He Must Not Want to Play

Maybe it's not about the money, after all.

Manny Ramirez rejected the Dodgers latest 2 year, $45 million offer, which leads me to believe that maybe it's not even about the money at this point.  Maybe Manny Ramirez just has no desire to play.

We're already a couple of weeks into spring training.  Games are going on.  And while Manny Ramirez could easily walk in off the street and play opening day and be effective, maybe he just has no itch or desire to play after all.

He and agent Scott Boras continue to claim there are other suitors for his services and he's still waiting for the market to decide his fate.  Unless I'm missing something, there are no other suitors.  The Giants had mild interest but pulled out of the running a while ago.  There is no market for one of the game's greatest hitters and it's because teams are hesitant to pay a lazy jerk with a history of laying down. 

Isn't this pretty clear by now?

"We want Manny back, but we feel we are negotiating against ourselves,"  Dodgers owner Frank McCourt told reporters in a statement.  "When his agent finds those 'serious offers'  from other clubs, we'll be happy to restart the negotiations."

McCourt knows what everyone else knows.  There are no suitors.  They're throwing him a bone, by offering him $45 million when they don't have to offer him any more than fifty cents to be the highest bidder.  But since this prima dona wants to be paid $25 million a year, likely against their better judgment, they've offered it to him anyway.

And he still won't take it.  He must not want to play.

What else could it be?  He wanted out of Boston, played out of his mind in L.A. from August to the National League Championship Series presumably to break the bank.  He wanted a 4-year deal worth $100 million.  He couldn't get it.  And now that he's seen that there's no market for him because of his own doing, maybe he's decided he just doesn't need baseball anymore.

It's not like there hasn't been a love-fest from the players and manager Joe Torre in an effort to entice him to return.  After all, the Dodgers have already publicly admitted they need him, and without him they're considerably worse.  Considering they are in competition with no one and they're still willing to offer him nearly half his original asking price should be a sufficient message of respect.  And he was a mega-star in Hollywood last season.  Every time he strode to the plate they chanted his name at Dodger Stadium.  Trust me, I witnessed it live.

So if he won't go back to the Dodgers, when they're offering him $25 million for this season and $20 million for next season to play baseball in a depressed economy, it must be a lack of motivation.  At this point, he must know he cannot get the contract he desires.  And if he cared so much about returning to baseball, he'd take this deal and head to the locker already reserved for him at the Dodgers new spring training home in Glendale.  

Instead, he's still sitting at home.  And it makes me think maybe he's just tired of baseball.