(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Dodgers announced on Tuesday afternoon that they are extending the contract of general manager Ned Colletti.
The terms of the agreement were not available, except that it would be a multi-year deal.
"It's a long-term deal and I'll be here for a long time and maybe here for longer than that," said Colletti.
In his four-year tenure as general manager, Colletti has guided the Dodgers to the playoffs three out of four seasons, and helped the team capture back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1977-78.
This news comes on the heels of many organizational developments in recent weeks.
Joe Torre reaffirmed his intentions to retire after the 2010 season; Don Mattingly interviewed for the Cleveland Indians job; and most recently, owner Frank McCourt separated from CEO Jaime McCourt.
Colletti has been committed to developing young talent and acquiring veteran pieces to fill in other roles.
In 2006, he dealt Milton Bradley to the Oakland Athletics in exchange for Andre Ethier, a trade that looks like highway robbery at this point.
Last season, he traded for third baseman Casey Blake before his blockbuster move for Manny Ramirez.
This season, he added Vicente Padilla, Jon Garland, Ronnie Belliard, George Sherrill, and Jim Thome.
Despite the NLCS Game One home run he surrendered to Raul Ibanez, Sherrill has been the shining star of a trading deadline that put a lot of pressure on Colletti to deal part of his young core for a pitcher like Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee.
Of course, I would be remiss to not mention the ridiculous waste of money that turned into Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones.
Considering those notches on his resume, there is an understandable amount of negative sentiment in Los Angeles for Colletti and his ways.
But I’m not on board with that.
In my opinion, Colletti made the correct moves this season that allowed this team to hold on long enough for an NL West title.
The near late-season collapse was thwarted because of the efforts of Belliard and Sherrill, amongst others, and I don’t think this team would have held off the Colorado Rockies surge if it weren’t for the moves Colletti executed.
Maybe this year’s team will fall short.
Maybe they can overcome a 3-1 NLCS deficit and win a World Series championship this season.
The bottom line in the end is that the Dodgers still haven’t won a World Series championship since 1988, but Colletti has brought them closer in the last four years than they have come since that magical run in the 1980’s.
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