I might as well be up front about this before I go into much detail. Signing Manny Ramirez is not a good idea.
Manny just isn’t the answer for any team.
Period.
If I were Baltimore Orioles general manager Dan Duquette, I would be going nowhere near Manny Ramirez at this point in time. Or ever, for that matter.
Despite being in the cellar of the American League East, the Orioles are a team with potential. Top prospect Manny Machado is not far from being a part of the Orioles’ lineup, and the rotation is chock full of a bunch of young hurlers that could put it together at any moment.
The O’s won’t be competing this year—and probably not next year either—but why throw the walking distraction, Manny Ramirez, into a group of unseasoned, young talent?
Manny won’t have any positive influence in the clubhouse and, more importantly, probably won’t even produce enough to be a consistent member of the lineup.
Signing Manny would be like bringing back another former slugger, Sammy Sosa.
On Feb. 2, 2005, the Orioles and Chicago Cubs pulled off a trade that sent Jerry Hairston, Mike Fontenot and David Crouthers to the Cubs and Sosa to the Orioles.
Sosa was coming off a .253/.332/.517 season with 35 home runs and 80 RBI. Clearly on the decline in his career, Sosa had previously tested positive after a drug test in 2003.
Needless to say, he produced at a level much less than expected in his one-year stint with Baltimore. He hit .221/.295/.376 with 14 home runs and 45 RBI in 380 at-bats.
Manny, should a team actually sign him, will miss the first 50 games of the season because of a failed drug test. He most likely won’t be playing in every game following, so is 90 games of a possibly non-productive Manny Ramirez worth it?
Ramirez has brought nothing but negative media to himself over the past few years of his career, and GM Dan Duquette should think twice before extending a contract his way.
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