The Manny Ramirez Trade

The vindictive part of me says, "Good luck hitting in Chavez Ravine. Say hi to Nomar. You two deserve each other. And I'd bet my life against you getting another $100 million dollar deal." Of course I don't really feel that way. The funny thing is I was always one of the most ardent Manny/Nomar supporters, right up until the day they were traded. And even after both trades I couldn't quite believe it. However, both punched their tickets out of town. With Nomar it was the infamous sit on the bench and sulk incident in Yankee Stadium. That was complicated by the fact that Derek Jeter, the shortstop he was at one time most frequently compared to, dove head first into the stands. With Manny it's not so simple. Did he take three strikes on purpose in New York? Maybe. However, he definitely said he'd play in Iraq, pushed the traveling secretary*, sat out a few mysterious games recently (one of which was against the hated Yankees), blatantly dogged it at times in the Angels series, mixed it up with Kevin Youkilis on the bench, was slow to join his teammates in the Coco Crisp/Rays brawl, and said the organization did not deserve him. In fact Manny's been so bizarre that this post by Babcock made complete sense to me.

Of course the question has to be asked, "Did the Red Sox organization and its fans bring about this development by enabling Ramirez with the Manny being Manny movement?" I'd say yes and no. There's no denying the fact that Ramirez was enabled. Guys should run hard and be focused on defense, although I'd argue that Manny was never as bad an outfielder as some people would have you believe. And the bulk of Red Sox Nation either accepted or championed Ramirez's eccentric ways. At the same time a crucial part of the Manny being Manny line of thinking was that he was one of the most feared bats in baseball. Look at his stats from last year. Or consider how many fastballs were blown by him this year. Can he still get it done? Maybe. He may go on an absolute tear in LA over the next two months and make those Bay/Ramirez comparison seem absolutely ludicrous. Or he could be just average. Either way, unlike the Nomar/Orlando Cabrera trade the Sox did not get a clearly better player in return this time around.


Of course it's important to consider ownership/management's role in all of this. LaRocque got the ball rolling with a post about a meeting Manny was promised that never happened. On top of that there's no denying the fact that three of the four biggest stars in recent Red Sox history - Nomar, Pedro, and Manny (with David Ortiz being the 4th, currently unaffected by all of this) - have left the team on bad terms. And if Curt Schilling were not such an ass I'd probably work him into that argument as well. It's difficult because the Red Sox are up against a philosophy in baseball where guys get paid for what they have done, not what they are going to do. That may be changing but it's nowhere near the mindset NFL teams operate under. Meanwhile, if we've learned anything from the success of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics it has to be that winning leads to difficult decisions and players getting overpaid, by the hometown team or someone else. Furthermore, Manny, Pedro and Nomar were on the wrong side of their careers. Can you imagine if Pedro were still in Boston given his extensive injury history as Met and diminishing stuff? Yet those guys were not dumb. They saw Theo Epstein and company completely turn off some of the biggest stars the organization has ever known and simultaneously give ridiculous contracts to Matt Clement, Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, and J.D. Drew. In fact Manny recently came out and said the former, "The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciapara, and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don't deserve me. I'm not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don't have peace here." If that's not reminiscent of the time Dr. Dre fled Suge Knight and Death Row records for peace of mind, leaving his all-important master recordings behind in the process, then nothing is.

In then end both sides are to blame. Ramirez's behavior over the last month or so was inexcusable. Yet I'd argue that ownership and management have a tendency to act in arrogant ways. It's definitely one of those trades that made me wonder if I'm too old to care about sports this much. With everything that's going on in the world right now why should the goings on of a bunch of wealthy people living the dream have a major impact on me?

Six closing points:

1. It's odd that Ramirez will now play for Joe Torre after all these years. Say what you want about Ramirez's production in his glory days but I couldn't picture him playing for the Yankees dynasty. Would he really have pulled a Johnny Damon and tried to fit in?

2. Will this go down as the ultimate example of the addition by subtraction philosophy? Consider how much the Red Sox hate getting rid of prospects. Yet they dealt Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss. I'll pass on trying to determine their ceilings as players. In addition, the Red Sox will pay the remaining $7 million on Ramirez's contract. And when did these trade talks start? Remember the Marlins deal fell apart. It appears as if the Red Sox scrambled to beat the deadline. Add it all up and it screams of just wanting to get a guy out of town.

3. This whole thing has a Lakers/Shaq/Kobe feel to it. Ugh.

4. You have to wonder what if any role the Boston media and fans played in all of this. I would grow tired of certain prominent reporters real quick. And the hours upon hours of phone calls to sports talk radio can't help either. Overall the level of scrutiny, this blog post included, is outrageous.

5. It's unfair to put all the blame for Boston's recent struggles on Manny. The Red Sox have other issues right now (relief pitching, hitting in general come to mind). Still I can't imagine playing on a team with a guy making $20 million that does not go hard. So I'm intrigued by how the other players respond. Remember they did not exactly mourn Nomar's departure.

6. Speaking of focusing on Manny. All that and I didn't even touch on Jason Bay. He's not going to know what hit him. He's going from baseball irrelevance (the Pirates have a 15-year losing streak) right into the chaos that is Red Sox baseball. I'd be ecstatic if the Sox just landed the 2005 Jason Bay. As is I'll wait and see.

* I'm guilty of making every excuse under the sun for Manny. Yet even I was appalled by the "hey the traveling secretary is 60 but he's not a frail, close to death invalid" argument that made the rounds. My dad is 60, works out, can handle himself, and I'm still a little afraid of him. Still if a professional athlete in his mid 30s took a run at him I'd be furious and unforgiving.