But this weekend, although there was pizza and plenty of beer, consisted mostly of backyard cookouts and many hours in the car... so I'm a little behind with my thoughts on the Manny saga...You can Manny's exact quotes in a number of places... ESPN... Extra Bases... Red Sox Monster...
But as Dan from RSM points out in his piece, The Bottom Line is this: Manny will not be in Boston come 2009.
Manny has all but demanded a trade and has made it clear that he would prefer to walk away after the 2008 season:
“At the end of the season, all they have to do is call my agent (Scott Boras) and say, ‘Hey, we’re not going to pick up Manny’s option for ’09, he’s going to become a free agent.’ That’s it. I’ll go my way and you guys go your way. It’s something simple."
“I don’t want to talk to them about contract right now, so what? I know they have me, but enough is enough. I’m tired of them, they’re tired of me. After 2008, just send me a letter. You don’t even have to call my agent or whatever. ‘Thank you for everything, you’re going to become a free agent, we’re not going to pick up your option in ’09.’ ”
But Manny is not a dumb as he looks... he knows the Sox are a better team with him in the lineup:
"Boston is not stupid. They’re not going to do it [trade him], they can say whatever they want. But when it comes to making a deal, they’re not going to pull the trigger because they know what they’ve got here.”
But trading Manny would at least give the Sox something in return. If Manny simply walks away in October, the Sox lose his bat and they potentially give him to a competitor like the Yankees or Angels - two teams that Manny has expressed interest in playing for, and two teams with money to spend and holes to fill...
Theo Epstien has said that he plans to see what the market is for Manny, but has been tight lipped beyond that:
“We will have no further comment about this situation, on the record or off the record,” Epstein said. “Our focus is on this team - which is in the middle of a pennant race - and in any case it would be premature to comment now on an offseason contractual issue."
Bottom Line: Theo's got 3 days to make a deal, but as Tim from Fire Brand points out:
"Any potential replacement from Matt Holiday to Mark Teixeira, Pat Burrell to Raul Ibanez and down the line are ripe with issues that span how would you acquire them to could they even approximate Manny in the lineup."
I'm not sure I could have put it any better.
Here's what Francona had to say about Manny:
"I’d take a guy that’s hitting .500 that’s miserable as opposed to a guy that hands out bouquets to his teammates and is hitting a buck 45,” Francona said. “You move on. The goal is to get better from it. I think we’ve done a good job of that here.”
You know Tito has been bombarded with Manny questions for weeks now, and with the Yankees in town and the Rays still fighting, I give him a ton of credit for finding the prefect words here...
And Julio Lugo has his two cents...
"I've been here two years, I think I'm one of the guys closest with Manny," Lugo said. "I've been closer to Manny than anybody else. As a friend I'm trying to defend him. He cares so much. He does so much to be ready. Sometimes things distract him. Things just came together. I don't think he means anything. He [felt] real bad about the Jack [McCormick, the team's traveling secretary] thing. He apologized to Jack and he apologized to [Kevin] Youkilis. Those things, nobody even mentioned that. I don't think anybody mentioned that. Sometimes people misjudge him. People think he don't care. That's not the way it is. I think you guys should know that. He's the first guy to come here, the only guy who gets up at 10 o'clock in the morning every day is Manny, to get set. It's unfortunate that things like that happen. He shouldn't be doing that stuff. He's a mature guy. He understands he made a mistake. Just move on, ask for forgiveness, like he should, and move on."
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