Clubhouse confidential: Dodgers' crowded second shift

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The Dodgers expected their outfield to be a focal point of intrigue, if not controversy, this year.

But the middle of their infield is becoming just as interesting.

The latest piece of the puzzle arrived in camp this week, 23-year-old Cuban defector Erisbel Arruebarrena.

With a five-year, $25 million deal in hand, the shortstop made the trip from Haiti via Miami and immediately found himself embracing countrymen Yasiel Puig and Alexander Guerrero on a practice field.

Second baseman Guerrero has been in his first major league camp since it opened, but it's still an open question how much he'll hit and how quickly, even to the point that the Dodgers haven't decided if he's ready to be put on the roster for next week's season-opening trip to Australia.

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Arruebarrena arrives with similar offensive questions though he's on a major league contract and says he's confident he's ready for the majors. But he hasn't played in a game since December, before the defection he says he doesn't want to discuss.

Arruebarrena might have a resume that more resembles Guerrero's, but it's Puig he's been playing with since he was 9 and growing up in the same town. He and Guerrero weren't together until they made the Cuban national team.

And he said he has the flair of the high-octane Puig.

'That's typical of Latinos,' Arruebarrena said through a translator and with a smile.

Shortstop is his best position, though he can play second. Shortstop doesn't figure to be available anytime soon, with the enigmatic talent of Hanley Ramirez there.

Ramirez has a couple of home runs this spring but he also has back-to-back games in which he didn't cover second base on delayed steals.

'Hanley knows,' says bench coach Tim Wallach, who managed a couple of games this week while Don Mattingly was away to attend a funeral. 'You can be made to look bad in a lot of different ways. When that play is used it can make you look bad.'

Second base is another story.

Outfield power outage?

Speedy Dee Gordon is getting his third chance to grab the job. This is the third spring he's had a shot and he's taking better advantage of it, though veteran utility man Justin Turner could take some time away from Gordon.

The outfield issues shifted some of the conjecture over who will be left out from among Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Puig and Carl Crawford, for any given game.

There's plenty of room until Kemp is cleared to play as he comes back from ankle surgery. Meanwhile Crawford and Puig are hitting under .100.

'Not to me,' Wallach said when asked if the offense is worrisome. 'Near the end of camp, guys get adrenaline going. We're about at that point. I think you'll see a little more emphasis and focus.

Kemp hasn't been in a spring game yet but spent two innings in the outfield during one of two intra-squad games he played so he could get plenty of at-bats - six in each game.

Rosin's brand new bag

He says he feels good about the offensive portion of his game but needs to work up to full-throttle work in the field and on the bases.

Seth Rosin had an interesting winter of changing addresses. For now, he's a Dodger.(Photo: Gary A. Vasquez, USA TODAY Sports)

Seth Rosin's Dodgers career began while he was cramming for a college final exam. Now, the big right-hander is wrapping up a crash course that is strictly pass-fail.

Rosin is a Rule 5 player, meaning he has to stay with the Dodgers all season or be offered back to the Phillies. With a 1.64 earned run average and 12 strikeouts in 11 innings this spring, he's pushing toward the unlikely result of breaking into a veteran bullpen.

This is the third spring Rosin has been with a different organization and there's a fourth team in there if you count the Mets, who actually made the Rule 5 selection at last December's Winter Meetings, but flipped the 6-6, 250-pounder to the Dodgers in a pre-arranged deal.

Rosin began in the Giants organization but was part of the return when the Phillies traded Hunter Pence in 2012.

'I was really, really disappointed that I wasn't protected,' Rosin says of the Phillies' choice to make him available just over a year later after a solid season as a starter at Class AA Reading (Pa.). 'Obviously, everybody would be. I had an inkling someone was going to give me a chance to run with it.'

Rosin was prepping for a literature exam, the last course he needed to finish his degree at the University of Minnesota. His roommate there was football player Eric Decker, who signed a $36.25 million free-agent deal with the New York Jets this week.

The deal that moved Rosin's rights from the Mets to the Dodgers was in another financial tier. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson joked that he got 'a crisp $5 bill.'

'My dad called me in the middle of when I was studying and said the Mets had taken me,' Rosin says. 'So, it was tough to focus. It was a great day. Then getting traded to the Dodgers. It was an hour later. I found out by Twitter. It's kind of funny to see your name thrown around.'

It's not out of the question another team could be injected into Rosin's roster whirlwind.

'I have to just keep trying to get better and hopefully find some way to stick here,' he says.' I know it's going to be real hard given all the great arms.'

The already crowded Dodgers bullpen has veterans Kenley Jansen, Brian Wilson, Chris Perez, Brandon League, J.P. Howell, Jamey Wright and maybe Paul Maholm if he doesn't beat out Josh Beckett for the final rotation spot.

So, they could parlay Rosin's strong spring into a trade rather than offer him back to the Phillies.

But the Dodgers also see a pitcher they thought they can improve with an investment of time. That's why they wanted him in the first place.

'I've been trying to learn a lot of new concepts the Dodgers are helping me with,' Rosin says. 'Especially using my lower half a lot more, trying to work that into the games and it's been working so far. They've been showing me a lot of video on how I used to throw with the Giants and the Phillies.'

Rosin estimates he can add 3-4 mph to a fastball that's already in the 90s and throw sharper breaking pitches with his revamped mechanics, involving his entire body instead of all arm and using what he describes as like throwing a javelin.

Dee day

'They're just trying to incorporate the Dodger pitching style - Sandy Koufax, Rick Honeycutt, those kinds of philosophies,' he says.' I'm getting a lot better at what they want me to get better at. It's always a work in progress. But I think the quicker I can enact that philosophy, the quicker I can stick here.'

Dee Gordon hopes to reach base enough to use his speed. He's among the Dodger hopefuls at second base.(Photo: Joe Camporeale, USA TODAY Sports)

Gordon gets a special charge when he gets to play against Cincinnati's Billy Hamilton.

Their speed games are similar, even down to some skepticism either one will hit enough to be consistent forces on the basepaths.

'Shoot, they're saying the same about me,' Gordon says.' I've been through that. It is what it is. Just do your thing, play good and see what happens.'

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They are involved in a marketing venture called Speed Kills, which aims to buy low on exciting talents such as Gordon, Hamilton and Chicago White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton.

Neither Gordon nor Hamilton stole a base when they met Thursday, but Gordon got in some laughs.

Hamilton got on base when a hurrying Ramirez bobbled a grounder.

But through more than a dozen pitches, he didn't try to steal against lefty Paul Maholm.

'I looked at him and laughed when they (tried pickoffs) about five times,' Gordon says. 'I busted out laughing and he shot me a smile. That's my boy. We're good friends. It's awesome playing against him.'

Gordon has 66 stolen bases in parts of three seasons with the Dodgers and swiped 73 in one minor league season. But Hamilton has been an anticipated sensation since stealing 103 in 2011 and 155 the next season.

He didn't try against Maholm, who walked the next batter and saw Hamilton score on a single.

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'I thought he did a really good job with Hamilton,' Wallach says of Maholm. 'But it showed how it takes your focus away. He ended up going much deeper in the count. That's what Dee does for us.'

When he gets to first base.

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