McCourt had long admired Ramírez's talent - he'd encouraged Colletti to talk to Epstein about Ramírez at baseball's winter meetings a couple of years earlier when the Sox were entertaining offers, only to decide against moving him. And he enjoyed Ramírez's quirky personality, laughing out loud when he saw television clips of Ramírez holding up a sign saying he would be traded straight up to Green Bay for Brett Favre.
But McCourt thought the Dodgers were out of the running for Ramírez, which is why he wasn't worried that his BlackBerry had no reception at the beach. It wasn't until he returned home that he learned from his secretary that he had a voice message awaiting him in the office. Lucchino had called again.
Colletti wasn't expecting to hear from the Red Sox, either, yesterday morning. He'd gone to bed the night before having read reports that the Sox were close to completing a three-way deal with the Florida Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates in which the Marlins would wind up with Ramírez and the Sox would acquire outfielder Jason Bay from the Pirates.
Colletti was surprised when he got up yesterday morning to discover that the deal had not been completed. Then his phone rang. Epstein was on the line. The deal with the Marlins was falling apart. Florida, it was learned later, wanted not only Ramírez and cash to cover the nearly $7 million left on his contract, they wanted at least one more prospect. The Sox were searching for another trading partner that might replace the Marlins in swinging a three-way move with the Pirates, who had the outfielder, Bay, that the Sox considered adequate compensation for losing Ramírez.
Those two phone calls, one from Lucchino to McCourt, the other from Epstein to Colletti, set into motion a frenzied 3 1/2 hours of activity yesterday that resulted in the Dodgers acquiring Ramírez, the Sox acquiring Bay, and the Pirates landing outfielder Brandon Moss and pitcher Craig Hansen from the Sox, along with two prospects from Los Angeles.
