Around the Horn

Jose Vizcaino figured he would return to the Dodgers some day, but he didn’t expect to make so many stops along the road.

The infielder has toured the major leagues with four other teams, working but not establishing roots. He has been part of trades big and small, learning that baseball can take one anywhere.

He said the experience has been invaluable, but he’s ready to settle down. Vizcaino’s journey has come full circle, and it’s as if he never left.

“I felt like it was the same when I walked into the [Dodgertown] office,” Vizcaino said. “I couldn’t believe it, almost everybody from the past is still working here.

“They all came up and hugged me and made me feel good. That’s when I felt like I was really back.”

The Dodgers signed Vizcaino, whom they traded in 1990, as a free agent in the off-season. Vizcaino, who played last season with the San Francisco Giants, is replacing shortstop Greg Gagne, who retired after two years with the team and 13 overall.

Finding a replacement for Gagne was the Dodgers’ main off-season concern. They first tried to acquire Mark Grudzielanek from the Montreal Expos, but couldn’t agree on a deal.

Vizcaino made his off-season home with his family in El Cajon even after leaving the Dodgers, so he hoped to return to the organization for professional and personal reasons. The Dodgers made it happen, signing him to a three-year, $9.5-million contract.

“You never stop thinking like a Dodger,” he said. “Ramon [Martinez] once asked me would I like to come back, and I told him I knew I would be back.”

Vizcaino, 30, is considered among the league’s more dependable infielders with a .976 lifetime fielding percentage. Scouts say he has good range and an above-average arm, is equally sure-handed at second and can play third.

He committed only one error in his last 40 games while the Giants were battling the Dodgers to win the National League West title, including a 26-game errorless streak.

“Jose is as solid as it gets,” Manager Bill Russell said. “Besides his glove and range, he’s got the instincts. He can save a run here and there for you, and that adds up.”

But Vizcaino is more than a defensive specialist. A switch hitter, he’s ideally suited to bat second because he rarely strikes out. And he’s versatile enough to bat effectively throughout the order, as he did with the Giants.

Vizcaino batted .266 with five home runs and 50 runs batted in, in a personal-best 151 games last year. He had several clutch hits down the stretch, batting .304 (17 for 56) in his final 17 games. His career average is .273, topped by a .303 mark in 1996.

Second baseman Eric Young, also reacquired by the team, and Vizcaino will be in their first season together. But Young expects the double-play combination to function smoothly.

“Jose is my partner,” Young said. “We’ve been working hard to learn about each other all spring, because we want to do it as well as Billy [Russell] and [Davey] Lopes did.”

Despite his success, Vizcaino bounced around after leaving the Dodgers. In addition to the Giants, he has played for the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets and Cleveland Indians. That’s a lot of traveling in an eight-year career.

“It just happened that way,” Vizcaino said. “I haven’t been with a different team every year, I was in Chicago and New York [for three seasons each]. Other teams have wanted me, and that makes you feel good.”

Vizcaino originally signed with the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic in 1986. He has been involved in blockbuster deals, and some less noteworthy.

His travels began when the Dodgers traded him to the Cubs for outfielder Greg Smith. Smith had three at-bats for the team and is out of baseball. Then the Cubs traded him to the Mets for Anthony Young and Ottis Smith in 1994.

Those were the footnote trades. The big ones occurred in 1996, when Vizcaino was involved in deals that brought Carlos Baerga to the Mets and Matt Williams to the Indians.

“It’s either pretty big or pretty little with me,” Vizcaino joked. “But I never felt bad about [being traded], because I always proved myself.”

Ralph Avila knew Vizcaino would have a good career. The Dodger vice president, who runs Campo Las Palmas, signed Vizcaino, who grew up in the same town as Raul Mondesi.

“Jose and Raul are the only two players I made a decision [to sign] in one minute,” he said. “He didn’t have the most talent, but he got everything out of his ability. I immediately saw his aptitude, the way he applied in games what we taught him. You only had to tell him something once, and that was it.

“And you could see he was a leader. The players who were the same age as him always listened to him.”

But the Dodgers believed Jose Offerman would be their shortstop for the decade, making Vizcaino expendable.

“The reports Fred [Claire, Dodger executive vice president] got on Smith were all good at the time,” Avila said. “That’s what happens sometimes.”