group remains my favorite and is probably the favorite overall.

Man, April 6 cannot get here soon enough.

Hiroki Kuroda wanted to stay and the possible Rams-Dodgers connection

Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times caught up with former-Dodger-turned Yankee Hiroki Kuroda and confirmed what a lot of Dodger fans suspected: he wanted to stay in Los Angeles.

"Asked whether he would have remained with the Dodgers had they made him a reasonable offer, Kuroda said, 'It's hard to talk about something hypothetical. Obviously, I was comfortable there. I liked it there. My family liked it there.'

In fact, Kuroda said his wife and two school-age daughters will remain in Los Angeles while he is in New York next season.

'Part of me is sad to leave Los Angeles,' he said. 'I loved the atmosphere of the stadium.'"

So, anyone who claims Kuroda wasn't loyal or went back on his word can shove it. The guy wanted to be a Dodger and Ned Colletti failed to make that happen.

And how the hell were the Dodgers going to fit Kuroda in after signing Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano? Kuroda is obviously better and he would have bumped one of them to the bullpen, but what the hell is Colletti thinking? Just another in the long line of missteps by the Dodgers' GM.

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Earlier this week, prospective bidders for the Dodgers' ownership placed preliminary bids. There were the usual names -- Magic Johnson, Joe Torre, Mark Cuban, et al -- but a new name entered the fray: Stan Kroenke.

Kroenke is the new owner of the St. Louis Rams and there's a lot of speculation the Rams could be on their way back to L.A. -- even moreso after Kroenke "explored" a possible bid for the Dodgers.

While the rules are not exactly straightforward, Forbes' reporter Mike Ozanian had this to say:

"NFL rules prohibit an owner from having controlling interest in a major sports team outside of the football team’s market."

...and

"Even if Kroenke doen’t get the Dodgers, the fact that he is bidding for the team implies the Rams are bolting for L.A."

As a Rams' fan, this is great news. Of course, it's a bit presumptuous at this point. The Rams cannot move before 2014 and the Dodgers' ownership situation is set to be resolved by April 6 (with the new owner taking over April 30).

Then there's this from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk:

"If Kroenke owns the Dodgers and another team moves to Los Angeles, how would the NFL’s cross-ownership rules apply? Currently, an owner of an NFL team can own a non-football team in another market as long as there’s no NFL team in that market. If Kroenke buys a baseball team in Los Angeles, which would be permissible, and then an NFL team other than the one owned by Kroenke moves there, the situation could get dicey, to say the least."

...and

"It may be that Kroenke would merely be required at that point to transfer the paperwork of the Dodgers to another family member. Regardless, it would be hard not to view a purchase of the Dodgers as a potential precursor to moving the Rams to the same town."

So, who the hell knows?

I doubt Kroenke -- despite being a billionaire -- is going to spread his money that thin. He dropped $450 million on the Rams (a 60-percent share) and I don't think he'll be in the rumored $1.5-plus billion bidding unless he partners up with one of the billionaire super groups.

Still, the prospect of the Dodgers getting a wealthy owner and the Rams returning to Los Angeles makes me all giddy. But it's early in the process -- I should really temper my enthusiasm until more news potentially breaks.

Joe Torre, Time Warner interested in buying Dodgers

Former Dodger and Yankee manager Joe Torre, who signed on as MLB Vice President of Operations less than one year ago, resigned from said position earlier today. He's joining real estate developer Rick Caruso in a bid to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Wow. This is really unexpected and a little curious.

First, who knew Torre even had aspirations of buying a Major League team, let alone a team set to sell for somewhere in the area of $1 to $1.5 billion? He obviously doesn't have that much money, just as Magic Johnson doesn't.

But why would Torre resign from his job for such an uncertain future? There's no guarantee the Torre/Caruso group will outbid the likes of Magic and Stan Kanter, Dennis Gilbert, Mark Cuban or the group led by Steve Garvey and Orel Hershiser -- all of whom have received bid books. Billionaire Steve Cohen has also thrown his hat into the proverbial ring.

It's curious. What does Torre do if he and Caruso don't win the bid? I obviously don't have an inner working of Torre's mind, but it seems a little foolish to give up a gig such as VP of Baseball Operations for a chance to spend a billion bucks on a baseball team. I know he couldn't very well stay in the position and bid on the team (conflict of interest), but it still makes you go "hmm."

Mike Petriello chimed in with his thoughts on the situation.

And now comes word Time Warner is interested in buying the Dodgers, as opposed to paying the potential $4 billion price tag for the TV rights to the team.

It's a smart business move on Time Warner's part, but the whole thing sounds horrible. It has a real chance to be the News Corp ownership (FOX) all over again -- and we all know how that ended (traded Mike Piazza, sold to McCourt). I'm not saying they'd come in and trade Clayton Kershaw, but the organization needs a face to lead this franchise, not a company. The media conglomerate should stick to what it knows best -- television.

Chad Moriyama has a quick blurb on his thoughts regarding Time Warner.

With the opening bids pushed back to Jan. 23, it's anyone's guess who's going to end up owning the team. There is no frontrunner right now. Obviously, fans want Cuban for his passion, desire and seemingly limitless bank account. Gilbert is also an attractive option. Kanter has the front office experience (most recently with Washington, but he was with the Braves' in their historic mid-1900s run) and Magic has the name recognition to re-energize the fanbase. I'm not so sure the Torre-Caruso duo have as much potential as the others.

It's going to be an interesting few months until this thing is finally settled.