MLB is not expected to let the Dodgers default on their payroll to players this month, according to industry sources. How precisely the cash shortfall, should it arise, will be addressed is unclear, as are the potential ramifications to embattled team Owner Frank McCourt. But players would be eligible to become free agents 10 days after filing a default notice, something the league is insistent on avoiding at nearly any cost. MLB loaned the Rangers money last year to meet payroll, though the Dodgers situation is different and more fractious between McCourt and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. "It would be absolute chaos," said a source of Dodgers players potentially becoming free agents in the midst of the season. "It's the last thing anybody needs." The Dodgers saga as of Thursday was not on the formal agenda for next week's MLB owners meetings in N.Y., but will be a heavy topic of smaller meetings and conversations (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
INVESTIGATION TO CONTINUE: The AP's Ronald Blum cited a source as saying that MLB "wants more complete access to documents" on the Dodgers' finances. The source said that Selig, MLB Exec VP/Labor Relations & HR Rob Manfred and Dodgers monitor Tom Schieffer "decided to press ahead with MLB's probe of Dodgers finances dating" to McCourt's purchase of the club in '04. The Dodgers Wednesday said that "documents requested by MLB had been made available in a 'virtual data room' at Dodger Stadium." But the source said that baseball officials "determined that was insufficient" because MLB "will not be able to remove CD-ROMS for financial analysis and might not be able to print documents without the Dodgers having a record of what MLB is examining" (AP, 5/5). Dodgers Vice Chair Steve Soboroff Thursday claimed the investigation "is a stall for time until we run out of money," which would let MLB seize the team and sell it. Soboroff said that he "had seen no sign of a full-fledged inquiry into the team’s finances." He added, "If you haven’t written the end of this movie, and you really want to do an investigation, do it right, do it fair, and do it in a manner that a reasonable person would say is professional. So far it’s not. It’s a comedy of errors. And all the people here are stymied." Manfred said that the "delay in starting the investigation ... was because the team had not turned over requested documents in the format that baseball requested" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/6). Soboroff said, "If they’re doing an investigation, where are the people? Unless they’ve already figured out the answer and this whole thing is a rope-a-dope." He added, "The question is, do we deserve a chance? We’re getting the death penalty for, maybe there were some traffic tickets" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 5/5).
STRANDED ON BASE: CBSSPORTS.com's Scott Miller wrote McCourt is a "dead man in the eyes of the game." MLB ownership sources said that "every single one of the game's other 29 owners/ownership groups is firmly aligned behind Selig." Miller: "They all want McCourt gone. The man has zero support." One source said, "He's out on a plank." Miller noted Selig "doesn't make a move unless he has built consensus first," and sources indicated that "none of the other 29 owners has been left out of this loop." Another ownership source said, "I don't think it's shocked anybody" (CBSSPORTS.com, 5/5).
CLEARING THE AIR: In L.A., Bill Shaikin notes McCourt "has repudiated claims" made by Soboroff that the Dodgers "could not get prompt authorization to increase stadium security" after Osama bin Laden's death. Soboroff "told several media outlets Thursday that he could not locate" Schieffer after bin Laden's death. The allegation "outraged MLB officials, for whom Schieffer produced an email in which he approved the upgraded security two minutes after a request" from Dodgers General Counsel Sam Fernandez. McCourt since has "apologized, in a public statement and in a private telephone call," to Manfred (L.A. TIMES, 5/6).
ALL ABOARD THE EXPRESS TRAIN? McCourt is expected to attend MLB owners meetings next week in N.Y., and would be the one to cast the Dodgers' vote on the expected unanimous approval of Nolan Ryan as the new designated control exec of the Rangers. Ryan will replace Chuck Greenberg, who left the club before the start of the regular season amid a conflict with Ryan and partners Bob Simpson and Ray Davis. The shift will mark the 16th formal change in primary leadership for an MLB club since the beginning of '05 (Fisher).
