Additions to Dodgers offense not likely to provide fireworks

The Dodgers, in desperate need to upgrade an offense that averaged a little over four runs per game, spent the offseason signing players who for the most part were unwanted by other teams.

Rod Barajas who had a terrific start in Los Angeles after the Dodgers picked him up off of the waiver wire, received a $3.25 million one-year contract.  In 2010, he hit .297 with five homers and 13 runs batted in for the Dodgers in 25 games.  Despite those numbers, it’s difficult to believe other teams were lining up to offer the career .239 hitter a contract of that size. 

Equally hard to believe is that Barajas will come close to duplicating the number he put up as a Dodger last year.  In his 12-year career, Barajas has topped the .250 mark only twice, the same number of times he has driven in as many as 60 runs in a season.  Why give $3.25 million to a player with that history?

Sharing the catching duties with Barajas will be 2008 All Star, Dioner Navarro.  He followed up his all-star year by hitting .218 in 2009 and .194 last year.  After being left off of the Rays Division Series roster last year, Navarro left Tampa Bay even as they asked him to stay with the team in case of injury.  With the last two years in mind, what motivated the Dodgers to sign him?

Matt Kemp and Andre Either will hold down two outfield spots.  In search of the third outfielder, the Dodgers signed Tony Gwynn Jr., and re-signed Jay Gibbons.

A fine defensive player, Gwynn hit .204 for San Diego last year and was not offered a contract.  He follows his Uncle Chris in the Dodger roster tradition of having the wrong Gwynn.  In parts of seven seasons with the Dodgers, Chris totaled 14 home runs and 76 RBIs.  Gwynn Jr. makes a fine pinch runner and defensive replacement, but not a starting centerfielder on a championship-caliber team.

Gibbons who figures to compete with Gwynn for playing time, spent parts of four of the last five years in the minor leagues.  The Dodgers need offensive production from that third outfield spot.  Does Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti believe his team will compete in October with that kind of a hole in the outfield?

Offensively for the Dodgers, the crown jewel of off-season signings is Juan Uribe.  On the bright side, Uribe has hit 20 or more homers in four of his ten big league seasons.  Last year he established career highs with 24 homers and 85 runs batted in.  He brings post-season experience with him as a part of two World Championship teams.  That has Colletti excited.

“He’s a two-time World Champion, so he knows what it takes to win,” Colletti reminds us.

Sure, he was great in the post season as part of the Giants first World Series title since 1954, but is he worth $21 million?

Having two World Series rings is quite an honor but it doesn’t prove a player’s greatness.  To better predict Uribe’s performance, it might make sense to look at his .300 lifetime on base percentage. Only five times in his ten major league seasons has Uribe hit over .250.   Listed at 230 pounds, Uribe is a base clogger and an infielder with limited range. 

For a team that ranked in the bottom half of the league in most offensive categories, the addition of Barajas, Gibbons, Gwynn, Navarro and Uribe provides more questions than answers. 

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