Ned Colletti, Dodgers Discuss Extension

While some people around Major League Baseball are losing their jobs for failing to win games, others around the league are being rewarded for their success. The Los Angeles Dodgers are getting ready to make their third appearance in the postseason in the last four years, and it looks like the man who is in charge of putting the team together is about to be rewarded for it.

There's word out of Los Angeles that the team has begun negotiating with general manager Ned Colletti about signing a long-term contract extension with the team. Colletti is currently working under a deal that includes a mutual option for 2010, and now the Dodgers would like that to last a bit longer.

It is uncertain whether the extension will be finalized or announced before the Dodgers complete play this season. The official was granted anonymity because owner Frank McCourt has asked that off-the-field business not take public precedence over the team's quest to reach the World Series for the first time since 1988.

Colletti, who said earlier this month he would "love" to return to the Dodgers next season, declined to comment on the negotiations.

"He's obviously done a very good job," McCourt said. "The team has the best record in the National League. We're on the verge of clinching the division back-to-back [for the first time] in 31 years. I think that speaks for itself."

Obviously the biggest acquisition Coletti has made since taking the Dodgers job was getting Manny Ramirez last season, but he's had other smaller deals that have helped the team out as well. He's responsible for bringing in players like Casey Blake, Greg Maddux, George Sherrill, Jon Garland and Jim Thome over the last two seasons.

Bringing in those veterans to go along with the Dodgers' homegrown talent like Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier has helped mold a team that seems poised to contend for the next few years.