Bordow: Will D-Backs’ waiting game pay off?

A philosophical question: If a general manager goes to baseball’s winter meetings and doesn’t do a thing, is he really there?

Astros, Angels interested in Johnson

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Just asking, because not a peep has been heard from Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes at this week’s meetings in Las Vegas. He hasn’t made a trade. He hasn’t signed a free agent. He’s done nothing to improve a team that collapsed down the stretch last season.

The worst news? That’s actually an improvement over the last two months.

The Diamondbacks haven’t done a single thing to upgrade their club since the season ended. In fact, they’ve taken several steps backward.

Consider:

1. They failed to re-sign Randy Johnson.

2. Orlando Hudson left as a free agent.

3. Relievers Brandon Lyon and Juan Cruz declined arbitration.

4. Arizona decided not to offer arbitration to Adam Dunn, thus losing two draft picks.

And now the Los Angeles Dodgers have outbid them for utility infielder Mark Loretta, for goodness sakes.

If Arizona doesn’t have the money to land Loretta or another pedestrian second baseman in Ramon Vazquez, what does that say about their chances in 2009?

“If that was the whole story, I can see how that might be something somebody concluded,” managing general partner Ken Kendrick said Tuesday. “But give us time. At the end of the day, I think there’s a real chance for us to seize the moment.”

Kendrick’s confidence stems from two factors:

The Diamondbacks’ baseball operations budget — which includes the major league payroll and draft picks — will be between $75 million and $80 million, the highest annual budget since Kendrick’s ownership group took over prior to the 2005 season.

Arizona, according to a source, has approximately $15 million to spend, whether it be in free agency or trades. Kendrick would not confirm the figure, but he said, “I think we have a little more flexibility to make deals than maybe what’s being reported as of now.”

That doesn’t mean the Diamondbacks will dive headfirst into free agency. In fact, Arizona may be relatively quiet the next few weeks. The reason: They believe the harsh economic climate that has slowed free-agent signings will work to their benefit.

Kendrick said that once top-tier free agents like CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira sign, teams will have even less money to spend than they do now. As a result, second-tier players who thought they would get $10 million a year might have to settle for millions less. And that’s when the Diamondbacks plan to write a few checks.

The danger of that strategy, of course, is that the free-agent market could dry up before Arizona acts.

“We think there will be some very good players we can invest in,” Kendrick said.

Hudson could be one of those players. It still seems likely that he’ll sign with another team.

But his list of suitors is shrinking. The Dodgers plan to platoon Loretta and Blake DeWitt at second base. The New York Mets just signed reliever Francisco Rodriguez to a new contract; they might want to buy a second baseman on the cheap. The San Francisco Giants recently signed shortstop Edgar Renteria, freeing up Emmanuel Burris to move to second.

If Hudson discovers he can’t get what he wants on the open market — a contract worth around $10 million per year — he might be willing to reopen negotiations with the Diamondbacks.

It doesn’t appear, however, that Arizona is inclined to up its one-year, $2.5 million offer to Johnson.

Kendrick said he leaves all personnel decisions up to Byrnes, and Byrnes said Monday that the team still doesn’t have the money to re-sign Johnson.

That’s not entirely true. Arizona could increase its offer to Johnson. It just doesn’t want to.

Financially, the Diamondbacks are not hurting as badly as some other clubs, Kendrick said, even though 31 front-office employees were recently laid off.

Without being specific, he said sponsorship deals “are going well,” and that, “We’re feeling pretty good about our revenues.”

OK, then. Prove it.

You don’t have to do it today. You don’t have to do it tomorrow. But by the end of January, that $15 million better have been used to upgrade the starting rotation, acquire bullpen help and land a second baseman.

Otherwise, we’ll know that this waiting game was a con job, and that the plan all along was to pocket the money and pray that youngsters like Chris Young, Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton are better in ’09 than they were in 2008.

“We’re sticking with the game plan to spend the money we planned to spend,” Kendrick said.

That’s good to hear.

Because what good is Byrnes doing in Vegas if he never rolls the dice?