Dodgers outright Stephen Fife off 40-man roster.

Now is the time of year when teams must begin resetting their 40-man rosters.

Impending free agents must be re-signed or left to explore the open market. Arbitration-eligible players must be tendered a new contract by the tender deadline. Players with less than three years’ service time can sit at their phones and wait to hear whether they will be offered a six-figure salary for next season.

Pitcher Stephen Fife was among the six players who ended the season on the 60-day DL. Monday, The Dodgers reinstated Fife from the 60-day DL and outrighted him to Triple-A today, removing him from their 40-man roster.

Fife is unlikely to pitch until 2016 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August. He made one spot start for the Dodgers this season, allowing four runs in six innings in a May game against the Miami Marlins, and appeared in 11 games for Triple-A Albuquerque.

Fife went 2-2 with a 6.34 earned-run average for the Dodgers’ former Triple-A affiliate.

Josh Beckett, Chad Billingsley, Onelki Garcia, Paul Maholm and Chris Withrow also ended the season on the 60-day DL. Maholm and Beckett, who’s already announced his retirement, are set to become free agents. Billingsley has a $14 million team option for 2015 or can be bought out for $3 million.

Garcia and Withrow, who have less than three years’ service time, will likely be brought back. Withrow is also rehabbing his way back from Tommy John surgery. Garcia was a candidate to rejoin the Dodgers’ 40-man roster after pitching in some Double-A games in early September.

Dodgers acquire veteran right-hander Justin Germano from Texas Rangers.

The Dodgers have acquired veteran right-hander Justin Germano from the Texas Rangers for future considerations, Rangers vice president of communications John Blake wrote on Twitter.

The 32-year-old from Claremont had started 21 games for Round Rock of the Pacific Coast League and posted a 4.51 earned-run average. Germano has been assigned from Round Rock to Albuquerque.

The Dodgers lost Triple-A right-hander Stephen Fife to Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, ruling him out for the remainder of this season and likely 2015 as well. The Dodgers can transfer Fife to the 60-day disabled list in order to make room for Germano on their 40-man roster.

Germano has pitched 96 major-league games for seven different teams in a career that began in 2004. He’s 10-30 with a 5.40 ERA in his career.

Stephen Fife to undergo Tommy John surgery today. Update.

Minor-league pitcher Stephen Fife will undergo Tommy John surgery today, the Dodgers announced.

The ligament-replacement surgery will be performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. The standard timeframe for return is 14-18 months.

Fife went 2-2 with a 6.34 earned-run average in 12 games (10 starts) for Triple-A Albuquerque this season. He made one spot start for the Dodgers, allowing four runs in six innings against the Miami Marlins in May.

In 2013, a season interrupted repeatedly by shoulder bursitis, Fife was 4-4 with a respectable 3.86 ERA in 12 games (10 starts) for the Dodgers.

Update (4:00 p.m.): Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said that injuries prevented Fife from being in more than one spot-starter discussion this year. “There haven’t been a whole lot of times where we looked and he’s been healthy down there,” Mattingly said. “That was our only time. I think the other time was between him and Red (Patterson) with Minnesota, and Minnesota’s a team that just takes and makes you throw the ball over (the plate). Red’s more of a strike-thrower than Fife.”

Dodgers recall Pedro Baez from Chattanooga, option Stephen Fife to Albuquerque.

The Dodgers have recalled right-hander Pedro Baez from Double-A Chattanooga for tonight’s game against the Washington Nationals.

Baez had a 2.84 ERA in 12 ⅔ innings at Chattanooga, with six walks and eight strikeouts. A converted infielder who never made it past Double-A since joining the Dodgers’ system in 2007, Baez converted to pitching full-time only last year. He was added to the Dodgers’ 40-man roster last November.

Stephen Fife, who started Sunday’s game in Miami and left with a no-decision, was optioned back to Triple-A Albuquerque.

Daily Distractions: ‘Analyzing’ the Dodgers-Diamondbacks ‘rivalry.’

The rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants has coasted for more than a century on a steady undercurrent of organic circumstances. There have been personal grudges (Wilbert Robinson vs. John McGraw), geographical allegiances (Manhattan vs. Brooklyn; San Francisco vs. Los Angeles), beanballs and brushbacks (Juan Marichal vs. John Roseboro). The fan violence is beyond unhealthy but there it is, holding up the ugliest corner of the narrative. It’s raw. It’s real.

And really, what says “raw” and “real” more than this:

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a pool to protect when the big, bad, overpaid Dodgers invade Chase Field for three games starting Friday. You know, when they “renew a rivalry” that has already been renewed three times in spring training and twice in Sydney. To protect the pool, the good people of Phoenix deployed their finest … mermaid, flanked by another woman dressed as the Jolly Green Giant and a dude wearing a Neptune costume. We can only hope that Arizona Sen. John McCain approves.

How seriously can we take a “rivalry” symbolized by a woman wearing a dolphin’s tail?

Seriously enough that MLB.com ran with the headline “Dodgers, D-backs return to ‘pool party’ scene.” The topic will probably get some airtime on Phoenix sports-talk radio. Maybe in Los Angeles too, unless the Lakers decide to “relieve Mike D’Antoni of his coaching duties” (or however someone gets fired these days … do coaches still get fired?).

Here’s a better storyline: Who wants these games more, a 3-8 Diamondbacks team that has been outscored 67-45, or a 6-4 Dodgers team that just split a pair of 10-inning burners against arguably the most talented club in the American League? It’s early April, not an important juncture in the baseball season. Though, for what it’s worth, no team is farther out of first place in any division than Arizona (four games).

Maybe that matters. Maybe it doesn’t. Until someone drops a shark in the pool, let’s not dwell on the pool.

In the meantime, here is the Diamondbacks’ PR director doing some kind of shoulder-shake dance. Or something:

 

Some bullet points for a Siblings Day:
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