Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt has told GM Ned Colletti that he will have the resources needed to lock up key players like Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier to long-term deals and to compete in the free agent market according to T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times.

“Do we have the number solidified yet? No,” says Colletti. “But I have a range of money that I can spend, and the conversations I’ve had indicate there are different ways of doing it.”

Simers believe that one way to do it is offering “big-money” contracts with low salaries for the first year that will raise “dramatically in later years.”

For that to happen, they will have to convince Kemp to play for $1 million in 2012 with the promise of $20 million in a year or two says Simers. That could be a problem, given the fact that he could get that amount of money from the Yankees this year.

The Dodgers will also face another problem when they go to the free agents market. Simers points out that most free agents expect a juicy signing bonus with their new deals, but he doesn’t think the Dodgers are in position to offer big bonuses to anybody.

According to Colletti, none of this is predicated on McCourt getting his TV deal, and he keeps telling Colletti the money will be there, and according to Simers, Colletti believes him.

Image by SD Dirk under the Creative Commons License.