Manny Looking For Five Years, $85 Million?

Mets are gonna have to sign him, and trade Church when Fernando Martinez is ready to come up.

The Mets would be wasting their money just let everyone waste their money on Manny this year and wait for Holliday or Bay next year. Bay and Holliday are more budget friendly and are not risks of being distractions.

Honestly the Mets need some serious bullpen help hitting was not the reason they didn't make the playoffs.

We rarely hear about it, but I always wonder if a team will frontload a contract making a player like Manny expendable in the future. This only makes sense for a team that can afford the steep addition to the payroll in the first year.

For example:
Year 1: $25 million
Year 2: $22.5 million
Year 3: $17.5 million
Year 4: $12.5 million
Year 5: $7.5 million

This allows a team the flexibility to trade the player if he produces, but the team is no longer a competitor in the later years. It also allows flexibility for future free agents, etc. I know it seems odd, and maybe ridiculous to pay that much, but it makes sense if the payroll allows it, and in the case of Manny it would keep him motivated early, and if he acts up allow for an easier exit route.

Five years? HORRID. Idea.

3 year deal with vesting option for year 4 and club option for year 5 is the most I'd do.

And when I say dump Matsui I mean weight until after he has surgery and most of the big names are gone off the FA board and trade him and $$$$$ for a solid mid-level position player and maybe a bad contract. I think he's owed about 12 million. I would eat about 7 million of that. Maybe a team like the A's, Indians, Whitesox, Twins might need a DH 1 year rental.

wow...i meant wait.

HA!

I am with most of you. I don't see a 5 yr. deal at any price for Manny. Way too risky! I would think even the dumb owners would agree on that one. Then again...

...Barry Zito got 7 years.

Finishing your sentence, studio179

i think the dodgers bite at 3/51m, with a option for yr 4. with that, the production is going to stay, its fricken manny after all. lets break it down, nomar, kent, penny, lowe=42m. they get manny 17m/yr, cc at 22m/yr, use the 3m left to start blakes contract. with furcal making 15m, but theyll try to sign him at about 12. therefore, the other 3+ the money from exiting free agents, and u have furcal, manny, cc, and blake signed. if they can raise payroll, maybe resign lowe...

lakersdodgersyankees4life,
i think your right and they should give blake furcal and lowe manny and cc the money they want and try to get discount from furcal

they shoudl increase payroll because after next year they do have andruw"omg sucks"jones and jason"good 4 nothing" schmit coming of the books that liek 40 million and that will put the payroll back at what they would like it to be

Uhm, this might actually be a bargain if he turned 35 in May, but he turns 37...

DOB: 05/30/1972

"Uhm, this might actually be a bargain if he turned 35 in May, but he turns 37...

DOB: 05/30/1972"

good point. give him 3 years, no more.

Manny can do better than 5 years.

"Honestly the Mets need some serious bullpen help hitting was not the reason they didn't make the playoffs."

Its a big, big part of it my friend. It has been an issue since 2006, and was their ultimate downfall in 2006. Beltran seems like the only guy capable of getting big hits. He was huge in 06, huge down the stretch in 07, and swinging a good stick in 08 in the final couple weeks. People seem to only remember him for striking out against Wainwright, but ignore the fact that he went .296/.387/.667 with 3 homeruns in that series. Beltran, and to an extent Delgado played well down the stretch, but Reyes, Wright, Church, Easley, Castro, these guys all struggled to hit down the stretch, especially in big spots. Ramon Martinez was getting our biggest hits for Christ's sake. How about offering Manny 2/60? Seems less risky then 5/85 and he could re-up again if he posts two good seasons. Fixing the Mets offense seems relatively simple in theory. They have gotten great production out of CF, and great production out of SS, two places usually very hard to get production out of. A top 5 leadoff hitter hitter and a legit middle of the order guy in the SS and CF spots. Okay. Middle of the order 1B on the decline, yet a bargain for his price tag. Will give you atleast an 800 OPS (unless he drops off significantly from this year, funny we all wanted him cut. What a turn around), and he could give you a 900 OPS if he has a strong year. Great production out of 3B. You will probably get a .260/.340/.430 type of line from your catcher between Schneider and Castro, getting mostly defense from Brian and mostly offense from Ramon. Acceptable. Your big problems are the two corner OF spots, specifically LF if Ryan Church can rebound from his concussions. Lets take a look around the playoff teams at their LF's.

Ryan Braun
Alfonso Soriano
Manny Ramirez
Pat Burrell
Jason Bay
Carlos Quentin (before he went down)
Carl Crawford
Garret Anderson/Juan Rivera

With the exception of TB and LAA, all of these teams have sluggers in LF, and Carl Crawford and Garret Anderson are still productive hitters in their own right. Garret isn't what he once was, but can handle the stick, and Crawford's a top of the order threat. The mets have a luxury in that they get great production from SS and CF, and even 3B. LF is a notoriously easy position to find production. You can just take any slugger and stick them in LF. So sign Manny, forget about who is playing 2B, just get a veteran who can turn a DP and handle the stick a little bit. Go get Mark Loretta, or Mark Grudz, or trade for some other cheap piece like Keppinger or Fontenot or one of the LAA 2B or whoever, let Ramon Martinez try out for 2B. No point in spending 40 million on Orlando Hudson, he is a nice piece but not a game changer. See if Murphy can play any type of defense at 2B, and if he can hit, live with his de. He seems like a ridiculously hard worker so if it is at all possible for him to become a good fielder I expect him to improve with time and experience. Sure up the bullpen without throwing 7 figures at anybody. Fill in the blanks in the rotation. Go to war in 2009.

at 5 years, only a AL team could possiblly sign him (unless the GM is insane)

"Funny thing is Boston would certainly have picked up his $20M/yr options for the next 2 years"

I still say that was Boras manipulating Manny and it's far from silly to say that. Boston picks up Manny's option years, Boras doesn't get a dime, he wasn't Manny's agent then. Manny signs somewhere else, Boras gets his commission. Ultimately, the Boras gamble will have worked. Some team will see Manny's production with the Dodgers and salivate. You can mark it down to a weak division, weaker league, Manny finally playing 100%, whatever. But at 37 it's been very evident over the last couple of years he's not the 30 year old Manny and any contract beyond 2 years will likely cause huge diminishing returns. Including Bonds, how many legitimate 40 year old power hitters have there been.

'...Barry Zito got 7 years.'

He did. He is also a goof. The difference is I don't think Barry quits on the team, at least not on purpose. That word has long been out on Manny and should make some owners hesitate a bit. Although being a pitcher, Zito is much more of a risk than an everyday player like Manny. I do see your point though. Dumb moves are often made. If he gets 4 or 5 years, it will be a dumb move by that team.

Completely unrealistic idea....

The Pirates offer Manny something like 5/70 with bonuses somewhere in the range of 2-3 million a year for certain performance(bat avg, HRs, and such)

then the Pirates send Mclouth to the Yanks for Cano and cash

then the Pirates trade sanchez for mid-level prospect to compensate some cash in manny deal

this would hardly increase payroll from last year where we paid matt morris 10+ million and our lineup could look something like :

McCutcheon CF
Cano 2B
Doumit C
Ramirez RF
Ad. Laroche 1B
Moss LF
An. Laroche 3B
Wilson SS
Pitcher

Not gonna happen, but believe that if ownership did this, it would be an interesting team to watch

start_wearing_purple

I disagree with you for one reason that manny says himself

MANNY IS NOT A POWER HITTER. manny is a hitter. he just happens to flash quite a bit of power. manny doesn't try to swing for the fence. he puts his body into it and drives the ball. he's in great shape. the sox took great care of him. I think any team that signs him for 3-4 years will not be disappointed. Although 5 is a lil excessive, but if he signs for 5/70MM or soemthing like that then thats like a delgado contract for manny. i'd take it.

bjsguess:

Your motivation comment doesn't make sense. Manny had an eight year contract with Boston, and hit .315/.415/.595 and won two World Series over that period.

Has anyone noticed that LA fans have fallen in love with Manny? I mean seriously, we worship the guy. I was watching game 2 of the NLDS, and manny struck out 2 times to start the game against Zambrano, and my former baseball coach, and he said the strike outs were fine, because manny would come up later and do something big.

Sure enough, Manny hits a monster blast in his next at bat.

My point being, every at bat doesnt have to be a big homerun or an rbi double, he can strike out or fly out or pop out and we wont boo him for it, he is still a great player and will probly get a big hit later in the game.

If i were manny, i would stay in LA where fans treat him right, rather than getting mad for quirky things he does.

Manny for President!

The Juice, thats a great idea if you sign a superstar just in case they turn out to not be super

I get where you are coming from, but Manny was your best hitter in July (june as well), so all you really have are a couple of games where he didnt really do anything, and say he had not been traded, he probably would have picked it back up from those 2 games where he slowed it down, and been the same manny you have had for the better part of a decade.

Im hoping for another LA-BOS championship series, hopefully with a different outcome than the last one