Trade deadline comes and goes, but Jamey Carroll remains
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After Wednesday afternoon’s game was over, Jamey Carroll stood at his locker and packed his bags. At least he finally knew where they were headed.
Carroll had been the one Dodger with a decent chance of being moved prior to the Aug. 31 trading deadline, but the deadline came and went, and Carroll remained.
His bags were headed to Pittsburgh for the Dodgers’ next game against the Pirates. Not to Atlanta or any other city with a team closing in on a playoff berth.
It’s too bad, really. Carroll will turn 38 this off-season and is running out of chances to participate in the postseason again. And like every other player not named Hiroki Kuroda, the versatile infielder would have loved to play in games that mattered in September, to have been a factor in the playoff chase.
‘Everybody does,’ he said. ‘Everybody does.’
How disappointed Carroll was at not being moved was hard to gauge.
‘It was a win-win, regardless,’ he said. ‘This is the team I signed with, and I want to be here. There was a nice set of chances to go win as well. It’s not a bad situation, to have a chance to be in the big leagues.’
The Dodgers certainly would have moved Carroll, and it’s believed even eaten the rest of his $2.3 million salary this season, if the Braves had offered even a reasonable lower-level prospect in return.
The Dodgers had kept Carroll informed of discussions and he knew a trade was at least a possibility, so he tried to consider the ramifications Tuesday night if he were moved.
‘I felt it was a possibility,’ he said. ‘When it’s something you don’t have control over, you prepare for it as best you can. My wife and I are people who make plans, and we hopefully didn’t want to get caught off guard. So we sat down and tried to come up with something of a plan.’
Right now, Carroll said his plan is to start hitting again. He is in something of a mini-slump for him, hitting .224 (11 for 49) over his last 15 games. He’s batting .288 this season.
Carroll will become a free agent at the end of the season and said he had yet to consider what will happen after his contract ends with the Dodgers.
‘I’ve had no complaints here whatsoever,’ he said. ‘We’ve enjoyed our time here. There’s another month left [in the season] and those are things to worry about when we get to that time.’
And then he turned for Pittsburgh.
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-- Steve Dilbeck