Manny Ramirez needs a paycheck.
Well…chances are he doesn’t really NEED a paycheck. Over the course of his career, Ramirez has earned more than $200,000,000 (!) to hit the ball real far at the plate and watch it go over his head in the outfield. Buf if you have the ability and the option of earning millions of dollars playing a kid’s game as opposed to the alternative of sitting around and twiddling your thumbs, one tends to choose the former over the latter.
And while he’d have to still serve a 50-game suspension for a positive PED test if he were to make the decision to end his retirement, the fact of the matter is that at 39, his body has held up about as well as any that has played parts of 19 seasons in the Major Leagues.
The Oakland Athletics on the other hand need to put butts in the seat.
This isn’t an overstatement. Fan apathy in Oakland is still running high despite the team’s best efforts to inject some enthusiasm into their cavernous stadium. In 2011, the team averaged 18,232 fans per game at Network Associates Coliseum, which is actually the first time since 2008 that they were able to crack the 18,000 mark. Attendance has been so bad in recent years that the team has decided to completely close off the upper deck.
Things aren’t looking to be any better this season. The A’s traded away closer Andrew Bailey for a package of prospects, leaving them with a team only Billy Beane could love. Aside from Jemile Weeks, Coco Crisp and perhaps Dallas Braden, take a look at this roster and tell me how many players the average fan might know. Not a whole lot of fuel for the marketing department there, especially given the fact that Brandon McCarthy enters the 2012 season as the ace of this staff. McCarthy is, at best, a no. 3 starter on a Wild Card team and a no. 4/5 on a World Series contender.
That’s why this marriage almost makes too much sense. Manny might not have a whole lot left in the tank, especially given his woeful 2011 with Tampa Bay, but in his last full sesaon in the big leagues (2010) he did hit .298/9 HR/42 RBI/.409 OBP. Not quite the numbers that established him as a surefire future Hall of Famer before all the PED talk set in, but decent enough to at least merit a minor league invite from a team on the fringe looking to generate some excitement.
The A’s are one of the few teams that could use a set of keys to jingle in their fans’ faces as a distraction from the turmoil off the field. The team’s plans to finally build a stadium of their own in San Jose have run into a series of obstacles. Fans are reportedly growing tired of seeing their favorite players such as Bailey and Gio Gonzalez shipped out of town as soon as they start getting attached to them. It’s hard to fault them there — nearly every fanbase is rooting for the laundry on the field, an axiom that proves especially true with the A’s.
Ramirez is that shiny set of keys. He is an instant revenue generator in the form of shirseys and team-emblazoned Manny dreadlock wigs in the gift store. He is a personality on a roster that, Crisp aside, is about as bland as a vat of fresh tapioca pudding. Above all else, he is a reason to show up to the ballpark on a warm California night if only to see what kind of adventures he might have in the field or to see if he’s capable of coaxing a couple more longballs out of his aging body.
So what are the chances we’ll see him in the green and gold? Here’s what A’s managing general partner Lew Wolff told MLB.com’s Jane Lee:
“Ramirez, who will turn 40 in May and would have to serve a 50-game suspension at the start of the season after having his suspension reduced from 100 games, has been pegged as a potential designated hitter for Oakland. Despite the history he brings, Wolff believes “he should be viewed on a basis of talent.”
“If he serves his penalty, the idea of serving a penalty is that you’re free to go back and do something,” he said. “I think it would be fun. I hear he’s in great shape. I don’t know if we’re in the running for him, but it wouldn’t bother me to have him on the team. In fact, just the opposite.
“My theory in life, which may not apply to baseball, is that we all make mistakes, and if we serve a penalty, there’s no reason we shouldn’t have the opportunity to do the right thing after that.””
Of course, it’s a lot easier for Wolff to forgive Manny’s transgressions knowing that if he doesn’t sign him, the A’s will trot out Jonny Gomes as their starting DH in 2012. Gomes, for the record, is a career .242 hitter with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 3:1. My point — even if Ramirez is a shell of his former self, he puts the A’s in a better position to win than just about anyone else the team can realistically think about trotting out at that position. And in a loaded AL West, it’s unlikely this roster of no-names will be contending anytime soon, so why not try and put on a good show if nothing else?
