The other day, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling called the afternoon drive show on WEEI in Boston and absolutely ripped Manny Ramirez. In this conversation, Schilling reveals that the situation with Manny was terrible for years. That he never cared about any of his teammates. That he was disrespectful to Terry Francona, the organization and the game itself. And, that the moment he found out he wasn't going to get a new contract with the Sox, he decided to force Boston's hand. GM Theo Epstein and Francona allowed the team's veterans to vote about whether Manny should stay or go. The group, including Schilling, Jason Varitek, Mike Lowell, David Ortiz, Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield, unanimously "voted Manny off the island."
The Dodgers have been transformed by Manny's bat. He's smacked 14 homers with 44 RBIs since coming over to the NL. John Ireland keeps saying that Ramirez should be an MVP contender, but I completely disagree. The MVP will be awarded to either Al Pujols or Ryan Howard, who has been just as good as Ramirez for the Phillies since August 1 with 15 homers and 42 RBIs.
I think it will be damn near impossible for Frank McCourt to let Manny walk. The guy is a spectacular hitter, and he sells tickets....a lot of them. But it could be a tough contract to swallow in a couple of years. I think the minimum price for Manny will be 3 years - $65M. Here's what LA is currently on the hook for in 2009.
OF Andruw Jones - $15M
OF Juan Pierre - $10M
SS Angel Berroa - $5.5M
SP Jason Schmidt - $12M
SP Hiroki Kuroda - $10M
SP Brad Penny - $8.75M (or $2M buyout)
Here are the Dodger free agents.
SS Rafael Furcal (maybe get him for 2 years - $18M)
SP Derek Lowe (maybe 2 years - $18M)
2B Jeff Kent (can be bought out for $500,000)
3B Casey Blake (maybe 2 years - $14M)
UT Nomar Garciaparra
SP Gregg Maddux
Closer Takashi Saito
So the Dodgers start with a base of $61.25M in big-money contracts, and add another $10M or so for the young guys, arbitration etc.. Colletti put together the 2008 Dodgers for $118M. If the McCourts increase the payroll by a modest 10%, and that's a big if, that gives LA about $58M to work with to fill out the roster.
The 2009 team would potentially look like this:
C Russell Martin
1B James Loney
2B ?????
SS Angel Berroa
3B ?????
OF Andre Ethier
OF Matt Kemp
OF ?????
SP Chad Billingsley
SP Hiroki Kuroda
SP Clayton Kershaw
SP Brad Penny
SP ?????
RP Jon Broxton
Closer ?????
Manny would cost them $21.66M (best case), and that leaves them about $36M for a middle infielder, a third baseman, a big-time starter and a closer. Meeting the number for Ramirez will make it very tough to address other needs.
At some point, Ramirez will come off the rails. He'll screw up the clubhouse chemistry, or he'll quit running out ground balls, or he'll get in a snit with Torre, or he'll say he's tired or hurt or not in the mood. And, in the third year of that contract, he'll be 39 years old. If Ned Coletti (or Brian Cashman or Logan White) and the McCourts decide to commit big dollars to the mercurial (a nice way of saying crazy) left fielder, they're not allowed to be surprised when he becomes more trouble than he's worth.
Manny Ramirez is a great short-term play for the franchise, but it could wind up being painful in the long term.
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