Manny Ramirez wanted to stay in Boston. (via d.yimg.com)
Gordon Edes apparently decided to go out with a bang.
The long-time Boston Globe writer is heading to Yahoo! to cover baseball (yesterday was his last day at the Globe), and his article today sort of dropped a bombshell: Manny Ramirez lobbied to stay with the Sox after hearing he was traded:
Within an hour after Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein informed Manny Ramírez he had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday, Ramírez's agent, Scott Boras, called the Sox back, according to a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations. If the Sox dropped the option years on his contract - which they had agreed to do if they traded him - Boras said Ramírez would not be a problem the rest of the season.
For the Sox, the source said, Ramírez's pledge of good behavior only served as a tacit admission that his disruptive conduct of the last couple of weeks had been calculated, and they had had good cause to suspect more was in the offing if they did not trade him. The Sox told him thanks but no thanks, what was done was done, and pack plenty of sunscreen.
Maybe Manny wanted to push the Sox just enough to make his options dropped, but not have the Sox trade him. If that was his plan, he didn't do a very good job at executing it. I thought it was classy that Manny thanked the Red Sox fans. It was a nice way to go out for him, but apparently it was too early in Manny's mind...