The Dodgers’ on-again, off-again negotiations with Manny Ramirez appear to be on again.
Scott Boras, the agent for Ramirez, said he contacted the Dodgers today, one day after General Manager Ned Colletti told The Times that Ramirez remained “our first choice.” The Times also reported the Dodgers had begun exploring possible alternatives in Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn.
Boras said he expected the market for Ramirez to start taking shape soon, with the end of the holiday season and the signing of Mark Teixeira, the most coveted hitter among free agents, by the New York Yankees.
Ramirez, 36, headed into free agency hoping for a contract of five or six years. The Dodgers, the only team to acknowledge making a bid for Ramirez, offered him two years and $45 million, then withdrew the proposal when their exclusive negotiating window expired.
Boras declined to say whether he believed Ramirez would command a contract beyond two years. He did say that he did not expect teams would judge Ramirez primarily on his stormy departure from Boston, with the Red Sox paying the Dodgers to take one of the game’s elite hitters for the final two months of the season.
Ramirez, who arrived in Los Angeles amid allegations he failed to play hard during a contract dispute, helped lead the Dodgers to the playoffs by hitting .396 in 53 games, with 17 home runs and 53 runs batted in.
“I think teams look at what he was like when he was out of a situation that he did not feel was most pleasing,” Boras said, “and at how he performed in an environment he wanted to be in—much like the one he’ll be going to. I think they’ll look at the totality of the circumstances and realize the impact this player can have.”
Tripon
Posted: December 31, 2008 at 04:03 AM |
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1. Rough CarriganHave a shred of dignity Scott. STFU when you don't have something at least slightly plausible to say.
Look who's come crawling back...
Ramirez is 2nd.
Now he's going to sign somewhere on a short term deal.
And finally happy.
I don't think that was the only reason. There had been periodic problems between Manny and the Red Sox for much of his duration there.
He certainly wants the money, of course - but I think he also wants to feel respected and loved by the team - whether what he means by that is what the rest of us would. I suspect he would regret not signing with the Dodgers, since he would be the fan favorite there, the GM has made it clear that he's their top priority, and he has built up a large amount of good will there in only a third of a season. Add in that they are likely to give him the most money, and it's a double win for him.
That sound you hear is Jim Bowden moaning.
Somewhere (Red Sox nation perhaps) there's a scene where John Henry and Lucchino are meeting the players after first buying the team.
When they meet Manny, the first thing he asked them to do was trade him because he was unhappy in Boston.
It was never just about the money or short and long term deals-It was about Manny being miserable in Boston for years.
So, there's definitely a contract aspect here and (in the final act) it is likely a major, if not the primary, part of the story.
Seth Mnookin's book "Feeding the Monster" is where I first read it.
Whereupon Ramirez saw a dog with a fluffy tail and commenced pursuit.
Best Regards
John
I would pass that phone's audio through a signal processor that would make Boras sound like Darth Vader.
Why not? The scary thing is--Waddell had booze to aid his idiosyncrasies...Manny is all-natural.
Hotel Episode...you can check out any time you like but you can never leave?
Best Regards
John
Yesterday I asked a very simple question: where the heck are the offers for Manny?
I never got anything remotely approaching an answer from anyone here, but I got everything I needed to know from Scott Boras this morning. There's obviously no significant interest in him around the league, and everyone knows damn well why that is, your feigned ignorance notwithstanding.
Stonecold batshit mad as a bloody march hare?
Best Regards
John
Best Regards
John
yes you did. walt davis layed out a pretty good team by team list showing why manny wasn't getting a lot of interest from other teams. it has little to do with his personality and a lot to do with economics. anybody who could afford him has already made other arrangements. anybody who could use him isn't able to meet the contract demands.
the dance boras is doing is all about getting the best offer from the people he and manny knew they would be ultimately dealing with, and that's the dodgers. i believe everything else has just been a fan dance.
By all means, feel free to keep shoveling that s**t though.
This is the old double standard:
If you're poor and act odd, you're weird or crazy.
If you're rich and act odd, you're merely eccentric.
by 'owners' you mean all of baseball? or the mets? that's just silly. someone on the other thread pointed out that any gm in baseball if he had the dough to pay manny also has the ego to think his organization could handle him.
i'll admit that its odd that the mets aren't in the mix, because minaya does have a habit of pursuing latins. fine, you could be right on this one. maybe. i don't know enough about their payroll situation. do they really have a lot of money to throw around at this point? but that's just one of the three or four teams who really could realistically pursue manny. it doesn't alter the general thrust of events.
btw, manny himself may have told boras not to bother with calling the mets, since he's been on record as saying he likes playing in L.A. ... we just don't know what's actually happening. my take, as a poster on a bb board and not a MLB exec, is that both sides want the deal, and are trying to figure out how to do it.
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