Lasorda's Lair | A Los Angeles Dodgers Blog » Trade Rumors

Dodgers’ Ramirez To Be Placed On Waivers?

Joseph Lopez — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:47:57 +0000

Could it be true? Is Manny Ramirez just about done in L.A.? Well, according to multiple reports, including ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark, the Dodgers’ slugger is expected to be placed on waivers early this week (perhaps within the next 72 hours?). Conventional wisdom suggests that the Chicago White Sox are the leading candidates to place a claim on Manny.

Ramirez’s contract, which is up after this season, is structured in such a way that teams could find a place for Manny on their roster. Any team that were to acquire Ramirez would owe his a prorated portion of his $20 million salary, however, about three-quarters of his salary is deferred. So, any team that were to acquire Ramirez would owe just $1.1 million for the remainder of the season and about $3.3 million in deferred salary.

The only road-block to Manny’s departure from L.A., is his full no-trade clause. The Dodgers slugger would have to approve any potential deal before it actually goes through as a transaction. It is possible that he would ask for compensation in return as well. If he is claimed by a team, but vetoes the deal, the Dodgers would be required to pull him off waivers and could not trade him for the remainder of the season.

As stated before, the White Sox remain the front-runners, but the Tampa Bay Rays could also aggressively pursue Manny’s services for a post-season run.

This season Ramirez has been placed on the disabled-list three times, but has not had an atrocious season. In fact, Manny’s numbers are actually pretty good, as he’s hit .312/.404/.508 with 8 home runs and 39 RBIs in 62 games this season.

LA Begins Crucial 7 game Stretch Against Rivals

Anuj Agarwal — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:54:27 +0000

If the Dodgers feel like making up ground on the two teams ahead of them in the NL West, whom happen to be their biggest rivals, now is as good a time as any. The Blue Crew currently sit 7 games back of NL West leader San Diego and 3.5 games back of the Wild-Card leading Giants of San Francisco. They’ll have a chance to inflict direct damage on their competitors beginning tonight as they stroll into the bay for a three game set. After that, the Padres head to Chavez Ravine for four.

Tonight won’t exactly be easy. The Dodgers will throw out their resident fifth starter of the week, Carlos Monasterios, against the two-time defending Cy Young known as “the freak.” Ironically, it was Tim Lincecum whom the Dodgers last had success against offensively by tagging the right-hander for 5 runs in 4.2 innings, yet we all know that saying about how lightning usually doesn’t strike….well I’ll try not to go there. If there’s a sliver of hope tonight, it’s that Monasterios threw really well in his last start (5 shutout innings) before succumbing to injury.

Unfortunately, the acquisition of the mighty Scott Podsednik didn’t jump start the offense in his debut as we all expected last night (just wanted to see if you were paying attention). Whether the Dodgers make another move will be determined in less than 20 hours when the deadline of the baseball trading season arrives. Don’t expect anything flashy, ladies and gentleman.

In the meantime, let’s hope the team understands the significance of the next several games and plays with a collective sense of urgency.