What's the deal?

Marlins interested in Ramirez

July 31, 2008|Gordon Edes, Globe Staff

With Manny Ramírez issuing yet another screed outlining his unhappiness with the Red Sox, the team's owners and top baseball executives met yesterday to debate whether to trade the combustible left fielder, and engaged in a serious exercise with the Florida Marlins to see whether the teams might match up in a deal.

A major league source with direct knowledge of the talks said that contrary to a report last night in the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, a tentative agreement had not been reached on a three-way deal among the Sox, Marlins, and Pittsburgh Pirates, one in which Ramírez would go to the Marlins, the Sox would acquire outfielder Jason Bay and lefthanded reliever John Grabow from the Pirates, and outfielder Jeremy Hermida and a package of prospects would go to the Pirates. The Sox would pick up the balance of Ramírez's contract in this deal.

The sides continued to talk past midnight last night, and another industry source described the talks as "brewing."

The person most strongly opposed to trading Ramírez has been owner John W. Henry, who takes the position that the Sox cannot get sufficient value in return for him, and that Ramírez gives the team its best chance of winning. The team has been through these melodramas before with Ramírez - that's Henry's position - and in the end Ramírez's bat has had the last word.

But Bay, a 29-year-old former National League Rookie of the Year (2004), may have satisfied Henry's desire for another righthanded hitter who can step into the middle of the Sox' lineup. Bay is batting .282 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs, with an on-base percentage of .375 and a slugging percentage of .519. Those numbers roughly equate to Ramírez's 20 home runs, 68 RBIs, .398 OBP, and .529 slugging percentage. Bay does not have a Hall of Famer's pedigree, but he is more than six years younger (he turns 30 in September) than Ramírez, and, under contract in 2009 for $7.5 million, is considerably cheaper. The Sox hold a $20 million option on Ramírez for next season, but he made it clear he wants to be traded.

Grabow is 5-3 with a 3.19 ERA, and was 1-1 with a 1.88 ERA in July.

The Marlins emerged as the most motivated partner, according to multiple sources. Earlier in the day, the Sox were skeptical that a deal could be completed, and the Marlins, while lured by the Sox' willingness to pick up Ramírez's contract, also had doubts that a deal could be consummated by today's 4 p.m. deadline.