Much Ado About Manny

Buster Olney refers to Manny Ramirez’s commitment thusly:

"Three years and $42 million because in the end, Ramirez, who has a full no-trade clause in his contract, will probably want a year added to the end of his current deal to make this happen. And the Red Sox will probably eat some of his salary — but not nearly as much as would have been required to make a trade happen even two months ago."

A host of teams would not balk at that relatively short-term commitment.  And you can be damn sure Manny would far exceed 3/42 on the open market.  What’s it gonna take?

Olney mentions Lastings Milledge and Aaron Heilman from the Mets.  I think the Mets would jump on that one.  Their NL East rival, the Phillies, will take a pass apparently.

Buster also threw out the Cubs and Astros as possibilities.  The Cubs have promising young players like Donald Veal, Felix Pie, Carlos Marmol, and Sean Gallagher to offer.  The Astros might offer players such as Jason Hirsh, Brad Lidge, Chris Burke, Luke Scott, or Willy Taveras.  Certainly seems like Houston could offer a better package.

I doubt they’re interested, but could you imagine Manny on the White Sox?