Dodgers Sign Garciaparra, Pierre, Wolf, Martinez

Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti worked under San Francisco GM Brian Sabean for many years and it shows in his willingness to move top prospects (Joel Guzman) for spare parts (a month of Julio Lugo) as well as his propensity to overspend on defense. Colletti has been active so far this winter, but I’m not sure how much he’s actually helped his club.

Nomar Garciaparra

Garciaparra enjoyed a fine season with the Dodgers in 2006, staying relatively healthy and winning the NL Comeback Player of the Year (over the more deserving Scott Rolen). The Los Angeles native signed a 2-year, $18.5 million deal to stay in his hometown.

Garciaparra isn’t the dominant offensive force that he was in the late-’90s, but after missing huge chunks of the previous two seasons due to injury, he just about returned to his 2003 level. The difference, of course, is that he played shortstop then and now is a first baseman.

At 33 years of age, and having missed an average of more than 73 games over each of the past three seasons, he’s still a tremendous injury risk. Set the over/under on number of games on the shelf over the course of his new contract at 100.

Juan Pierre

As a Padres fan, I adore this signing. The deal is 5 years, $44 million. Pierre is a very good (not great) defender in center field. On offense, he’s a slap hitter whose tremendous speed blinds some to his deficiencies, namely an inability to draw walks (just 32 in 730 plate appearances with the Cubs in 2006) and a relatively low stolen base percentage.

Pierre is better than Tom Goodwin, but not as good as Kenny Lofton. The same can be said of any number of ballplayers, the vast majority of whom won’t be paid anywhere near $9 million a year for the next 5 years.

Randy Wolf

Another LA native comes home. Left-hander Randy Wolf falls in the same category as Kerry Wood and Wade Miller. Why Wolf gets $8 million for his 1-year deal while Wood and Miller get $3.25 million between them is a mystery to me. Since the begining of the 2004 season, here’s how each of these once-promising pitchers has fared:

I guess the theory is that, even though Wolf is worse than the other two, you’ll probably get more of him. Is that how this works?

Ramon Martinez

The Dodgers re-signed utility infielder Ramon Martinez to a 1-year deal worth $850,000. That’s not a lot of money in the current market. He’s probably a better player than Alex Cora, who will be making a lot more money in 2007.