My original title for this post was “The Manny Situation”.  But Manny seems like the name of a guy that you would be buddies with.  He’s the guy you call to meet you in a downtown bar when you get off work early on a Friday.  On the Red Sox, Manny would be the borderline crazy, but sorta likable, and no doubt all-galaxy hitter roaming left field and batting cleanup for the Red Sox.  But that Manny seems nowhere to be found or perhaps Ramirez has been tricking us with Manny for the past 8 years.  Yes, all we are left with is a phony named Ramirez.  And what’s worse is he’s a phony with 500 career home runs.

What’s for certain is this: Ramirez has finally, without a doubt, shown his true self.  And that true self is someone who isn’t putting the team first.  The true Ramirez appears to be completely preoccupied with making another $20 million or so.  Last thing he is concerned about is doing his part to make sure the Red Sox win (in other words: his job).  I can see how another $20 million from your current employer would be a big deal for most people.  Only thing is, Ramirez has already made at least $160 million from the same team he seems to dropping down on his priority list.  I’ll give Ramirez a pass on all this if he ends up donating his next $20 million to building schools in Africa or curing cancer.  But my guess is he doesn’t even know what cancer is.  If he wants to find out, he just needs to look in the mirror. 

I fully admit that I have flip-flopped on the whole issue of should Manny, umm…excuse me…should Ramirez stay with the Red Sox or should they figure out a way to trade him>  In fact, I’ve flip-flopped numerous times over the past years. Quite honestly, any Red Sox fan who says he hasn’t is probably lying.  How can we not jump back and forth over the fence?  Some days, Ramirez is asking to be traded for no apparent reason whatsoever.  Other days, he’s not running out ground balls. But then other days he’s hitting baseballs as far as Neptune and knocking in run after run after run. 

Make no mistake about it.  We don’t win 2 world championships this decade without Ramirez.

So why is the current Ramirez situation any different from the last ones?

Well, it’s clearer than ever that he’s quitting on his team.  As a professional athlete in a team sport, it’s the worst move he could make.  His comments make it VERY clear that he is interested in money and not winning.  And it’s not just what he is saying.  But how he is acting. You can argue that he’s faking injuries.  Peter Gammons suggest that he’s ducking quality pitchers

Unacceptable.

That’s the only word to describe it.

But perhaps that’s not so different from the past.  It’s pretty clear that he shut it down in 2006 when there was nothing left to play for.  No, what’s really different this time around is that the possible end of the Sox-Ramirez marriage is in sight as it is the club’s option to decide what to do at the end of the 2008 season.  The Red Sox, not Ramirez have the ability to truly decide what happens with the future of both Ramirez and the Red Sox

So what are the options for the Red Sox?

The most likely scenario is that the Sox aren’t going to trade Ramirez before this week’s deadline.  Not because they don’t want to, but because they simply have a better chance of winning the World Series with him as a member of the Red Sox.  Simply dumping him for next to nothing means there’s no one to bat behind Papi and Sox probably don’t even make the playoffs.   Yes, he’s that good a hitter.

More likely scenario is that he plays in Boston the rest of the year, then the Sox say “Adios. Thanks for the memories” and send him on his merry way to play wherever he wants making whatever he can.  If that happens, I believe (and I also believe this is the best course of action for the Red Sox) the Sox will sign Mark Teixeira to play first base and move Youk to left field.  Teixeira is a gold glove first baseman so there would be no defensive downgrade at 1B and you can argue that Youk will be an improvement in LF over Ramirez.  This approach may ruffle a lot of feathers in the Boston fanbase, but we’re talking about Youk.  He just wants to win and will do whatever the team wants him to do in order to win.  He’s batted everywhere in the lineup and never bitches about it.  He picked up 1b like it was he had been playing it his whole life, there’s no reason to think that he can’t do the same in LF, especially considering that he has some MLB time at the position (when Ramirez called it an early season in 2005).

At the plate, Mark Teixeira is no slouch.  He’d do great hitting cleanup in the Sox lineup.  His numbers over the past 2 years are better than that of Ramirez, he’s still in his 20s, and he’s a free agent at the end of the year.  Its incredibly unlikely that Ramirez will get 4 years and $100 million from the Red Sox or any other team, but Teixeira just might.  The sox just need to hold out until the offseason, give Ramirez his walking papers, backup the Brinks truck to Teixeira, and pencil him into the cleanup spot.  And don’t forget those compensation draft picks for Ramirez.

Another popular option is Matt Holliday of the Colorado Rockies.  But I argue that Holliday is this decade’s Dante Bichette.  His infalted Coors Field stats to not make him the quality hitter we need protecting Big Papi.

But can the Sox afford to wait a few more months?

Simple fact is that Ramirez may shut it down any day now.  You just never know with him.  I emphasize with Theo Epstein on this one.  The Red Sox may not be able to win without Ramirez, but they may not be able to win with him.  Just how sick are they of Ramirez?

What if the Braves decided to trade Teixiera right now? Could the Red Sox put their offseason plan into action right away?  It might cost them a handful of prospects.  But if you could trade Michael Bowden, Brandon Moss, and Daniel Bard for Teixiera right now, would you?  What if that gave you the satisfaction of just giving Ramirez his outright release afterwards?  Or trading him to San Diego (or even the Durham Bulls) for a bag of BP balls, a Yaz rookie card, and a stick of gum.  Would you do it?

Unlikely? Yes.  Tempting?  Also,yes.