DISQUS

Marcel · 1 year ago

This is the only scenario that makes any sense to me. Eat the remainder of his salary and send Manny to Florida for De la Cruz and Hermida. Hermida gets packaged with Moss, Bowden and another pitcher (maybe Kris Johnson) to get Bay from the Pirates. De la Cruz and another C pitching prospect get shipped to Texas for Max Ramirez. Bay is a massive defensive upgrade, a good baserunner, and consistenly posts an OPS right around .900. Ramirez can either step right in as an offensive upgrade over Cash or can be optioned to the minors for the rest of the year and can split time behind the plate next year with Varitek. Even is Manny isn't moved, I think the Sox need to make a move to get Ramirez or Clement. Even if Varitek accepts a reasonable deal, he is obviously no longer an everyday player.

Short of getting Bay, I don't see anything the Sox can do other than keep Manny. There are, unfortunately, three black holes in the lineup right now at C, CF, and SS (although Lowrie may provide some relief there.) When you have three easy outs in the lineup, it makes it a lot harder to accept a downgrade at any of the other spots. The only move that is a neccessity in my opinion, is an upgrade over Timlin in the pen. I'm not sure that what the A's are asking for Street would be worth it though.

John · 1 year ago

I agree with you Bill. In order for the Sox to compete, we need the 1-2 combo of Papi and Manny.

Remember Manny does this every year, up one minute in la-la land the next. It seems every year the week of the trading deadline sox go into a slump. After trade deadline, things start to gel. Manny should be fine for the remainder of the season.