DODGERS SPENT OUT OF CONTENTION.

Hope you like these Dodgers. Hope you just love 'em to death. Hope you think this little team can really win it all.

Because it doesn't figure to get much better than this. Not that it has for a while, what with that stretched-out payroll of $110 million.

The Dodgers further pushed their payroll to league-high, move-restricting limits in the offseason despite signing just two players.

Those would be Darren Dreifort and Andy Ashby, both now broken down, both leaving gaps in the rotation their very signing makes difficult to fill.

The L.A. rotation was supposed to be its strength. Now 40 percent of it is filling out Blue Shield forms. If the rotation isn't a black hole, it's too dark there to know what to expect.

Dreifort got the bad news Tuesday: His surgically repaired arm needs to be surgically repaired again. No pitcher ever has had to come back from two of these, and Dreifort's not expected to until after the All-Star Game. The one in 2002.

That leaves the Dodgers with a rotation of Kevin Brown, Chan Ho Park and the vast unknown - reliever-turned-starter Terry Adams, still-a-prospect Eric Gagne and rookie Luke Prokopec. The Diamondbacks are not shaking.

Carlos Perez is almost starting to look good again. OK, things aren't that bad, but the current season is very much in jeopardy.

``To say that this will work, I really don't know the answer to that question right now,'' Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said.

This is the moment where a contending team would like to start thinking about making a move, looking to see what proven starters are out there available via trade. The Dodgers figure to show all the movement of a slug. They're hamstrung by their recent history. They can't afford to take on much more in the way of salary, particularly if it requires a commitment beyond this season.

``I think the message has to be, we're going to do everything we can to compete this year but have to keep the future of this organization in mind as well,'' interim general manager Dave Wallace said. ``And that's a tough rope to walk, but we have to walk it.

``I know the flexibility's not there, but it is what it is. If we do our job as well as we can, maybe we can get better little by little as time goes on.''

The Dodgers did this to themselves. They signed Dreifort to a staggering five-year, $55-million deal in the offseason that's no less puzzling today than it was then.

Meanwhile, they did not try to lock up Park, their No. 2 pitcher who can be a free agent in the next offseason. Dreifort's deal means it's going to cost even more to try and sign Park, aiming next year's payroll toward new heights and further stifling their ability to make a trade now.

They'll be paying for the Dreifort deal in more ways than one.

You could call this the Curse of Kevin Malone, but the Dodgers have been messing up long-term signings of pitchers since Curt Flood went to court.

Want to see your pitcher break down? Get him a long-term deal with the Dodgers. Terry Forster, Dave Goltz, Don Stanhouse, Jerry Reuss, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Ramon Martinez, Ashby, Dreifort ... this is some seriously scary history.

Is Kevin Brown feeling a little nervous? He's already been on the disabled list twice this year, has four more years left on his contract and is 36.

Dreifort's immediate loss is tough to measure. He has never been a consistent winner and heads for the operating room with a career mark of 43-53 and an ERA of 4.38. That included a 4-7 record and 5.13 ERA this season.

You think the Dodgers can't go the patchwork routine and fill that void? But Dreifort was 8-2 with 3.14 ERA in the second half last season, and that is the right-hander the Dodgers were paying, and missing, on Tuesday. Dreifort, too, will miss being able to produce.

``I won't be able to help them for another year,'' Dreifort said. ``I feel worse about that than getting cut on.''

Wallace allowed that the Dodgers aren't going to ``rule anything out,'' but his options are as thin as his farm system. And don't get fooled by the Dodgers' recent surge, which has been almost all a matter of hot hitting. They have averaged 7.75 runs per game during their eight-game winning streak.

These Dodgers are not the '27 Yankees. But you'd best love 'em, because this could be as good as it gets.