The deal is pending results of a physical examination, which Kuroda took this morning at Centinela Hospital, but it’s done and believed to be worth between $36 million to $40 millon. Club officials aren’t commenting for now, but two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed the deal within the past half hour. Expecting more details later in the day, but this is a huge pickup for the Dodgers. Kuroda will fall somewhere in the middle of the rotation, probably the third or fourth spot. Ned Colletti now has filled two of the club’s biggest holes (a starting pitcher and a CF) without giving up ANY of the Dodgers’ young players.

By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
Camille Johnston, the Dodgers senior vice president for communications and chief spokesperson for the past two years, said on Friday that she is leaving the organization. She will be staying on through Jan. 1 to help oversee the club’s first-ever float entry in Pasadena’s annual Tournament of Roses parade.
Johnston’s departure, which is officially being termed a resignation, comes just two weeks after the club named Charles Steinberg as executive vice president for public relations and marketing. Steinberg’s hiring effectively inserted an additional bureaucratic layer between Johnston and Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt that hadn’t previously existed since Johnston joined the organization in October 2005.
“I thought about it for a while, and I think this is best for me, for the Dodgers and for the new person who is coming in,” Johnston said. “They hired new executives, and I think it is good for them to have a clean slate and be able to assemble their own team. … This was my decision after long discussions with the McCourts.”
The Dodgers also hired Dennis Mannion as chief operating officer on Nov. 7.
Despite Johnston’s claim that she is resigning, multiple sources within the organization confirmed that she is being forced out. It became apparent when Steinberg was hired on Nov. 27 that Johnston’s job might be in jeopardy. This despite the calming effect she had on the organization almost from the moment she arrived in the midst of a particularly stormy period in the club’s history.
At the time, the Dodgers were coming off a disastrous season in which they went 71-91 and finished fourth in the National League West. Meanwhile, the McCourts were being widely criticized by fans and the media for what was perceived to be a directionless stewardship of the club marked by a series of unexplained firings of key employees. General manager Paul DePodesta, meanwhile, had just fired manager Jim Tracy and was interviewing potential replacements, all the while unaware that he himself would be fired a few days later.
After bringing in Johnston, the McCourts seemed, presumably on Johnston’s advice, to fade into the background. The result was that they avoided much of the public criticism that had plagued their first year and a half after buying the club from NewsCorp in February 2004.
But the McCourts have long coveted Steinberg, a longtime Boston Red Sox executive who has worked for the Dodgers as a consultant since April. Johnston’s departure makes her the fourth communications chief to resign or be dismissed while the McCourts have owned the team.

The Dodgers could agree to terms with free agent Hiroki Kuroda as soon as today after making what general manager Ned Colletti called “significant progress” in negotiations with the right-hander from Japan on Friday.
“We had a couple of phone conversations,” Colletti said. “Hopefully, we’re closing in.”
Kuroda arrived in Los Angeles from Tokyo on Wednesday, but plans to return no later than Tuesday. The Dodgers have offered what is believed to be a three-year, $30 million contract.

The Dodgers offered no further comment Friday on the Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball. There was a passage in the report referring to an organizational meeting in October 2003 in which club officials discussed possible steroid use by Dodgers players, but no current Dodgers player was implemented in the report.

With tomorrow’s section chock-full of the Mitchell Report and steroids/hgh allegations, there simply wasn’t time or space to deal much with the Kuroda story — which was good, considering there was nothing new. He continues to meet with his agent. The fact he still hasn’t told the Dodgers he is planning to sign with them certainly isn’t a good sign, but it isn’t necessarily a bad one, either. All those reports (including mine) that he had made up his mind might have been a tad premature, but even the Seattle papers are starting to concede that it looks like the Mariners lost out on this guy.

He has, however, apparently made up his mind and told everyone in Japan that he plans to pitch for the Dodgers — something the Dodgers are still waiting to hear.

By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
All indications are that free-agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, a veteran right-hander for the Hiroshima Carp who is seeking to come to the United States, has decided to sign with the Dodgers after being pursued at various times this winter by as many as 20 major-league clubs. But if Kuroda has made such a decision, that is news to Dodgers officials.
General manager Ned Colletti said early Wednesday evening that the club still hadn’t received word from either Kuroda or his San Diego-based agent, Steve Hilliard, that a decision had been made. But Kuroda’s arrival in Los Angeles from Tokyo on Wednesday morning, along with a slew of media reports out of Japan, all point toward Kuroda accepting what is believed to be a three-year, $30 million offer from the Dodgers.
“His agent resides out here, so (the trip) shouldn’t be interpreted as anything other than him meeting with his representatives here in the U.S.,” Colletti said at a news conference to formally introduce Andruw Jones, the Dodgers’ newly signed center fielder.
Besides that of the Dodgers, the most valiant efforts to land Kuroda came from Seattle, Arizona and Kansas City. But Kuroda, 32, strongly prefers the West Coast. His ultimate decision to go with the Dodgers over the Mariners — assuming that widely reported decision has actually been made — apparently was the result of several factors, not the least of which were Los Angeles’ vast Asian population, more lucrative endorsement opportunities and Kuroda’s longtime friendship with Dodgers closer Takashi Saito.
“I’m sure that Takashi has said hello once or twice (during negotiations),” Colletti said. “Maybe more, I don’t know.”
In fact, Saito actually joined Dodgers Asian operations director Acey Kohrogi and Japan-based scout Keiichi Kojima at a face-to-face meeting with Kuroda last month in Hiroshima.
Kuroda will fall somewhere into the middle of the Dodgers’ starting rotation and probably force veteran right-hander Esteban Loaiza to the bullpen unless Jason Schmidt’s comeback from shoulder surgery hits a snag.

Jones said that while he prefers to hit fourth in the Dodgers’ lineup next season, the subject hasn’t come up in any of his discussions with manager Joe Torre. Jones hit cleanup almost exclusively with Atlanta until this year, when his struggles at the plate forced Braves manager Bobby Cox to bat him anywhere from fourth to seventh.
Inserting Jones into the Dodgers’ cleanup spot might create a dicey situation for Torre — and a bruised ego for the incumbent No. 4 hitter, second baseman Jeff Kent.
“We have spring training to go through all that,” Jones said. “I would love to hit fourth here, but it depends on what will happen.”

The Dodgers might have severed ties with left-handed reliever Mark Hendrickson, declining to offer him a contract before the deadline and thus rendering him a free agent. But the club still can re-sign him, and the move was made simply to avoid going through the arbitration process with Hendrickson, who went 4-8 with a 5.21 ERA this season while making $2.925 million.
As a five-plus player, Hendrickson stood to make between $3.5 million and $4 million through arbitration.
“We discussed with his agent (Joe Urbon) bringing him back at a different rate of pay, and he declined,” Colletti said. “We can still bring him back if the situation lends itself to both of us.”
The Dodgers did make offers to their four other arbitration-eligibles, pitchers Joe Beimel, Yhency Brazoban and Scott Proctor and outfielder Jason Repko. Beimel is a five-plus who should get a sizable raise from this year’s $912,500. Brazoban, Proctor and Repko all are three-plus players, and each is likely to fall well south of $1 million.

By the way here is a blog bonus that you won’t get by putting your 50 cents in the little blue box tomorrow, because the print edition has space limitations that the blog does not: the Dodgers now have a total of 14 players who have either been signed to minor-league contracts and invited to spring training or invited to camp from within the organization. The list includes three that have already been reported in pitcher Chan-Ho Park, catcher Rene Rivera and infielder Terry Tiffee, and the new additions are pitchers Tanyon Sturtze, Mike Koplove, Brian Falkenborg, Rick Asadoorian, Fernando Desgue (Fernando-mania is back at Chavez Ravine!!!!!!), Greg Jones and Brian Shackelford; catcher Danny Ardoin (pronounced ar-DWAH, for those who have never been to Louisiana’s Cajun country); infielders Angel Chavez and John Lindsay and outfielder John-Ford Griffin. Of that group, only Lindsay was in the organization last year, slamming a total of 30 home runs in 300 ABs for Jacksonville and Las Vegas while driving in 121 runs.

A non-stop flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, to be exact, and due to land at LAX at 9:30 tomorrow morning, from what I understand. That could mean one of two things. One, that he changed his mind yet again and decided to go ahead with his recruiting trip to Seattle and Los Angeles. Or, more likely, that he has decided to sign with the Dodgers. Sounds like this is really close to happening. I KNOW the Dodgers have offered three years, and I THINK they have offered $30 million. Assuming the conclusion I am jumping to is a sound one, this is a HUGE pickup for the boys, a great addition to the rotation. This and the addition of Andruw Jones probably makes them the favorite in what will be arguably the deepest, most competitive division in baseball in 2008. Stay tuned, boys and girls, because tomorrow could be a big news day.