LA Times:

The Dodgers don’t appear to be interested in Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby or Seattle third baseman Adrian Beltre. 

Ever since the Minnesota Twins deemed Beltre overpriced (I do not agree), the consensus seemed to be that focus would shift to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Dodgers have been interested in bringing Beltre back ever since he left them to sign with Seattle, so it is somewhat surprising that they wouldn’t be interested in him now.

One reason for the lack of interest may be that they would still rather bring in a shortstop, perhaps Christian Guzman or David Eckstein, if possible.  Another could be that they too found Beltre too expensive.  The Dodgers have so much great young talent that I could see Seattle getting “carried away” with their demands, at least from LA’s point of view.  Beltre is easily one of the most underrated third basemen in all of baseball, so it would make sense that teams would issue proposals that Seattle would view as boarderline low-balling.

With Beltre under contract through 2009 I don’t see Seattle trading him during the 2008 season.  He has gotten better at the plate every year with Seattle and is a top-3 defender at the position, so his value shouldn’t decrease anytime soon.  Seattle may be better served to wait until the offseason or next year’s trading deadline like they’re being forced to do with Bedard.