The Dodgers acquired the left-handed hitting reserve they were seeking late Tuesday, agreeing to acquire Torrance native Skip Schumaker from the St. Louis Cardinals, pending a physical.

According to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Schumaker’s physical is scheduled for Wednesday.

Though the exact package was not known, the Dodgers are expected to send minor league infielder Jake Lemmerman to St. Louis in the trade. Lemmerman, also a Southern California native (Corona Del Mar), batted .233 for Double-A Chattanooga last season and played for Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic qualifier. The Dodgers took Lemmerman in the fifth round of the 2010 draft out of Duke University.

He’s been retweeting various welcome-to-St.-Louis tweets tonight.

Schumaker, 32, is a career .288 hitter who can play second base and all three outfield positions. Though he was used as a utility player most of the last two seasons, Schumaker has reached at least 300 plate appearances every season since 2008.

He’s a career .305/.359/.403 hitter against right-handed pitchers and .205/.276/.245 against left-handers, so his role off the Dodgers’ bench seems pretty clear.

Schumaker has one year and $1.5 million left on his contract. He’s reunited in Los Angeles with former Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire. Schumaker still lives in Laguna Niguel.

The Dodgers currently have 40 players on their 40-man roster, so a corresponding roster move would have to be announced before Schumaker can be officially added.

Baseball’s Winter Meetings are over, and the Dodgers have been busy … watching their own free agents sign with other teams, while keeping trade talks active with perhaps a dozen other GMs and talking to multiple free-agent targets (exactly how many isn’t clear).

Yet they will leave Nashville without signing or trading for a single player. Maybe “incomplete” is a fair assessment.

Before we get to today’s poll, keep in mind something Ned Colletti said Tuesday: ” you leave Nashville on a Thursday afternoon, that doesn’t mean you don’t talk to someone on a Thursday night, Friday, Saturday.”

Just to recap who the Dodgers lost in Nashville:

• Randy Choate signed a 3-year, $7.5 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals
• Joe Blanton signed a 2-year, $15 million deal with the Angels
• Shane Victorino signed a 3-year, $39 million deal with the Boston Red Sox
• Former prospect Alfredo Silverio, who was removed from the 40-man roster, was snapped up in the Rule 5 draft by the Miami Marlins.

This is dwarfed in magnitude by what didn’t happen. Ryu Hyun-Jin remains unsigned (though there were unconfirmed reports circulating Thursday that he’s already scheduled a physical, for whatever that’s worth). So do Zack Greinke, Anibal Sanchez, Kyle Lohse, Ryan Dempster, Josh Hamilton and Brian Wilson, among others. R.A. Dickey remains a Met. In fact, there haven’t been any major trades since the Blue Jays-Marlins blockbuster involving Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle, let alone any involving the Dodgers.

Other than Choate, who wanted a longer term (and possibly more money) than the Dodgers were willing to offer, they haven’t lost out on any players they wanted. Yet the Dodgers haven’t signed or traded for anyone they wanted, either. Onto the poll:

Who knows how Alfredo Silverio‘s season might have played out if his car hadn’t veered off a road in the Dominican Republic in January. By all accounts the outfielder, who began the season ranked as the Dodgers’ fourth-best prospect by Baseball America, was lucky to merely escape with a concussion in addition to back, shoulder, elbow and neck injuries.

The Dodgers removed Silverio from the 40-man roster and on Thursday he was chosen by the Miami Marlins with the sixth pick in the Rule 5 Draft. The Marlins must add Silverio to their major-league roster per MLB rules, a chance the Dodgers weren’t willing to take with the 24-year-old.

The Dodgers did not make a selection in the Major League phase of the Rule 5 Draft, but selected two players in the Triple-A phase: infielder Elevys Gonzalez from the Pirates’ Double-A roster and RHP Hector Nelo from Washington’s Double-A roster.

Gonzalez, 23, is a switch-hitter and batted a combined .206 with six homers and 35 RBIs with Single-A Bradenton and Double-A Altoona in 2012. Nelo, 26, posted a 2.73 ERA in 47 relief appearances for Double-A Harrisburg last year.

Adrian Gonzalez and Luis Cruz have been planning on playing in the 2013 World Baseball Classic for Team Mexico. The Dodgers made the official announcement Monday. Gonzalez played for Mexico in 2006 and 2009, Cruz joined him in 2006, and Dodgers broadcaster Fernando Valenzuela will reprise his role as a coach.

Cruz recently said he expects to play third base and hit third, with Gonzalez hitting cleanup, when the Mexican team begins training in Arizona in March.

Twelve Major League All-Stars are among the initial 32 players confirming early to represent their country in March: Triple Crown winner and AL MVP Miguel Cabrera, 2012 World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval (both for Venezuela); second baseman Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees and 2011 N.L. Batting Champion Jose Reyes of the Toronto Blue Jays (Dominican Republic); third baseman David Wright of the New York Mets and 2009 A.L. MVP Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins (United States); St. Louis Cardinals teammates Carlos Beltran and Yadier Molina (Puerto Rico); 2006 A.L. MVP Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins (Canada); free agent outfielder Andruw Jones (Netherlands); and former Dodgers pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo (Taiwan).

The WBC announced its full schedule Monday:

Continue reading “Adrian Gonzalez, Luis Cruz, Fernando Valenzuela confirmed for WBC.” »