Earlier this morning in the Speed Read Cameron told you about the one-year $25 million offer the Los Angeles Dodgers had made to Manny Ramirez.  They also apparently gave Manny and his agent Scott Boras only 48 hours to make a decision, which was no doubt a tough decision to make.  “Gee, should we take the one-year offer for $25 million the Dodgers have made us, or do we reject that and accept all those imaginary offers we’re making up to try and drive up the price?  This is hard!”

Well apparently it’s not as hard as we thought.  While baseball owners are smart enough to figure out Boras’ game when it comes to these “mystery suitors” Manny  isn’t as sharp.  That can be the only reason he’s turned down the Dodgers offer already.

From ESPN:

Just hours after the Dodgers offered him a one-year, $25-million contract that would have made him the second-highest paid player in baseball and the highest-paid outfielder in baseball history, Ramirez and agent Scott Boras informed the team late Monday night that they’d rejected that offer.

This latest rejection, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times and confirmed to ESPN.com by a major-league source, marked the second Dodgers bid that Ramirez has rebuffed this winter.

So just to recap, the Dodgers originally offered Manny a two-year deal with $45 million when the season ended, and Boras told Manny not to take it.  “I can get you a five or six-year deal for more money annually,” Boras said.  Now, over three months later, Manny still doesn’t have a contract and there are no other teams besides the Dodgers who have legitimate interest.

So they make the $25 million offer that works for both sides.  The Dodgers get Manny in a contract year, and if Manny plays well he’ll be a free agent again next winter when the economy may be a lot stronger and enable his chances of a multi-year deal.  So what does he do?  He turns it down.

Is it just me, or does anybody else think that Manny is only doing this to get out of having to run in spring training?