Late Innings

…does that mean he’ll be signing soon? The last time I did this, Jason Varitek then signed his one year, 5MM deal. In either case, the other Scott Boras client apparently got another offer from the Dodgers this afternoon:

From what I understand, though, there WON’T be a deal tonight. The offer is a two-year, $45 million contract, with salaries of $25 million the first year and $20 million the second, but the second year is a PLAYER option so Manny can walk away if he believes he can get more on the open market next winter. If he is injured during the first season, the second year becomes guaranteed. Boras and Co. have taken it under advisement, and the club is expecting a response early tomorrow.

Essentially they combined the one year, 25MM offer the team made a month back and added a player option onto it (for 20MM), pushing this puppy to 45MM (potentially) over two years. As you recall, Ned Colletti made the exact same offer back in November. In other words, I’m seeing little deviation in the offers to Man Ram.

If Boras maintains his “hold down this fort approach", this permutation of offer #1 with offer #2 will be handled the same way as the prior ones were: in front of a firing squad. In all fairness, Manny is an idiot for leaving this money on the table. He will be paid more during the two years with the Dodgers than he would had he shut up in Boston and played out the final two option years (each at 20MM a piece, assuming they were vested of course.) But then again, as we’ve been witnessing all off season, this is just Manny being Manny.