Salvage operation

Ramírez open to a trade if both sides can be 'happy'

July 28, 2008|Amalie Benjamin and Gordon Edes, Globe Staff

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Francona acknowledged the situation has been stressful.

"The situation we're dealing with the last few days, I think if you're doing your job, how can it not be stressful?" he said. "If you care about what you're doing, it's certainly going to be stressful. That doesn't mean it's not going to work.

"I think my responsibility is not to hold grudges. That would be an awful way to be a manager. I think that was what I was referring to, and how we deal with difficulties. We all have difficulties. How you deal with them and move on is what's important."

Ramírez's disenchantment with Boston has been present almost from the time he first signed as a free agent after the 2000 season. In his first spring training with the Sox, he asked friends in the Cleveland organization if there was any way he could return to the Indians, a sentiment he has repeated numerous times over the years. In 2006, after the Sox failed to satisfy his trade demands over the winter, he called the Sox owners "[expletive] white devils."

He is uncomfortable with the passion of the fans, the scrutiny of the media, the lack of privacy he has encountered living here, and has struggled to achieve the same sense of belonging in the Sox clubhouse as he did in Cleveland, especially since close friend Julian Tavarez, who was with him in the Indians organization, was let go earlier this season.

Francona, asked to gauge Ramírez's level of happiness, said: "I don't know. I'm not sure that it matters. I'll take a guy hitting .500 that's miserable, as opposed to somebody who seems like they're passing out bouquets of roses to teammates and they're hitting .145."