Cruz Will Receive Plenty of At-Bats

In 2003, the Dodgers offered a contract to outfielder Jose Cruz Jr. You won’t play every day, they told him, but you’ll get plenty of at-bats. The San Francisco Giants offered Cruz a contract, and an everyday job in right field, and he signed with them for $2.8 million. The Dodgers opted to spend $1.35 million on Daryle Ward, who hit .183 with no home runs.

The Dodgers’ plan for Cruz this season is no different than it was two years ago. He arrived in the clubhouse at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday, after a flight from his Miami home and rush-hour ride from LAX, and started in right field 90 minutes later.

Cruz, acquired Tuesday from the Boston Red Sox for a minor leaguer to be named, said he was “ready to go” and “excited” by the trade. He had heard the Dodgers were interested in him before the Arizona Diamondbacks traded him to Boston 11 days ago.

If he had any regrets about joining the fading Dodgers and leaving the first-place Red Sox, he did not express them.

“It was too short-lived to really enjoy the whole thing,” he said. “It was crazy.”

Cruz did not play from April 10 to May 8 because of a bulging disk in his back. He began play Wednesday hitting .215, with 23 at-bats in the previous 24 days.

“I probably tried to come back a little too early,” Cruz said.

Still, he has 12 home runs, a total exceeded on the Dodgers only by Jeff Kent, the injured J.D. Drew and the benched Hee-Seop Choi. Manager Jim Tracy said he would “mix and match” Cruz, Ricky Ledee, Jose Valentin and Jayson Werth in left field and right field.

“If one of those guys gets really hot and gets to the point where you can’t take him out,” Tracy said, “you don’t take him out.”

Ledee had a pinch-hit home run Tuesday, but Tracy said he also aggravated his sore left hamstring and required a cortisone shot. Tracy said Ledee could pinch-hit but could not start for “a few more days.”

Werth said he is ready to be activated from the disabled list today, although Tracy said no decision would be made until a pregame medical evaluation. Werth said the recurrent bursitis in his left knee could require postseason surgery but for now the pain is gone and the swelling has diminished.

“It’s as good as it’s going to be,” he said, “which is good enough to play.”

To clear roster space for Cruz, the Dodgers optioned utilityman Mike Edwards to triple-A Las Vegas.