DePodesta Made the Best Choice for Organization

Good for Paul DePodesta.

On the verge of being taken by the New York Yankee baseball factory and its Get Randy campaign, on the day news reports had paperwork filed and office parties in Arizona and the Bronx at full martini overload, and with the whole sport leaning in....

DePodesta passed.

The Yankees would have gotten theirs, and the Diamondbacks would have gotten theirs, but it was time the Dodgers stopped thinking and acting like the valet.

Let some other general manager be the sap on this one. Let the Chicago White Sox cover for the Yankees’ dreadful farm system. Let the St. Louis Cardinals cover for the Diamondbacks, who couldn’t spend or win enough to keep Johnson fulfilled.

If he’s as clever as his resume says, DePodesta’s next two telephone calls should be to Ken Kendrick, the Diamondback owner, and Alan Nero, Johnson’s agent.

When a five-time Cy Young Award winner is going to be traded, the Dodgers ought to be standing in line to get the five-time Cy Young Award winner, not the pitcher who melted down when the Yankees needed him most last fall.

They’re still up against one postseason win in 16 years, furthering the impression they have fallen -- or jumped -- from the game’s sturdy franchises.

The general manager isn’t a year into his first lead job, the owner is fighting a reputation for sinister thriftiness and they’ve just let Adrian Beltre walk, but the Diamondbacks had already gotten used to the idea of paying Shawn Green -- and not Johnson -- $16 million, and Johnson wants out.

Through his agent, Johnson has said he would eat his no-trade clause for the Yankees and the Yankees only.

But, if the next choice is the Dodgers or trudging back to the Diamondbacks, the defending National League West champion or the 111-loss home team, now come on. Is last place where he wants to spend his 42nd birthday?

Yankee officials said they would go back to one-on-one negotiations with the Diamondbacks, but those haven’t worked for a year, and you wouldn’t think the Yankee offer -- or their minor leaguers -- would get a lot better in the next month. It’s why the Dodgers became involved in the first place.

Maybe it can’t be done. Johnson is a stubborn cuss. But DePodesta tried this once before, trading to set up the next trade, and neither Johnson -- Randy nor Charles -- showed up for the stretch run.

This time, Beltre wouldn’t have been around to save everybody.

Before we parade DePodesta around the warning track, it is possible Javier Vazquez aborted the trade for him.

Vazquez would not sit for a physical examination, did not want to pitch in Los Angeles, and could have demanded a trade after one season.

Other than that, when’s the team picture?

The Dodgers had targeted Drew as the corner outfielder/run producer to replace Green, but if those negotiations were going poorly, and the trade would have deadened their leverage in them, then, that too was reason to pause.

The fact is, they’re about to get Drew. They can sign Kevin Millwood or Derek Lowe.

Or not.

DePodesta still has his minor-league prospects, and one hopes he didn’t sit on them waiting for the three-way to materialize, only to have pal Billy Beane put Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder on the market.

And DePodesta still, apparently, has money to spend.

There was no rush to deliver Johnson to the Yankees, and no rush to bail out the Diamondbacks, and they’d both have gotten better.

Only the Dodgers would have been worse.

“I’ve been saying all along we wouldn’t do the deal unless it makes sense for the 2005 club,” DePodesta said.

So, let the Yankees grouse. Let the Diamondbacks sigh.

Enough Dodgers have been sent away, with too little -- or nothing -- in return, for whatever reasons.

DePodesta’s intuition was sound. Vazquez was no sure thing, and the Dodgers weren’t the only ones who knew it. The trade fell apart, and the Dodgers are better for it.

Given Green back, given their set-up man back, the Dodgers can start their off-season over again, minus one large Beltre. They’ve got two months. They’ve all but signed Drew. Sign a starter. Find your catcher. Give Green first base and let him play out his contract.

Now you’ve got your baseball team. It’s better this way.