Manny Ramirez Career Tracker

02/03/09 12:26 PM EST
Manny rejects Dodgers' latest offer

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers confirmed that free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez rejected their latest contract offer Monday night.

Team spokesman Josh Rawitch wrote an in e-mail that agent Scott Boras notified general manager Ned Colletti of the decision. Colletti made the offer Sunday, reportedly for one year and $25 million.

"We still want to sign Manny," Colletti said earlier Monday. "We still want to make him a Dodger. That hasn't changed."

Colletti later added in an e-mail to reporters: "We have an interest in signing Manny. We don't have a deadline but these situations can change in an instant and either side can change them in an instant."

With less than two weeks before Spring Training starts, not much had changed between the Dodgers and Ramirez since the 2008 season ended. During the General Managers Meetings in November, the Dodgers offered Ramirez two years at $45 million, plus a third-year option for $15 million. Ramirez never responded and the club withdrew that offer when the exclusive negotiating period expired Nov. 15.

The Dodgers offered Ramirez salary arbitration in December, which would have bound him to the club with a one-year contract at a salary to be determined, but he did not accept the offer.

The market for the gifted slugger, who turns 37 in May, has been murky. The Dodgers are the only club known to have made an offer. The Giants are the only other club to have acknowledged interest, although like the Dodgers, it is short term only. Boras has said he's in negotiations with several teams concerning Ramirez but has declined to name them.

The Dodgers, with no designated hitter rule available to provide a transitional role as Ramirez ages, have insisted they will not provide the four- or five-year deal he is seeking. The one-year offer is believed to be a compromise attempt by the club that will reward Ramirez with the second-highest annual salary in history while allowing him to return to the free-agent market next year, when the economic climate might be friendlier and he would still be young enough to capitalize.

Colletti has been non-committal about what he would do for offense if Ramirez does not re-sign. From the current roster, the Dodgers could start Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Juan Pierre in the outfield. The GM also had touched base earlier in the winter with the agents for free-agent outfielders Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn, but the club's interest in them apparently had cooled in the past month.

Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Manny should just give it up and sign the damn deal. Its obvious no one really wants him except LA.

gdennis59 wrote:

Manny should just give it up and sign the damn deal. Its obvious no one really wants him except LA.

I agree. He is a crowd draw for any team that signs him, but he is being a hog at the moment!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Baseball
Source: Dodgers make new offer to Ramirez
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers made a fourth bid for Manny Ramirez on Wednesday, this time offering the enigmatic slugger a $25 million, one-year contract with a $20 million player option for 2010.

The player option came at the request of Ramirez's agent, Scott Boras, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations who requested anonymity because talks are ongoing.

The latest proposal is similar in dollars to Los Angeles' first offer to the free-agent left fielder this offseason, a $45 million, two-year deal with a buyout or a club option that was ignored by Boras and later withdrawn by the team.

This offer, however, gives Ramirez a chance to determine his fate in 2010. He could stay with the Dodgers for a $20 million salary or decline the option and become a free agent again.

Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch confirmed that general manager Ned Colletti, owner Frank McCourt and Boras met Wednesday in Los Angeles and an offer was made, but Rawitch declined to provide further details.

The Los Angeles Times first reported details of the offer on its Web site Wednesday.

Ramirez rejected a one-year, $25 million proposal from Los Angeles three weeks ago. The team also offered him salary arbitration in December, but Ramirez turned that down, too.

The Dodgers lost their exhibition opener 5-3 to the Chicago Cubs in Mesa, Ariz., earlier in the day. Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said he last spoke with Ramirez about three weeks ago.

"He seemed to be in a good place in his mind. ... And certainly we want him. Just from my experience, I think he wants to be here," Torre said. "I think it's just a matter of working things out and hopefully we can."

Ramirez, who turns 37 in May, was initially thought to be seeking a four- or five-year deal starting at $25 million per season.

The length of the deal has seemingly been the sticking point between the Dodgers and Ramirez, who created a buzz upon arriving in Los Angeles from Boston at the July 31 trade deadline.

He hit .396 with 17 homers, 53 RBIs, 36 runs scored, 74 hits and 35 walks in 53 regular-season games, leading the Dodgers to the NL West title.

Ramirez was even more potent in the postseason, batting .520 with four homers, 10 RBIs, nine runs scored and 11 walks in eight playoff games.

GREED!



Must be nice to be able to turn down such a huge contract offer

They need to say stuff it to him!

EVERYBODY needs to STUFF IT!

03/03/09 11:51 PM EST
Manny, Dodgers to meet to close deal
Deal imminent as sides set to gather Wednesday in L.A.

By Ken Gurnick and Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

PHOENIX -- Significant progress was made in contract talks Tuesday between the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, who is flying to Los Angeles for a Wednesday meeting with club ownership that could result in a deal, according to a baseball source.

"I'm still working on it, but it's yet to be finalized," said Scott Boras, Ramirez's agent, responding to an ESPN Desportes report that the deal was done.

A deal became imminent when Boras met on Tuesday with Dodgers chairman Frank McCourt at Dodger Stadium and tried to bridge the gap both financially and philosophically, one source said.

The two sides were in agreement on a two-year, $45 million contract with a player opt-out clause after the first year, but were in dispute over the deferral of salary that would discount the present-day value of the total compensation by $1.5 million (the interest in deferring payment over five years).

The meeting will be held to finalize the terms of the contract and resolve any issues that remain after four months of sometimes cantankerous negotiations since Ramirez declared for free agency after being acquired by the Dodgers and leading them into the NL Championship Series.

Expected at the meeting are the same parties that met in Los Angeles last Wednesday -- Boras, Boras associate Mike Fiore, McCourt, general manager Ned Colletti -- plus Ramirez, who has steadfastly remained in favor of returning to the Dodgers this season.

"I'm happy in L.A. I like my teammates and had a great time," Ramirez told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday in an interview conducted earlier in the day. "The fans were so good to me; they treated me the best anywhere in my career. And now I think we're getting close (to a deal) ... Tell everyone, Mannywood is coming."

The negotiations broke down Thursday when McCourt said that when they resumed, they would have to "start from scratch." Since then, Boras has made three proposals on behalf of Ramirez to bridge the gap between the two principal offers. The Dodgers wanted two years for $45 million with $25 million deferred without interest. Ramirez wanted two years for $45 million paid over two years.

On Saturday at the direction of Ramirez, Boras made an offer that reduced the difference in the deferred compensation from $3 million to $1.5 million.

Ramirez would be 38 when the contract expires, so the Dodgers satisfied their strategy not to commit into his 40s without having the designated hitter available for a transitional role. The Dodgers outfield would consist of Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, with Juan Pierre again squeezed out of a starting role.

Ramirez captured the imagination of a city and its fans like no Dodger since Fernando Valenzuela.

Despite only two months in the National League with the Dodgers, he finished fourth in voting for the league's Most Valuable Player award, one vote short of third place Ryan Braun of Milwaukee.

He pretty much carried the Dodgers into the postseason with a .396 average, 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 games, along with a .469 on-base percentage and .743 slugging percentage after his July 31 acquisition from Boston. Since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920, only one Dodger (Duke Snider in 1953) had more homers, RBIs and a higher average in a 53-game span.

Ramirez has 527 home runs, 17th on the all-time list, and is 20th on the all-time RBI list with 1,725. His .396 average with the Dodgers was second highest for an in-season acquisition behind Cesar Cedeno, who hit .434 in 28 games in 1985. Ramirez's combined .332 average on the season was third in baseball behind Chipper Jones (.364) and Albert Pujols (.357), he tied for fourth with 37 homers, was sixth with 121 RBIs, second with a .601 slugging percentage and fourth with a .430 on-base percentage.

Although it doesn't count for MVP consideration, Ramirez continued the onslaught in the postseason, going 13-for-25 with four homers and 10 RBIs in eight games. He extended his MLB postseason records with his 28th homer, 12 in the LCS, and has an RBI in nine straight postseason games.

He hit .533 (8-for-15) in the National League Championship Series with two homers and seven walks. He drove in seven of the Dodgers' 20 runs (35 percent), had 16 of their 64 total bases (25 percent), with a .682 on-base percentage and a 1.067 slugging percentage.

Ramirez is one of only six players in MLB history with at least 12 seasons of 30 or more home runs, and the only active player with home runs during the last decade is Alex Rodriguez.

Ken Gurnick and Barry M. Bloom are reporters for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Wow. Wonder if this will be bad blood in the clubhouse.

laprimamirala wrote:

Wow. Wonder if this will be bad blood in the clubhouse.

Well, this is Manny Ramirez we're talking about...

i.e. yes

The Manny saga is over...

Manny Ramirez returns for L.A. encore

GLENDALE &Ariz. – Manny Ramirez, the wandering personality and dynamic hitter who bullied his way out of Boston last summer before leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to the National League championship series, agreed to a deal with the Dodgers on Wednesday for basically the same two-year, $45 million contract that has been on the table for weeks.

More than four months of mostly languid and occasionally rancorous negotiations ended with Ramirez ready to fly from L.A. to Phoenix after he takes a physical, joining teammates who’ve toiled in the desert for weeks and will be glad to have him. Ramirez traveled from his Florida home to L.A. on Tuesday night and Wednesday met with Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who went public last weekend with his exasperation with Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras.

Manager Joe Torre and general manager Ned Colletti also met with Ramirez. A press conference is likely to be scheduled for Thursday.

At the end of a protracted free-agent experience he likely found to be beneath his infamous rising-cost-of-gas expectations, Ramirez agreed to again play left field for the Dodgers, who’d not won a playoff series in 20 years before his arrival last summer. He can opt out after the season, meaning the whole affair could restart in November.

The contract will pay him $25 million in 2009, $20 million in 2010, though a portion of both seasons will be deferred. The sticking point last week was the extent of the deferred money – the Dodgers wanted to spread the cash over five years, while Ramirez wanted his salaries paid closer to the years he earned them. The final terms were a steep fall from the expectations he had when he took on Boras as his agent last year and envisioned a four-year contract in the $100-million range, and reflected the paucity of suitors for Ramirez. Only the Dodgers made an offer of any kind.

The negotiations took a combative turn in the final days, when McCourt, frustrated by what he called Boras’ “disingenuous” tactics, took on the agent in a series of curt press releases. Citing the lack of market for Ramirez and the suffering economy, McCourt declared all offers off the table last weekend and promised to restart negotiations “from scratch.”

Boras responded with a counteroffer Saturday morning that split the difference between the previous proposals:

The Dodgers had offered two years and $45 million, with $25 million deferred over the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons. (Sparking speculation, then, that McCourt was enduring cash flow problems.) The second year of the contract was at Ramirez’s option.

Boras then asked for two years and $45 million, with none of the contract deferred. The compromise, which Ramirez said he instructed Boras to bring to the table, brought the sides to within about $1.5 million of each other when factoring in inflation, less than $1 million after taxes.

Ramirez’s salary will be the second-highest in the major leagues, behind Alex Rodriguez, but only for next season. Not that Ramirez will starve – his career earnings will have exceeded $200 million by the end of the deal. No player has reached that figure, although Rodriguez will hit it this season and Derek Jeter will get there in 2010.

Playing before smitten fans that honored him with faux dreadlocks and rousing cheers, Ramirez batted .396 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs in 53 games for the Dodgers. He then batted .520 and hit four more home runs in the playoffs, carrying the organization to its first NLCS appearance since it won the 1988 World Series. Ramirez finished fourth (behind Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard and Ryan Braun) in NL MVP voting.

Along the way, Ramirez said over and over he was simply happy to be away from the Red Sox and out of Boston, where he’d felt cramped by his stardom, and lobbied publicly for the Dodgers to re-sign him. As a condition of his trade and in preparation for what he assumed would be an active and fruitful free agency, Ramirez had had two option years – valued at $40 million – in his contract voided. He left the Dodgers clubhouse in late October saying, “Gas is up and so am I.”

He hit free agency going on 37, however, and with a feeling among general managers that his defense was better suited for the American League (where he wouldn’t have to play it at all) and simmering front-office concerns about the manner in which he left the Red Sox.

The difficult economic climate didn’t stop rich contracts being awarded to the few who drew the New York Yankees’ attention – CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira were the season’s big winners – but the market never came up to Ramirez’s hopes for a four- or five-year contract at $25 million per. Boras tried to wait out a market he compared to “Aunt Jemima” for its syrupy-ness, but by the end had only the Dodgers and their irritated owner.

What had not materialized for Ramirez – for whatever reason – was interest from Boras’ usual sources. The Yankees jumped in late on Teixeira, spent nearly a half-billion dollars on three players and had nowhere to put Ramirez. Just a year ago, Yankees management had made clear its intention to make the club leaner, younger and more athletic, and going four or five years on Ramirez didn’t fit that plan. The Mets were focused on pitching and fiscal belt-tightening. The Angels lost out on Teixeira and never even dabbled in Ramirez talks, refusing to grow old on two fronts (Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero) in the middle of their lineup, and eventually grabbed Bobby Abreu on the cheap.

On the periphery, no matter how hard Boras tried to drum up interest, the likes of the Blue Jays, White Sox, Cubs, Phillies and Rangers refused to become involved, leaving the Dodgers keenly in and the San Francisco Giants stuck in between. The Giants considered Ramirez a potential attendance draw and a serious offensive force in the mold of Barry Bonds, though without the surliness and occasional federal indictment. They also hoped their presence – sincere or otherwise – might serve to run up the price on the rival Dodgers, much the way the Yankees-Red Sox relationship works from November to spring training.

The only bit of leverage they gained through the process was lately, when the last remaining top-tier free-agent corner outfielders signed, Adam Dunn with the Nationals and Abreu with the Angels. Any notion that the Dodgers could turn to one of them if Ramirez signed elsewhere evaporated.

But with the rest of the Dodgers already playing spring training games at their new Glendale, Ariz., facility, Boras and Ramirez accepted an offer that closely resembled the ones Boras had dismissed as noncompetitive. He said in mid-November he’d soon be, “for the first time, taking serious offers” for Ramirez.

It was generally assumed the Dodgers made payroll room for Ramirez by releasing Andruw Jones, who agreed to defer most of his contract, saving the club more than $13 million in 2009. In reality, that money went toward the club’s successful efforts to re-sign shortstop Rafael Furcal and Casey Blake, and then to chase mid-level starting pitching and, in a late move, add second baseman Orlando Hudson. The budget for Ramirez was entirely Ramirez’s, though the club disagreed with Boras’ assertion Ramirez’s contract – through ticket sales and other revenue draws – would pay for itself. Dodgers home attendance spiked about 4,000 per game after Ramirez arrived, making his presence over a full season worth $12 million to $16 million, assuming he continues to draw the extra fans.

There is little doubt, however, that Ramirez, in three months, became an iconic everyday player in L.A. not seen since Mike Piazza. And by the end of this contract, Ramirez, already a lock Hall of Famer, has said he wants to play long enough to surpass 600 home runs and take aim at 700.

Assuming manager Joe Torre can keep him happy, assuming he is not disillusioned with a contract he might view as beneath him, assuming he doesn’t become disillusioned before the contract expires, Ramirez can push the Dodgers again into the playoffs. He allows the likes of Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Russell Martin to be support players before they are asked to lead a club. He changes a lineup that had long bouts with inconsistency.

He could also kill a young clubhouse, if indeed he were to adopt the same attitude that carried him out of Boston, when the end of his contract drew near and his effort flagged and even his teammates admitted it was time for him to go.

Dodgers will win the NL West

Suspended for 50 games for testing positive for PED...