Manny Ramirez, Dodgers Finally Reach Deal
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You know old saying; “the third time is the charm!” It apparently turned out that way for slugger Manny Ramirez and the L.A. Dodgers who failed in two previous attempts to reach contractual agreements.
AP Sports Writer Beth Harris outlines background and the terms of the deal for Yahoo sports:
Manny Ramirez and the Dodgers officially agreed Wednesday on a $45 million, two-year contract that keeps him with the NL West champions. The slugger can void the second season of the deal and again become a free agent.
“We got a great meeting,” Ramirez told KCAL-TV as he emerged from a mandatory physical in suburban Inglewood. “I’m happy to be here. We got some unfinished business, and that’s why I’m here.”
The Dodgers confirmed the deal shortly after Ramirez passed the physical. He is set to meet with the media Thursday morning in Phoenix.
Ramirez gets $10 million this year, and $15 million in deferred money with no interest, payable in $5 million installments each Jan. 15 from 2010 through 2012. If it winds up as a two-year deal, he gets $10 million each season, with three payments of $8,333,333 each Jan. 15 from 2011-13.
Ramirez has until November to decide whether to void the second season.
Los Angeles’ original offer was for $45 million in guaranteed money, including a $4 million buyout of a 2011 option, and gave the Dodgers the ability to maintain control of Ramirez over three years. It also did not include the no-trade provision.
Ramirez will make a $1 million commitment to the Dodgers Dream Foundation as part of the deal.
Ramirez helped Los Angeles win the division by hitting .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 regular-season games. In the playoffs, he batted .520 with four homers, 10 RBIs, nine runs and 11 walks in eight games.
“We all wanted the same thing and that’s what was apparent to me,” said Torre, who left spring training in Arizona with Colletti to travel to Malibu.
“After last year and the time he spent with us, we knew we wanted him back. It was just a matter of finding that common ground,” Torre said.
Los Angeles announced last week that Ramirez declined its latest offer, a $25 million, one-year contract with a $20 million player option for 2010. That deal would have included deferred payments of $10 million each in 2011 and 2012 and $5 million in 2013.
Boras countered with a proposal that included no deferred money, leaving the sides about $3 million apart in present-day value.
At the time the Dodgers acquired him from Boston, Ramirez’s contract was amended to eliminate the $20 million team options it included for 2009 and 2010. The new agreement leaves him with a small increase but likely fell short of what Ramirez hoped to gain on the free-agent market.
Colletti initially tried to re-sign Ramirez, offering a two-year, $45 million deal with a buyout or a club option that was ignored by Boras and later withdrawn by the team.
Colletti initially tried to re-sign Ramirez, offering a two-year, $45 million deal with a buyout or a club option that was ignored by Boras and later withdrawn by the team.
The Dodgers’ second attempt involved salary arbitration in December, but Ramirez said no to that, too.Ramirez was MVP of the 2004 World Series—Boston’s first championship since 1918—and helped the Red Sox to another title in 2007. But he often failed to run hard to first base on grounders and repeatedly said he didn’t want to play for Boston, which lured him from Cleveland after the 2000 season with a $160 million, eight-year contract.
Ramirez, despite his career 527 homers, nearly 2,400 hits, 1,725 RBIs, career .314 BA, and despite what he brought the Dodgers in their 2008 drive for the NL West Division title, has been known in recent years, during his 7 1/2 years with Boston, for a lack of hustle both running the bases and patrolling leftfield.
Yahoo sports’ Jeff Passan adds these thoughts on Ramirez;
No matter what Ramirez did in the season’s final two months – and, mercy, was it ever brilliant… – nothing diminishes his fundamental truth. Ramirez could care less about the team for which he plays so long as it dumps the most money into his bank account.
To so blithely reward a mercenary is irresponsible of the Dodgers and sends the wrong message. Namely, success has a two-pronged price: the $45 million the Dodgers agreed Wednesday to pay Ramirez over two years and the knowledge that they ultimately will kowtow if prodded the right way.
…The question becomes whether Ramirez will quit on the Dodgers the same way he did Boston last season. And before Ramirez loyalists quibble over the word “quit” by pointing to his numbers, may we remember: Ramirez could hit .300 blindfolded and slug home runs with a 2×4. The surer sign of Ramirez’s effort came when he started mimicking a tortoise on his way to first base, or swinging through three Mariano Rivera pitches like he was late for a dinner date, or claiming his knee was injured, then forgetting at the medical examination which one, exactly, hurt.
Yes, that is the man on whom the Dodgers are staking their season.
In short, the Dodgers can have him, the Ramirez diamond and the Ramirez curse; its a Blessing that he’s not with my Phillies!
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