| 28 January 2009
The biggest surprise to me this off-season, as the days to pitchers and catchers dwindle down -- 14 by the way -- is that Manny Ramirez remains unsigned, and most surprisingly, that the Mets have made no effort to sign him. Omar Minaya has had a man-crush on Manny for YEARS, trying to acquire him pretty much since the moment he became the Mets GM. Yet now, when the cost of acquiring Manny is a mere draft pick, Los Mets are nowhere to be seen.
Let's look at the Mets team for next season, do they have a hole in the batting lineup for a slugger? Yes. Do they have a need for a left fielder who can stay on the field? Yes. Is Manny Ramirez latino? Yes! How is this not a fit?
In the last 8 years, he has played 140+ games 5 times, which is plenty for a Mets team who last year had to deal with approximately 18 different left fielders last season. The addition of Manny to the Mets lineup would make their team much more powerful and more likely to be able to endure all those starts that the team seems intent on giving to Tim Redding. Do you have any idea what the Mets current situation at LF is?
Here is the depth chart as listed on the Mets official site: Daniel Murphy (a ROOKIE INFIELDER), Fernando Tatis (old, highly unlikely to duplicate his stats from last year), Nick Evans (at best a 4th OF), Marlon Anderson (really?), and Angel Pagan (meh). Quite the murderer's row.
Let's (after the jump) take a look at the lineup if Manny were on the Mets:
Reyes SS
Wright 3b
Beltran CF
Manny LF
Delgado 1B
Church RF
Schneider C
Castillo 2b
Now that's an offense that is going to score runs. Certainly more preferable than throwing the Murphy/Tatis/Pagan/Evans scrubs out there and just adding another out to the bottom half of the lineup. So why haven't the Mets signed Manny, or at least looked into it?
When the off-season began, the Mets were falling over themselves to offer money to a free agent closer. They added K-Rod and JJ Putz, and their salaries without batting an eye. They were trying to throw $36-40 million Derek Lowe's way until he spurned them for the Braves. They are STILL trying to toss money at Oliver Perez and the 900 walks he'll have over 3 years. So WHY NOT MANNY!?!?
My biggest wonder is whether the Mets aren't revealing the full truth regarding the Bernie Madoff scamming. The Wilpons were supposedly in talks to buy an English Premier League soccer team, but have since dropped out after losing hundreds of millions with Madoff. While the Wilpons claimed that the loss of that money doesn't affect the Mets in any way, I find it hard to believe that losing $300+ million doesn't affect the bottom line somewhere.
When the Mets entered the free agency market, they were looking to add premium pieces, those pieces remain but now they are only signing minimum risk/reward players. Really, what do the Mets expect to get from Tim Redding? They'll be lucky if his ERA is under 5.5 and he only loses 14. But, you add Manny to that lineup and now they can carry those weak pitchers every 5 days and not have to write off those games. Is Manny a pain in the ass? Sure, but didn't Jerry Manuel stress that he's "gangsta" and that no one messes with him. So, let him try and control Manny.
Also, Manny is from NYC, so maybe the chance to play there will satiate him and his hurt feelings at not getting the $100 million he thought he was gonna get. Worst case scenario, you get the pouty Manny that played for the Sox last year, that would be the .296/.388/.493 20 HR 88 RBI Manny for what it's worth. Not too shabby. Certainly significantly better than anyone else the Mets can throw out there. Signing Manny would make opposing pitchers terrified of the top 6 in the Mets order.
The addition of Manny would help revitalize Jose Reyes and with D-Wright and Beltran hitting in front of him, there would be endless RBI opportunities for Manny to clear the bases. The Mets are already conceding outs at the bottom of the lineup with Schneider, Castillo and the pitcher, having a ridiculously strong top 6, plus whatever it is that Church is able to provide will give the Mets an AL-style offense, which would likely outscore the Phillies by a fair margin. Since the everyone is gunning for the Mets still, they need to have the upper hand, and right now, I don't see much separation between the clubs. So. Whither Manny?
If the Wilpons are hamstrung by losing so much money that's one thing, but if money isn't the issue, then they HAVE to sign Manny. Offer him the same 2-years for $45 million that the Dodgers did, it's not like he has a ton of offers coming his way. Give him a deadline. Tell Boras there will be negotiating, no back-and-forth bidding war between the Dodgers and Mets. One offer, take it or leave it. If Boras comes back and says "Oh, the Dodgers and a mystery team are willing to go to X dollars," say, "Bon chance, see ya." But since right now the list of suitors for Manny is one, the worst case scenario is the Mets don't sign Manny, which they aren't doing right now anyways.
Since the team seems willing to go into the season with their scrub platoon of LF'ers there isn't any downside. The upside is a post season berth, something that the Mets haven't been able to get for a couple years, you might have heard about it. Then once in the playoffs, is there a current player besides Manny that you'd be more scared of? The man is a monster, a scary post season hitting monster and cannot be stopped, but yeah, I can see why the Mets wouldn't want to add him and his prodigious hitting ability to their team. Sign Manny!
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