So what now Manny … Mets? Giants? Dodgers?
Spring training begins in less than two weeks, and Manny Ramirez remains a man without a team. Doesn’t he realize is he affecting all those 2009 MLB futures odds on WagerWeb.com?
No, Manny has other issues after rejecting a one-year, $25 million offer by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday. Which makes sense in a way on Ramirez’s part, since it wasn’t even as good an offer as the one the Dodgers offered him in November — a two-year, $45-million deal that was later withdrawn. Ramirez also declined the Dodgers’ offer for arbitration in December, something that probably would have landed him a one-year deal similar to the one on the table.
You can’t blame Los Angeles for wanting Manny to play in another contract year. He sure was motivated last year, hitting .396 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs in his two months with the Dodgers.
Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras, claims that his client is generating interest from other teams, including the Washington Nationals, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. But none of those teams is willing to offer anywhere near $20 million a year, and the Dodgers don’t believe the rumors. The Angels have long been mentioned as a perfect landing spot, but they say they aren’t interested. Albert Pujols wants Manny in St. Louis, but the Cards don’t have the budget.
The problem with Manny is that the free-agent market has stalled. Other stars who sought long-term deals are getting one-year offers, none as lucrative as this. Now Los Angeles might target the likes of Bobby Abreu or Adam Dunn, both unsigned free agents. but the team is rather cool on them. Abreu, by the way, was just offered a one-year, $8 million deal by the White Sox, according to reports.
The Mets, meanwhile, might not have the money now with the news that Citigroup might try to withdraw from its $400 million naming rights deal with New York’s new stadium, according to the Wall Street Journal. When the deal was signed in 2006, it was the biggest naming rights agreement to date.
If Citigroup does back out of the Mets deal, it likely wouldn’t be immediate and likely would involve a penalty payment, sources told the newspaper. But that would be a crushing blow to the Mets, whose owner, Fred Wilpon, was bilked out of multi-millions by Bernard Madoff. It’s hard to imagine the Mets landing anywhere near that type of deal in the current economy.
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