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Manny's all about the money

Monday, July 28, 2008

Everyone in the clubhouse knows the names. Joba Chamberlain (twice), Felix Hernandez (twice), Edinson Volquez, Justin Verlander -- pitchers that Manny Ramirez didn't feel quite right to face, be it a knee, a hamstring, his contract or the pitcher's velocity, and those he left for someone else in the Red Sox "family" to face.

Everyone knows what this latest soap opera is about. It's about Manny being only about Manny -- not the team that will have paid him $168 million when this season's over, not "teammates" he leaves to answer for him, not winning or any competitive motivation. No. Manny being Manny means Manny wanting money. He doesn't want to wait for the Red Sox to exercise the right he gave them for the first $168M, the right to decide at the end of the season whether to pick up his option for 2009 at $20M. The Red Sox fulfilled their end of the contract; now he doesn't want to fulfill his obligation, the same way he watched his teammates fade in 2006. He knows that this winter -- when he's 36, turning 37 next May -- he has a better chance of scoring the four-year, $100M deal he has told teammates he can get than he will after the 2010 season, when he'll be 38 turning 39. He doesn't want to have to sweat for two years at a measly $20M, and everyone knows that he couldn't care less how he gets that $100M, even if it means sitting out and leaving "family" fighting it out without him. Manny is right. The Red Sox are tired of him. They are not going to pick up the option for 2009 and spend one more year as his prisoner. What he wants is to go to another team, on which he can put up big numbers for two months and either get that new contract, or go out on the market. Rationally, one would think he could do that in Boston -- first help the Red Sox into the postseason, then hit the market. But that assumes rationality is in play. Scott Boras intervened and helped the fine/anger-management solution after Ramirez shoved traveling secretary Jack McCormick. And Boras right now is trying to help Manny understand that it is in his best interest to, in Boras' words, "fulfill his current obligation," and put up the free-agent numbers here in Boston, where he has David Ortiz to take the heat Manny ignores, with five All-Stars in the lineup around him. Oh, we all hear the analysis of how much the Red Sox need him. That is, if he doesn't bag it, which he was willing to do until John Henry and Tom Werner joined with Theo Epstein and Terry Francona on Friday, enraged at him for skipping Chamberlain, and forced him to take an MRI for the knee affliction known as Felix-Joba-itis. But over the weekend, when they had one of those rare important series, with the Yankees charging on the outside, Red Sox management and players got a taste of what the series, the pennant and winning mean to him. Manny is right: Enough is enough. But management has to worry that if he gets booed he'll quit. Or that if Manny is criticized, he'll sit. They are trying to get other teams interested. In the clubhouse, they talk about maybe getting Pat Burrell from the Phillies and reuniting Manny with Charlie Manuel. The Sox have let teams know they'll take care of Ramirez's remaining money if they'll provide young talent, which, considering what Manny can do for the Mets or Phillies or Dodgers, is a nice free-home demonstration; he won't have had time to "tire" of owners who pay him as much as the entire Florida Marlins team. Ortiz, Mike Lowell, Alex Cora and other players are trying to help Manny focus and play in Boston; he works out with Lowell and Cora regularly, and some days he listens as they try to get him to connect the dots between the concepts of performance and pay. Maybe it'll work, and even if they do not win the World Series, they can rationalize that what they got for eight years and $168M was a pair of world championships and years of sellouts. They can rationalize that Manny essentially was The Fens' version of "Damn Yankees," and they'd probably say it was worth it to sell their souls to end that 86-year thing. But the interest rate on those payments of $20M and their souls is getting a tad steep. Then the Red Sox move on and try to find another left-field bat. In the meantime, they may have to spend the rest of the year wondering if Manny Ramirez cares to play, whether the opposing pitcher is on his wish list. Manny clearly has decided that he has already fulfilled his obligation to the first eight-year contract, and wants the next $100M right now. In the real world, this is a form of blackmail. In the clubhouse, where Francona and his teammates have allowed him to live by his own rules knowing that his production is Cooperstown material, many are exhausted by his disdain for the game, for winning and for any form of authority. What Henry, Werner and Larry Lucchino should do is call a press conference and announce extensions for Francona and Epstein for all they have had to swallow because Manny Ramirez can hit. Then they can watch and see if a 36-year-old DH whose production in 2007 and 2008 has fallen below his 1998-2006 levels will go out and prove he's worth four years and $100M and ride off into the sunset snubbing his nose at the people who paid him $168M. If he doesn't understand that these two months are vital to his next $100M, fine. If there isn't a reasonable trade to be made, fine. After years of his public defenders rationalizing that the Red Sox can't win without him, if they can't win with him, so be it. At least the Red Sox can feel clean and sober. A group of Red Sox watched the Yankees take early batting practice Friday, and they complimented the way Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon show up every day. "Say what you want about A-Rod," said one, "but he plays every day and he plays his behind off." Rodriguez opted out of his contract after an MVP season. What Ramirez is doing is trying to opt out in the middle of his contract during the season. What the Red Sox hope is that he listens to Boras and his teammates and fulfills the obligation he signed. And then there's a train, either way, leaving every day. And buyer beware of a man who chooses to be judged by numbers and salary, with no regard for character or integrity.