Barring a midlife conversion experience, I doubt it.
While the Red Sox crumbled when Ramírez went on hiatus -- last night was the 22d game out of 30 Ramírez has missed since taking himself out of the last game of the Yankee massacre Aug. 21, during which he has been paid $1.918 million (calculated on his base salary of $15 million this season) -- he had the audacity this week, through agent Greg Genske, to reiterate to the Red Sox his desire to be traded this winter.
Oh, Manny may play again this season -- the most recent MRI on his right knee was clean, he's taken batting practice in each of the last two days and yesterday he was running down fly balls during BP, which suggests he could be back in the lineup as soon as this afternoon. Of course, Terry Francona, who has been Ramírez's biggest defender (enabler?), will be the last to know, helpless to write Ramírez's name on his lineup card until the player tells him he's good and ready.
When that day comes, Ramírez is less likely to be moved by an obligation to the paying customers -- feel free to insert belly laugh here -- than by the belief that it will probably help his chances to get traded if he shows prospective employers that he's a go again.
While Crisp played with a refractured finger, and Loretta with a quadriceps muscle swollen twice its normal size, and Nixon and Varitek worked tirelessly to recover from a strained right biceps and torn knee cartilage, respectively, and Gonzalez wrapped his strained side muscles and played shortstop and Kevin Youkilis insisted his name be written in the lineup despite a constant variety of aches and pains, Ramírez showed a colossal indifference to the collective welfare of his team.
