Last week, ESPN's Buster Olney opined that a team interested in Manny Ramirez this offseason should present him with an incentive-laden contract to ensure that he will maintain his focus. Olney suggests a base salary of $800K to $1MM with incentives based on plate appearances.
While major league GMs likely wouldn't object to such a deal, one has to imagine that Ramirez's agent, Scott Boras, would. As Tim Dierkes pointed out, last winter Boras was able to land $3.3MM and $2MM guarantees for Xavier Nady and Alex Cora, respectively. After coming off of a two-year, $45MM deal, it's probable that Ramirez can fetch a higher guaranteed salary on the open market.
However, Ramirez has now left two baseball towns on a sour note twice in recent years. Ramirez's struggles in the outfield and advanced age also mean that he's likely to remain in the American League as a designated hitter. Ramirez, who has a career UZR/150 of -20.0 in the outfield, told Dodgers skipper Joe Torre that he feels that he belongs in the AL before his departure to Chicago. In essence, this probably cuts the slugger's list of prospective suitors in half; minus one if you want to nix Boston from the group.
While Olney's idea was a suggestion and not necessarily a prediction, it does raise the question of whether Ramirez might be forced to take on that type of deal. Rather than $1MM, we'll set the over/under a little bit higher.
Will Ramirez end up taking a one-year deal with a base of less than $3MM?
Click here to take the poll, and here to view the results.
probably like 5.5m+4.5m incentives
Who cares, Lars Anderson is making his debut today against the Rays, but then again who cares he sucked this year
3 million!? Is that a joke? I wouldn’t object if my GM gave him 10 million, the guy is still an elite hitter, multiple teams aren’t stupid enough to pass on him for anything under 8 million guaranteed.
Even in a “bad” year, Manny was worth over 1 WAR in L.A.. He’ll easily get over $3 million.
I definitely don’t think that manram would accept a base salary of less than 3MM. First off, I suspect that he’d be put off for playing for such a little base salary (kind of how Pedro was/is). Second, he is still relavent in baseball news and can still be marketable (at least until he wears those fans down too). Also, he has still be a productive hitter. His defense is terrible and everybody already knows that.
But teams looking to sign manny are focused on his bat. And even the past 2 shortened seasons for him (suspension & injuries) whenever he is on the field he has hit the ball. I could see him hitting 25 hr’s with around a .290 batting average as a DH. He is aging, but the transition from OF to fulltime DH would take some wear and tear off and help prevent these little injuries he’s gotten this season.
There could potentially be a handful of AL teams with at least some level of interest in having manny being manny being in their clubhouse next season.
He might. He will still have deferred money coming in from LA.
You mean white sox. Remember the waiver claim.
Yup I realized after I posted but decided, ehh same difference
Most of the deferred salary is still coming from L.A.
For the next 4 years! Any team that signs Manny better be ready for him to miss Spring Training because he needs to make sure the steroids are gone from his system and the only way he can do that is to show up late. Also, be ready for him to miss playing time because of elusive injuries that are undetectable by modern medicine, and that fact that Manny “forgets” where the injury is.
I wouldn’t give the clown $3, never mind $3M.
I think he can get more than $3M but I doubt he gets more than 1 year.
I’d rather give 3M to Jason Varitek than ramirez. at least you know Varitek will show up, play if not REALLY injured and not forget which body part is hurt in the 1st place.
You gotta be kidding right?
On topic,As, Rays, White Sox, Texas would give Ramirez at least 7mm.
To icedrake’s point above, I think he gets more than $3 mil. The real question is who will offer him more than 1 year guaranteed?
Jays should give him 7 mill guaranteed with 3 mill in incentives, worst case scenario sell him at deadline. Move lind to first tell overbay peace. Escobar, Bautista, Manny, Lind, wells, hill, snider, JPA, 3rd base FA or outfield FA ship Bau to third… that lineup is nasty toss in 1-4 starting pitching set… you could easily spend 25 mill on a 3rd basemen and another starter on top of what you give manny
Yeah bring the cancer in the room with a bunch of young players. Hell no. Forget the fact Jays wouldn’t want Ramirez but why would Ramirez come here? He probably wants another chance to win a ring.
I wonder how many Dodger fans think Manny left LA on a “sour note.”
I do. On Dodger message boards I’d estimate about 60-70% feel that way. Casual fans probably don’t.
I guess that’s supposed to make me a “causal fan.” A casual fan with a season ticket.
Sheesh.
Um, no, that would make you part of the 30-40% that don’t feel that way. Sheesh.
I was referring to casual fans separately – as they’re unlikely to spend their time on Dodger message boards.
The implication was clear enough. Dodger fans have lots of reasons to feel sour after this wasted year, not the least of which was the never-ending Frank and Jamie show and how that was constantly played up as the cause for everything happening on the field. Why any Dodger fan, casual or otherwise, would be sour about Manny’s departure is a mystery to me when it was so obvious after three trips to the DL that he could no longer play a position and was going to be leaving sooner rather than later. If you’re going to tell me that it was because of one stinking at-bat then I’m going to tell you that too many fans are inventing reasons to be unhappy and maybe are in need of a little perspective.
No sir, my feelings have nothing to do with the last at-bat. At all. They are much more related to the 50-game suspension and the reasons behind it, and the clear drop in performance (and health) afterward. He clearly rode a PED-enhanced ’08 performance into a contract much larger than he deserved, which to me borders on fraud. The Dodgers could’ve signed Adam Dunn at half the cost for 2009-2010, but Manny’s ’08 performance pretty much forced their hand…
Just to be clear, the line in the story that got my goat was he “left on a sour note.” This suggests that he chose to be on the DL, slacked, caused dissension in the clubhouse, or some such offense of which he was accused elsewhere. None of that happened in LA, and to imply otherwise is just plain wrong. Whether PEDs had anything to do with his injuries, we’ll never know, only that he had them, and he was never better than an average fielder or baserunner even in his prime. The suspension (which nobody excuses) was last year. I think we’ve seen this year what the Dodger lineup would have looked like last year without Manny in it.
Manny will get a $10M (or more) offer from numerous interested teams, such as Oakland, LA Angels, White Sox, Tampa Rays, Detroit, and, perhaps long shot of the millennium – Boston.
$10 million guaranteed? I don’t think so. He could make 10 million or more, but there are have to be incentives involved.
4 or 5 million base salary + 4 or 5 million in incentives is what I predict.
He is coming off 2 bad years and he quit on 2 teams. I don’t see him getting much money.
He quit on the Dodgers? And when was that, exactly?
With the general quality of DHs on AL teams (hello, Mark Kotsay) I think that Manny is worth 5-8m just as a DH. He is to lazy to play defense and the PED usage is a red flag, but a one year deal would minimize risk for sure, and he has potential to be the best DH in the AL.
There are some funny posts in this thread.
Guy can’t play defense, which almost halves his value. His batting average is there and the OBP is OK, but his power’s clearly in decline and he’s racking up injuries. Add in the fact that he’s left two organizations on a sour note and I can’t comprehend why he’d get any more that $5 million guaranteed, and that might be pushing it. Throw in incentives and we’ll see, but I can’t see anyone going nuts for him.
It might be more of whether or not he’ll get that contract
It might be more of whether or not he’ll get that contract
What’s Manny’s contract worth? Not much past one-year based on incentives. Forget even discussing outfield. His fire is gone at the plate and really has been more and more ever since he got busted for drugs. He can still hit, but as he hits 39, teams are going to find he’s not in Jim Thome condition and will work best in a pinch with a runner. I don’t think Manny will want to be a bench player either.Anybody with pop can play DH, put that $10 million towards a decent outfielder and move over the Jason Giambi. Besides. there’s too many free agent options below that number to be worth the gamble on his aging knees.
What’s Manny’s contract worth? Not much past one-year based on incentives. Forget even discussing outfield. His fire is gone at the plate and really has been more and more ever since he got busted for drugs. He can still hit, but as he hits 39, teams are going to find he’s not in Jim Thome condition and will work best in a pinch with a runner. I don’t think Manny will want to be a bench player either.Anybody with pop can play DH, put that $10 million towards a decent outfielder and move over the Jason Giambi. Besides. there’s too many free agent options below that number to be worth the gamble on his aging knees.