Late Innings

I read a piece this weekend in the NY Daily News, mainly about Manny Ramirez asking for a six year deal this coming Winter. I know that his services will be in demand this winter, especially after a .332, 37 HR campaign, however hopefully teams won’t go overboard for him.

If I did my math correctly and if Manny gets that six year deal he wants, he’ll be 43 at the end of the contract. In order for him to make out ahead, he’ll need to recoup at least 20MM a year for the next two years, the money that Boston was going to pay him in options if he had just remained quiet. The Dodgers agreed to drop these two options, and he’ll be a free agent on November 15th. The Dodgers will most likely offer him arbitration as well, especially since he’s a Type A free agent (or will most likely be so.) They wouldn’t mind having him back on a one year deal.

The arbitration bit will hurt Manny, since many teams who go after Ramirez won’t want to surrender the draft picks. Still an ideal situation is that we’ll have some more MLB collusion, that is the same flavor that we had back when Barry Bonds wasn’t being tendered a contract. I’d love to see Manny simply just get one year contracts, and have to watch him re-work his worth each year. However I don’t see that happening. Manny should get at least three years this year, and one team might go out on a limb and give him four.

Prediction: three years, 57MM. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)