And yet the baseball world was abuzz last week about Manny potentially finding work elsewhere.
Potentially. The word last week was that Manny gave serious consideration to opting out of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, passing up an easy $20 million and seeking work in the American League as a designated hitter instead.
We can debate until the end of time whether he was really serious. Either Manny was so sick and tired of playing left field that he was willing to throw away everything — the job security, the money, the loving fans in Southern California — or this was just another episode of Manny being Manny. You take your pick.
Here's where it gets really interesting, though: From that first crazy tidbit of speculation, a few select members of the media managed to spin it off into an entirely new, second crazy tidbit of speculation. Ready for this? Are you sitting down? The other trendy Manny theory of the week is that this will be the last season of the 37-year-old outfielder's career.
The argument, as presented by L.A. Times baseball writer Bill Shaikin, is that Ramirez chickened out on declining his player option with the Dodgers because he was afraid of testing the open market. He knows that he's not getting a juicy contract offer from an AL team now, especially not this close to the start of spring training, and he went with the sure thing in L.A.
Shaikin goes on to write that "This might well be the last season of Ramirez's career. If he wants to play for relative peanuts next year, maybe he finds a job. But given the absence of a market for Ramirez over the last two winters as well as the suspension and the decline in his production last season, who's to say he even gets a contract offer?"
This is where the argument starts to get a little sketchy.
Manny Ramirez is 37. He'll turn 38 in the middle of this season. He's still one of the best pure hitters in the game, with an on-base percentage well over .400 in each of his first two seasons with the Dodgers. He's still getting the job done, still earning those paychecks. And there's really no sign of him slowing.
Baseball is all Manny knows. It's his life. And you can call him out all you want for the boneheaded mistakes in his past, but at the end of the day, he's one of the most focused, determined and hardworking players in the game. He cares about one thing and one thing only: hitting.
And he's still very, very good at it. He'll be paid as such, too.
Manny decided against nixing his player option with the Dodgers for 2010 because doing so would have been a silly, careless risk. He had a guaranteed $20 million paycheck staring him right in the face. What was he supposed to do, put it all on the proverbial blackjack table and gamble with it? No, Manny opted to take the sure thing. You would too.
After this season, he'll have the freedom to sign anywhere he wants, and he's bound to make plenty of money doing so. Who wouldn't want 30-plus homers and an OBP over .400 every year? In any league, at any position, that's a commodity worth paying for.
So the guy isn't too happy about playing left field. News flash: He never was. But he's always gone out and done his job, and his job is hitting. That was the case in Cleveland, it was the case in Boston, and it's currently the case in SoCal. And it's not changing anytime soon.
How much time does Manny Ramirez have left? As much as he wants. And knowing him, that's probably a lot.
