Dodgers Sign Bichette for Pinch-Hitting Role

The Dodgers, looking to bolster a bench that has lacked power from the right side, signed power-hitting outfielder Dante Bichette to a minor league contract Wednesday and invited him to spring training.

Bichette, 38, will have an outside shot at playing left field if newly acquired Brian Jordan, tentatively slated for left, proves he can play center field this spring. But the Dodgers are looking at Bichette more as a pinch-hitting complement to left-handed-hitting utility player Dave Hansen.

“We’ve been looking for a right-handed hitter off the bench since late July,” Dodger General Manager Dan Evans said. “We didn’t have that second guy we could go to after Hansen, someone who could drive the ball late in the game and who could turn a real good reliever around before we went to Hansen.”

Bichette, who received interest from St. Louis, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, the New York Yankees and the Angels during the off-season, would make a base salary of $575,000 if he makes the opening-day roster. His contract includes incentives that could push the figure to $1 million.

“I might come off the bench, I might play some left field if Jordan is in center, nothing is guaranteed,” Bichette said. “First I have to make the club. But I’m in good shape, and I can still swing the bat if I get the chance.”

Bichette, who first came to the big leagues with the Angels in 1988, is a career .299 hitter with 274 home runs in 14 seasons with five teams. He hit .286 with 12 homers and 49 runs batted in for the Boston Red Sox in 2001, mostly as a designated hitter. He played 37 games in left field and 16 in right last season.

The 6-foot-2, 235-pound Bichette had his best season in 1995, when he hit .340 with 40 homers and 128 RBIs for Colorado and finished second to Cincinnati shortstop Barry Larkin for the National League’s most valuable player award. That began a string of five consecutive seasons in which Bichette, playing home games in hitter-friendly Coors Field, had at least 22 homers and 118 RBIs.

Bichette is considered a below-average defensive player, a potential deterrent to him playing much outfield in pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium, but he feels he has made strides in recent years.

“I had knee surgery after the 1996 season, it took me a long time to recover, and I think I developed a bad rap defensively,” Bichette said. “But I think I’ll open some eyes this spring. My knees feel good, I’m in great shape, I feel strong.... I really feel I can help this team out.”

Mike DiGiovanna

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With two weeks left before the start of spring training, Jeffrey Loria still was negotiating his purchase of the Marlins, leading to the possibility Florida will not have a manager until just before camp opens.

Loria, who owns the Montreal Expos, does not have a signed agreement for his contemplated $158-million purchase of the Marlins from John Henry, two lawyers with knowledge of the talks said on the condition they not be identified.

Henry heads the group buying the Red Sox for $660 million from the Jean R. Yawkey Trust. After the Boston sale was approved by major league owners Jan. 16, Commissioner Bud Selig said he hoped Loria’s deal for the Marlins would be finalized quickly.

Loria’s talks with Henry had narrowed their differences to just a few, and a deal could be signed this week, the lawyers said. Selig hasn’t scheduled another owners’ meeting and, according to baseball’s rules, he must give teams 10 days’ notice.

That means the earliest Loria’s purchase of the Marlins could be approved is Feb. 11, three days before spring training camps start opening in Florida and Arizona.

Once Loria gains approval to buy the Marlins, he is expected to quickly shift his top executives to his new team, including Expo Manager Jeff Torborg and interim General Manager Larry Beinfest.

Loria intends to sell the Montreal franchise to the other 29 teams for $120 million, and the commissioner’s officer would run the Expos this season. Frank Robinson, Selig’s vice president in charge of discipline, is the leading contender to run the Expos, several baseball officials have said.

Short a veteran starter, the Seattle Mariners finalized a $1.25 million, one-year contract with former Dodger James Baldwin.

Associated Press