Goodbye Manny?

And just like that, Manny is out of here.

Or is he?

Last night the Dodgers completed their National League 'let's get our ass whipped by the shitty Phillies' series and with the loss may have seen one of the greatest Dodgers ever exit before he even completed a full season with the team.

Yeah, I said it. One of the greatest Dodgers ever.

In the second half of the season after joining L.A., Manny hit .396 with 53 RBI in 53 games, an on-base percentage of a mere .489 and a .743 slugging percentage.

That was nothing compared to the way he tried to carry the team in the playoffs, batting .520, hitting four homeruns in eight games with 10 RBI and actually improving his OBP to .667.

With all the success and the short-term love affair that Manny had with L.A. and the Dodger fans, I think he still ultimately wants to go to New York for a number of reasons.

It's pretty obvious that Manny loves the big stage and the New York Yankees is the biggest stage in baseball. Not only that, but they have the biggest checkbook to sign over to Manny. And the kicker is the nuts, because Manny knows if he signs with New York, it will kill, kill, kill Red Sox Nation.

The Dodgers do have some things on their side though, like the fact that there is only a select group of teams that can sign Manny for what he's going to want with super agent Scott Boras doing his negotiating for him. I'm guessing that the only teams that can even consider paying Manny what he wants (probably $100 million for four years) are:

Los Angeles Dodgers
Anaheim Angels
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox

The BoSox are obviously out and you can take the Angels out of the equation because the last thing they need is another aging outfielder.

But what does Manny want?

"I just want to go home [to Florida] and spend some time with my family," Ramirez says, while adding with a grin, "I want to see who is the highest bidder. Gas is up and so am I." (source)

Money.

That leaves just the Yankees and the Dodgers. The Yankees need pitching and that means C.C. Sabathia, who will probably command some sort of six-year $150 million deal this off-season as the most sought after free agent. So if the Yanks sign Sabathia, they may be unwilling to give Manny as much money as he wants, which may piss him off, which may help the Dodgers. Keep your fingers crossed.

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