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LA doesn't close door on Manny
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
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Two offers and two rejections later, the Dodgers still want to bring back Manny Ramirez. But they're not prepared to wait indefinitely.
"We still have interest in signing Manny," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told ESPN.com on Tuesday, in the wake of Ramirez giving a thumbs down to the one-year, $25 million offer the team made Monday.
"Right now we don't have a deadline," Colletti went on, "but that doesn't mean we're not going to have a deadline. These situations can change in an instant, and anybody can change them in an instant."
So far, the Dodgers haven't done much more than maintain regular contact with the agents for outfielders Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu, who represent their Plan B attack if they can't re-sign Ramirez. But as the clock ticks and spring training draws closer, they may need to rethink that strategy.
They clearly intended their one-year offer to be a signal to Ramirez that they want him back, and they're prepared to make him the second-highest paid player in baseball this year, behind only Alex Rodriguez.
But in rejecting that offer, Ramirez and agent Scott Boras sent signals of their own -- that they're still looking for four to five years, at $25 million a year, and they believe they have other teams willing to pay that.
Boras and the Dodgers have haggled since November over Ramirez's worth, but have been hung up mostly because they disagree on the length of the contract. So far, no team has shown any public willingness to sign Ramirez to a deal that rich that would take him through age 40. And no other team would seem to have $25 million or more sitting around in its checking account even for one year.
Judged only by the average annual value of the contract, the one-year deal the Dodgers offered would have made Ramirez the highest-paid outfielder in baseball history, and also would have been a step up from the Dodgers' previous offer.
On Election Day, the club offered Ramirez $15 million for the 2009 season, $22.5 million in 2010 and a $7.5 million buyout or $22.5 million club option for 2011. So that contract would have maxed out at $60 million over three years if the Dodgers picked up the option.
However, Boras and Ramirez didn't respond to that offer, later rejected the Dodgers' offer of arbitration and now have turned down a one-year deal. So even though there have been no indications that Ramirez has any other serious bidders, the rejection of this latest offer suggests that their quest for that four- or five-year contract hasn't changed.
Nevertheless, the only other club that has publicly admitted interest in Ramirez -- the San Francisco Giants -- also prefers a one-year deal. And given that the Giants' payroll is already in the neighborhood of $90 million, the highest in the history of the franchise, it's difficult to imagine they would be willing to offer Ramirez more than $25 million.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels and New York Mets have all indicated in recent days that they're not interested. So where Ramirez -- and the Dodgers -- go from here is as unclear as ever.
Jayson Stark is a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com.
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
Archive
Two offers and two rejections later, the Dodgers still want to bring back Manny Ramirez. But they're not prepared to wait indefinitely.
"We still have interest in signing Manny," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti told ESPN.com on Tuesday, in the wake of Ramirez giving a thumbs down to the one-year, $25 million offer the team made Monday.
"Right now we don't have a deadline," Colletti went on, "but that doesn't mean we're not going to have a deadline. These situations can change in an instant, and anybody can change them in an instant."
So far, the Dodgers haven't done much more than maintain regular contact with the agents for outfielders Adam Dunn and Bobby Abreu, who represent their Plan B attack if they can't re-sign Ramirez. But as the clock ticks and spring training draws closer, they may need to rethink that strategy.
They clearly intended their one-year offer to be a signal to Ramirez that they want him back, and they're prepared to make him the second-highest paid player in baseball this year, behind only Alex Rodriguez.
But in rejecting that offer, Ramirez and agent Scott Boras sent signals of their own -- that they're still looking for four to five years, at $25 million a year, and they believe they have other teams willing to pay that.
Boras and the Dodgers have haggled since November over Ramirez's worth, but have been hung up mostly because they disagree on the length of the contract. So far, no team has shown any public willingness to sign Ramirez to a deal that rich that would take him through age 40. And no other team would seem to have $25 million or more sitting around in its checking account even for one year.
Judged only by the average annual value of the contract, the one-year deal the Dodgers offered would have made Ramirez the highest-paid outfielder in baseball history, and also would have been a step up from the Dodgers' previous offer.
On Election Day, the club offered Ramirez $15 million for the 2009 season, $22.5 million in 2010 and a $7.5 million buyout or $22.5 million club option for 2011. So that contract would have maxed out at $60 million over three years if the Dodgers picked up the option.
However, Boras and Ramirez didn't respond to that offer, later rejected the Dodgers' offer of arbitration and now have turned down a one-year deal. So even though there have been no indications that Ramirez has any other serious bidders, the rejection of this latest offer suggests that their quest for that four- or five-year contract hasn't changed.
Nevertheless, the only other club that has publicly admitted interest in Ramirez -- the San Francisco Giants -- also prefers a one-year deal. And given that the Giants' payroll is already in the neighborhood of $90 million, the highest in the history of the franchise, it's difficult to imagine they would be willing to offer Ramirez more than $25 million.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels and New York Mets have all indicated in recent days that they're not interested. So where Ramirez -- and the Dodgers -- go from here is as unclear as ever.
Jayson Stark is a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com.
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