Memories of pulling into an Orange County gas station for a conference call, plus a Cal State Fullerton alum returns home.
Today is Christmas Eve, which likely means there won’t be any actual Dodgers moves over the next two days. Such moves have been rare over the last six-plus decades in Los Angeles.
Looking through Baseball Reference listed transactions dating back to 1958, and checking through old media guides for important dates, it appears that only twice have the Dodgers recorded actual transactions on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Both instances were on Christmas Eve.
The last one was in 2013, which I remember vividly because I stopped to get gas on the way to my brother’s house on December 24 to pull over and take part in the conference call with Ned Colletti, then the Dodgers general manager.
There were three LA moves finalized on that day. Juan Uribe re-upped with a two-year, $15 million deal, while relievers Jamey Wright and Chris Perez signed a one-year deals.
Wright’s deal was notable because he signed a major league contract, snapping an incredible string of making a team as a non-roster invitee in spring training for eight years in a row, with seven different teams. That included in 2012 with the Dodgers, after which he was with Tampa Bay in 2013.
“There were times I wished I had been more aggressive bringing him back last year,” Colletti said in that Christmas Eve conference call.
Uribe’s first go-around with the Dodgers started out disastrous, with a 54 OPS+ in 2011-12 combined, the first two seasons of his original three-year deal. He had a great turnaround in 2013, with his redemption tour culminating in an NLDS-winning home run at Dodger Stadium, arguably the greatest Dodgers postseason moment in between World Series appearances in 1988 and 2017.
“Juan was a major player in our success last season,” Colletti said as I filled my car with unleaded gasoline.
from Newspapers.com
The only other Christmas Eve move by a Los Angeles Dodgers team came on December 24, 1992, when Tim Wallach was acquired from the Expos for minor league infielder Tim Barker. After 13 seasons in Montreal, the Cal State Fullerton alum was returning close to home.
“Obviously, I’m excited about it, to be coming back home,” Wallach said, per the Associated Press.
“This was a surprise,” Wallach told Maryann Hudson of the Los Angeles Times. “I hadn’t heard anything, even though I knew the Expos wanted to deal me. I’m just glad it was the Dodgers.”
Wallach was under contract for two more seasons, and he would play parts of four seasons with the Dodgers, including ending his playing career with them in 1996. His best year with Los Angeles was 1994 with a career-best 127 OPS+. His 23 home runs were the third-highest total of his career despite that season getting cut short by nearly a third by the strike.
Wallach would later manage three seasons in the Dodgers minor leagues, and was on the major league coaching staff from 2011-15. His Dodgers tenure all started on Christmas Eve in 1992.