Outdrawn by Angels, outbid by Pirates, Dodgers found salvation 10 years ago Sunday
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers were shopping for a veteran catcher. He could have been the starting catcher. He did not need to be a star.
They were interested in bringing back Rod Barajas. He was coming off a season in which he had hit 16 home runs. He was 36. For a one-year stopgap, he would have been a fine fit.
The Pittsburgh Pirates signed Barajas. The Pirates agreed to pay him $4 million. The Dodgers were not sure whether they could afford that amount.
This was life with the Dodgers a mere decade ago. During the tumultuous months of a franchise sale supervised by a bankruptcy court, with ownership of the team in limbo as contestants from Mark Cuban and Stan Kroenke to Rick Caruso and Jared Kushner competed in the bidding, the Dodgers still had to patch together a roster for the coming season.
In 2011 the Dodgers had fallen out of the top 10 in player payroll, outspent by the Minnesota Twins, who only a decade before had nearly been contracted. For the only time in the 62 years the teams have shared the Southland, the Angels outdrew the Dodgers.
After that season, in a court filing one week before Frank McCourt agreed to sell the team, Major League Baseball accused McCourt of "looting" $189 million of team revenue for personal purposes and claimed he had "completely alienated the Dodgers' fan base."
Ten years ago Sunday, Guggenheim
