All of the talk about Manny Ramirez landing in San Francisco may indeed be just that: talk. Several sources on the inside of baseball are claiming that no matter what agent Scott Boras claims, the Giants simply cannot afford Manny, and are therefore out of the running.
What those baseball executives point to is this: their payroll is currently at $85 million, which is more than the $77 million they had last year. Signing Manny would push them north of $100 million, which is far more than they can afford. Keep in mind, they still owe deferred money to Barry Bonds. No matter how you slice it, he's just too expensive.
It sounds as if whatever Boras is trying to sell, nobody's buying it. So that means that yet again, the Dodgers are the favorite.
And that's the dilemma. Manny is still looking for a 4 or 5-year deal worth $25 million a year. As we've been told hundreds of times, he's only getting 2-3 year offers. Peter Gammons talks about how he told his teammates on the Red Sox last season that he'll get his long-term deal, and was not at all happy about a 2-year deal with the Sox. Will he be happy with a short-term deal with the Dodgers? Based on recent history, that could be a problem.
One last note is that if the Dodgers don't want to sign Manny, they'll look to add to their bullpen from a list of the following relievers: Trevor Hoffman, Juan Cruz, Dennys Reyes, and Guillermo Mota.
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