I love the way the Dodgers are trying to play this whole Manny Ramirez free agent negotiation. It’s going down exactly as I expected. Anyone who follows the Dodgers knows that Frank McCourt can’t afford to pay Manny the type of money he wants and probably deserves. At the same time, Manny is ridiculously popular with the fan base and McCourt can’t afford to have the fans be disappointed when the team doesn’t re-sign Man-Ram. So what do the Dodgers do? Exactly what they did Wednesday night.
In case you missed it, GM Ned Colletti made it abundantly clear to the free world that the Dodgers made Manny a contract offer. They used buzz phrases like “highest paid in franchise history” and “2nd highest annual salary” to sell the fans on their efforts. The Dodgers are trying to make it known to every reporter and fan that they are putting their best foot forward. They’re trying to position themselves as the good guys and Manny/Scott Boras as the bad guys when Manny goes to accept a longer-term deal worth more guaranteed money.
I’m guessing the Dodgers are offering two years, probably no more than three, at around $25 million or more per season. That’s fine for them because it’s short term and they can’t be hurt too much if Manny’s skills or interest start to decline. Everyone knows Manny won’t accept that; if he was willing to take a short-term deal, he could have stuck with the Red Sox and the guaranteed $40 million he was set to make with them over the next two seasons. He’s in it for the long-term guaranteed money — his one last chance to cash in. He’s probably going to get a four-year $100 million deal from some team. When Manny goes to take that deal, the Dodgers — McCourt, and Colletti — can say “We offered to make him the highest paid player … blah blah blah” and be absolved. They can say it’s not their fault that Manny and Boras are greedy. Meanwhile, I got headlines all over swallowing the Dodgers bait. Even Steve Levy on ESPN took the line and said “Colletti was refreshingly honest about the bid …” yeah, no crap, of course he’s being honest — he has a P.R. game to play. And so far the Dodgers are winning that war … if you don’t see the big picture.
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More Hot Stories at larrybrownsports.comThis entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Right on, LB. The Dodgers are playing Steve Levy and the rest of the media like a Stradivarius.
As a Dodger fan this saddens me, but we all knew that this was the most likely scenario. They make an offer that while good, Manny will most likely not accept, and then tell the media that they did what they could.
It is all very transparent and at the end of the day most Dodger fans will see that they really did not try their best to re-sign Manny.
All I can say is they better get CC Sabathia if they let Manny walk.
If the Dodgers do step up to the plate and prove me wrong, I promise to acknowledge my mistake in a post. I’m pretty convinced they’re not stepping up to the plate. And there’s no way they give CC the type of money he’s looking for, either. Maybe re-sign Blake and Furcal but I don’t see them signing any big hitters. All the good ones out there are corner outfielders and that’s not really a team need.
Apparently Furcal wants 4 years and they are naturally reluctant beacuase of his back. Of course Furcal, suprise suprise, is a Boras client. The only reason I even mentioned CC is because I heard that its basically down to the Angels and the Dodgers for him, just what I heard nothing concreate.
I think they will work out a deal with Furcal eventually, but your guess is as good as mine with everything else.