Bill Ladson of MLB.com has been told by a baseball source that reports of the Nationals’ interest in Manny Ramirez are false.
Ladson notes two fairly obvious reasons why Manny isn’t a good fit in D.C.:
- The Nationals are overloaded with right-handed hitting outfielders. They already have righties Josh Willingham, Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes, Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Pena under contract for ’08.
- And the obvious one: His age. Ramirez is 36. The Nats won a league-low 59 games last season and need to build for the long-term before they go signing old, high-priced free agents with big egos.
- Let’s not forget Jim Bowden’s November 12th quote: We are not pursuing Manny Ramirez."
