They probably felt he was going to cause even more trouble through the rest of the year. He was clearly unhappy and felt they had wronged him. That would have probably brought the whole team down. That's why I said they had no choice. It was now or lose him for nothing in two months. At least they get something this way.
In two months they would have gotten draft picks, which is the only strength of this front office. And again, I'm not upset that they traded Manny so much as I'm upset that they gave up too much and didn't make a trade to bring a reliever in.
That's a great PR campaign by Sox mgmt. We all know Manny was a whacko off the field but he led them to 2 titles and things were as bad as they were the last couple of weeks many times in the past. It's sad that they have to disparage the guy on the way out the door in an attempt to save face.
The thing is though that Manny was pretty obvious to ripping management, likewise he slacks off in plays every chance he got so it isn't completely PR treatment
We all know manny is a goofball, the Sox had a right to do what they did and would have looked better if they just got rid of him w/o the parting shots as he left. The man was a key figure in ending a 86 year Championship drought and helped them win a second one. W/o him it's 80 years and counting so no matter howmuch of a jerk he was he helped them do the impossible TWICE.
What's sad is that a team has to pay the money that the Red Sox paid to Manny over these several years and then have him quit on the team over a NEW contract. Manny asked them just last week to DL him for his knees. Dale Arnold, one of the game announcers said on his talk show that the team had to threaten Manny with team fines when he told them he wasn't play in game two against your guys. Disparaging Manny? Maybe. But I've been his biggest defender until last week. I think they're entitled. When Manny pushed to the ground a 60-something year old traveling secretary because he couldn't get Manny 16 tickets gameday for a game that was already sold out, I thought THAT was the last straw. Turns out, it wasn't. It took quitting.
But it was ok when he was doing the impossible by leading the Sox to TWO world championships? EVERYONE knows Manny is crazy, people would have been more on the Sox side of this but by putting out this media campaign it makes the Sox look small.
Junc Manny being Manny is him being a goofball. Not a guy that doesn't leg out ground balls or chase balls down the line while in the field. What's worse is that he shoved a 65 year old man to the ground for a pretty shitty reason. Manny wanted out and he was going to do what he needed to do to make that happen. I like Manny but I have a problem with him going about it this way. Making his comments about Nomar and Pedro were ridiculous, Nomar was traded because he couldn't stay healthy and with Pedro it's clear the Sox made the right decision to not give him a 4 year deal as Omar Minaya was quite stupid to do that.
That was the one point I actually agree with. It has less to do with the contract situations and more to do with the smear campaigns they pull whenever they want to get rid of a player. They do whatever they can to paint the guy in a bad light so fans don't get too upset about them leaving. Pedro, Lowe, Nomar, Damon, and now Manny. And I think it sucks. There basically won't even be a chance to bring the 2004 team back for like a 25th anniversary thing because the front office bad-mouthed them all the way out of town.
Pedro didn't get bad mouthed they just wouldn't pay him, damon didn't either. nor Lowe, they all left for more money elsewhere, Nomar and Manny the team bashed some, but both were pretty malcontent, especially Nomar, who wasn't on the 2004 champironship team anyway
Lowe was branded a drunken headcase. Pedro's work ethic was questioned. Stories about Nomar in the clubhouse were leaked from the team that were later found to be untrue. This front office has a history of leaking rumor/stories about players as they leave.
The Red Sox F.O wasn't being a propaganda machine in this case. Manny was the one that shoved a man in his sixties to the floor for not getting him a bunch of road tickets at the last second. Manny was the player that jogged down the first base line on what should have been an easy inflield single during the latter part of a no-hitter for the whole world to see. Manny was the one the had the phantom knee injury, and he was also telling anyone willing to listen that the team did not deserve to have a player like him and that he was sick of Red Sox management. Why would the F.O make this shit up? Is there any other explanation for them wanting to trade a HOF player mid-season while in contention and he was still putting up excellent numbers. Sure, there have been some leaks but I doubt that everything is public knowledge even now. No it wouldn't have been okay then either had it been to the same extent it had gotten to in the last few weeks. Manny is 40% better than the average offensive player (140 ops+) and I don't think management would have traded him had his bullshit not reached new extremes.
They've been trying to trade him since they've been in charge. Epstein systematically got rid of just about everyone Duquette brought in. I don't know if it's an ego thing or what, but it's one of the things I dislike about him most. And the players that he did get rid of, for the most part, left to a smear campaign in order to keep the fans from being too unhappy. I for one think it sucks. In better news, Jason Bay had a great first game.
Manny had been shopped around repeatedly in the past. This made sense because of his inflexible contract, to go along with the antics. However, each time the Red Sox stepped away from trading him because they realized the proposed package that they would receive in return was not near equal value. This time however, they traded him, and make no mistake about it, they got worse on paper with this trade. Theo isn't stupid and he knew that the trade would do that, yet he made it anyways, and considering his past success I think he has earned some leeway in circumstances like this. And the reason that almost nobody is left from the Duquette era is that most of the players were not very good players, plus he hasn't been GM since 2001.
You act like he always hustled in the past. He went through stretches like this almost every year. if you couldn't deal him he would have been fine and played hard the rest of the way just like he always has in the past. Time should be able to heal those wounds, it may take 15-20 years but when it's all over these guys will refelct on the great times they had and the thrill of winning that Championship. They'll reunite to get honored in the future. He's the same guy he's alwyas been, I did't hear sox fans complain when you were winning Championships. I understand trying to put a positive spin on this but it was a horrendous move that every non-Sox fan is loving.
