To that end, Nationals GM Jim Bowden was interviewed yesterday (for what he called his "dream job") and Jim Beattie will be interviewed today. Several current GMs -- Doug Melvin (Milwaukee), Kevin Towers (San Diego), Brian Sabean (San Francisco) and Terry Ryan (Minnesota) -- have taken themselves out of the running.
Jim Duquette (Orioles VP of baseball operations) and David Forst (Athletics assistant general manager) both say they are not interested in the GM job. Two other possible candidates -- Cleveland assistant general manager Chris Antonetti and Tony LaCava, the Blue Jays' director of player personnel -- declined even to be interviewed.
About ten days after Manny Ramirez made another demand to be traded, the Ramirez-to-Mets talk is once again alive.
Ramirez's agent, Greg Genske, met on Wednesday with Werner and Larry Lucchino and both sides agreed to explore trade options. No mention was made of the alleged refusal of Manny to report to spring training if he is still a Red Sock.
Gordon Edes (Globe):
This time, however, it appears Ramirez and the Sox are working in concert to move him. ... A persuasive, and perhaps unassailable, argument could be made that it would be in the Sox' best interests to keep Ramirez, who in his five seasons in Boston has remained one of the most prolific hitters in the game ...One major league executive told the New York Post: "To motivate the Red Sox to trade Manny is going to take more than just salary relief."
Terry Francona will undergo surgery to replace his right knee.
Honestly, the fact that so many in the media actually believed and advocated the scenario where Theo comes back shows how woefully out of touch most sportswriters are with the real world. On XM radio, Kevin Kennedy was actually claiming that he had "highly reliable" inside info that Theo was being wooed back. Ridiculous. When an employee resigns like that, it's over. Quitting isn't a legitimate negotiation tactic, and if you do it as some kind of a bluff, you're a fool. No management can work with an employee who would do such a thing. Heck, it's like a player periodically demanding to be traded and then repeatedly saying he doesn't mean it, not that anyone would be so juvenile as to do THAT...
ReplyDeleteI hope the trade does not involve Cameron. The sox need value for Ramirez. I can see a Cleveland trade for Hafner plus, or with the Mets for Beltran or Piazza and Wright, but nothing less.
ReplyDelete