Monday afternoon, the Oakland A's agreed to terms with Manny Ramirez signing him to a one year $500 thousand deal. Rather than serving the 100 game suspension for violating the drug policy, Ramirez retired after playing just five games for the Rays last year. Ramirez, who retired last season after violating Major League Baseball's drug policy for the second time will be given another chance. However, he will have to sit out the first 50 games of the season as part of his punishment.
General Manager of the A's, Billy Beane, sees very little risk in signing Ramirez. Ramirez will be seeing his first at bat in 12 months when he returns to the lineup in May. But, he is a guy who is used to hitting in the middle of the lineup, and the A's are desperate for that type of hitter. Last season the A's showed signs of strong pitching, however the offense was not clicking on all cylinders.
After Josh Willingham left the A's this off season to sign with the Twins, the A's are down a left fielder. Ramirez who turns 40 in May might just fill in for the DH role, but if things are not going too well for the A's it would not be surprising to see Manny take the field.
Ramirez is known for a lot of shenanigans on and off the field. However, Manny has changed his ways and knows how to act properly. There won't be much of "Manny being Manny" anymore because of his new image.
The Athletics are in a tough AL West division. The Angels acquired pitcher C.J. Wilson, and the great Albert Pujols to go along with their already talented roster. The Rangers picked up Japanese pitching phenom Yu Darvish to compliment their power hitting offense. For the A's to win the division, it's going to be an extremely tough road. However, if Manny can provide a spark to this offense, anything could happen.
Beane took a shot on Ramirez knowing his health record is clean. Ramirez did not suffer from many long term injuries in his career. "Low risk, high reward" was the best way Beane described the acquisition of Ramirez. If Manny has a great year, Beane will look like a genius taking a shot on him. If Ramirez is unable to produce decent numbers, Beane is only losing about $300,000.
With Manny back in the league, pitchers should beware of his power hitting ability and not forget how much of an impact he can contribute to a team in the clubhouse and out on the field. Overall, a smart pick up for the A's, Ramirez should be looking to prove all the skeptics wrong and show that he can still play the game he'll always love.
Ever since reading Moneyball I've always been intrigued by Billy Beane's moves. His decision to pursue OBP at a time when most of baseball didn't care really showed that small market teams need to think out of the box in order to compete with the big boys. It's also always keeps sportswriters on their toes, because there's no handbook by which Billy Beane operates, except for look for those he perceives to be undervalued and therefore cheap.
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