After months of double-talk, misdirection, and flat-out lies, I hardly know how to react when there’s actual news in the Manny Ramirez Kerfluffle. Tony Jackson: hit me.
Dodgers make second offer to Manny Ramirez: one year, $25 million
This according to a source with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Ned Colletti confirmed that the offer was made last night, but he wouldn’t confirm the length or the amount. Got a message in to Boras, but you know how that goes. Until (and if) I hear back from him, there is no word on whether he and Manny are receptive to such a deal. But it certainly appears, from the outside looking in, that they are running out of options if he wants to make it somewhere by the start of spring training.“We are still trying to sign Manny, and we hope that this will make him happy,” Colletti said. The Dodgers’ original offer to Manny, which was pulled off the table three months ago, was two years, $45 million with a club option for 2011. These are the only known offers to Ramirez by any major-league club since he filed for free agency last fall.
That’s so simple, it just might work. Clearly, it couldn’t be better for the Dodgers. Not only do you not have to worry about what Manny’s going to be like when he enters the MLB Old Age 
Home at 38, 39, and 40, you’re also pretty confident that he’ll be motivated for the entire season if he knows he’s got to work for another payday. There’s really no downside for the Blue here.
Of course, whether this is going to work out for the Dodgers is never the issue. What this offer really does is offer Boras an out. We all know that his number one priority right now is not finding the best landing spot for his client; he’d sign him with the Toledo Mud Hens if he thought they’d pay enough. No, what Boras’ main motivation right now is really to save face. After getting Manny to force his way out of Boston because the two $20 million team options weren’t enough and a winter of proclaiming that Manny would be pulling five- or six-year deals at over $100 million, it was going to be hard to see him accepting a three-year deal at $15-20 million or so.
But this offer allows him to spin it without even having to apply the full Scott Boras Bullshit Treatment. It may be disingenuous, but wouldn’t be inaccurate for him to be able to proclaim that “in the worst economy in this country in seventy years, I still got my client the highest per-year offer in Dodgers history and one of the top three in the entire history of baseball, topped the option the Red Sox held on him, and allowed him to get back on the market next year.”
And lest you still cringe at the idea of $25 million per year… FanGraphs has him as being worth $28.3 million last year. Now imagine him fully motivated and with a full season against the National League?
I love this offer. I really do. I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.
Actually, though: I was wrong earlier when I said there was no downside for the Dodgers… and that’s that if he accepts this deal, we’re going through this entire charade again next year. Wooooof. But, I’m pretty sure we’ll be willing to put up with that in exchange for Manny rocking the Ravine in 2009. Right? Right.
Update: Via MLBtraderumors, ESPN’s Jayson Stark is reporting that there’s a 48 hour deadline attached to the deal. Since the original story said the offer was made last night (wait, during the Super Bowl? Well, I suppose the middle of Game 4 of the World Series didn’t stop Boras from announcing A-Rod was opting out last year), that means the deadline expires sometime Tuesday night. Might we be able to finally put this behind us?
* On another topic, yet another round of congratulations to Jon Weisman, who’s taken DodgerThoughts to the big time over at the Los Angeles Times. A Dodger blogger signing up with a larger entity to get their thoughts to a larger audience? Man, what a sellout.
