Why Not?

It’s official. Manny Ramirez is back in baseball. He unretired a few weeks ago in hopes of getting signed, and the A’s GM Billy Beane saw an opportunity. Beane signed Manny to a one year minor league deal worth $500,000. Manny will have to serve the rest of his fifty game suspension for violation of the MLB drug policy before being eligible to play. The first game he is eligible to play in is on May 30^th.

Some people think that this wasn’t a great move by the A’s. I think this pickup is genius. They didn’t sign him for that much, so those who are saying this is anti-Beane philosophy are wrong. Maybe the Cespedes pickup earlier in the offseason was, but this is right on track with his usual signings. After May 30^th, if Manny is ready to play, Ramirez is going to put people in seats. Not sellouts, it’s still Oakland, but people are money and ‘Manny being Manny’ will bring some people.

Of course, you can also look at the other side of this. After leaving the Red Sox, Manny wasn’t so great. In the past two years he’s had only 18 homeruns. He only played in five games for Tampa Bay last year before getting suspended but he only had 1 hit in those five games. This could be, and probably is, a sign of Manny’s age. But hey! Jose Canseco is doing it in Mexico at 47!