Transcript of Ned Colletti’s interview with XM/Sirius

This took place today. Just received the transcript in my in-box. Most notable thing is he says Dodgers haven’t closed the door on signing Pedro Martinez. Here it is, I believe in its entirety:

Today (April 23, 2009) on the MLB Home Plate channel on SIRIUS XM Radio, hosts Jody McDonald and Jim Duquette spoke with Dodgers GM Ned Colletti about the team’s pitching staff.

Host, Jim Duquette: “The pitching staff has gotten off to a terrific start and you never know what to expect from the youth but, obviously, it looks like you guys knew what you were talking about.”

Ned Colletti: “Well, it’s still real early. Our last couple of games in Houston have been a touch disappointing. We’re pleased we’re 10-5. I think the pitching will be always on our mind all year long, guys. Even as well as we pitched before the last two games in Houston I felt that we needed at least one, if not two, more veteran, well, one starter, one reliever to help us through it. But we’re pleased with where we’re at right now. [Clayton] Kershaw has been real good at times. [James] McDonald is getting better after a rough start in Arizona and, of course, [Chad] Billingsly I think is blossoming into one of the better pitchers in the league.”

Host, Jody McDonald: “You mentioned those veteran starters you might have an eye on. I know that you were linked to Pedro Martinez and talked to him at some point earlier this year back in spring training. Do you put a weekly phone call in just to see if Pedro’s still concentrating on coming back, if his price tag has come down a little bit?”

Ned Colletti: “Well, we’ve stayed in touch. I won’t say it’s scheduled or it’s weekly but we’ve stayed in touch and we’ll continue to stay in touch. You can never shut off an option and he may be an option for us at some point in time but we’ll have to wait and see how that all fairs itself out.”

Host, Jim Duquette: “Do you think at this point the likelihood, if you were going to get a starter, it would be that free agent route? It’s a little bit early to be making trades, right?”

Ned Colletti: “Yeah, right now teams aren’t really, the trade talk, as you know, is really quiet at this point of a season. I think there’ll be maybe more opportunity in June than there has been in the past depending on teams’ economics. Right now the best way to fix a problem is probably internally and we’re looking at some guys in triple-A. We signed a lot of major leaguers to minor league deals so part of our solution may be in Albuquerque right now. But right now trying to make a deal would be pretty tough to do. You’d probably have to overpay to get somebody’s attention.”

“The Show” airs nationwide every weekday (4-7pm ET/1-4pm PT) exclusively on SIRIUS XM’s MLB Home Plate Channel (XM channel 175 and SIRIUS channel 210 with the “Best of XM” programming package).