Empyreal Environs

Manny Ramirez’s blasting of the Red Sox organization reported by Enrique Rojas of ESPNDeportes.com was the crossing of the Rubicon for all concerned.

By the late innings of last night’s game Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus reported a the skeleton of a three-way deal between the Marlins, Pirates, and Red Sox on the site’s blog, Unfiltered. On the same blog a few hours later Kevin Goldstein echoed Carroll’s report but fleshed out the deal with the names of a few prospects from the Marlins’ side. Interestingly (and thankfully), the prospects coming out of Boston’s organization were removed.

The major parts changing organizations were Jason Bay (from the Pirates to the Red Sox), Jeremy Hermida (from the Marlins to the Pirates), and Ramirez (from the Red Sox to the Marlins). The Fish seem to like players from the Red Sox organization named Ramirez.

I’ve defended Manny throughout this most recent imbroglio, but it’s clear he wants out. If the Red Sox are looking for a less controversial player you can’t get anyone more vanilla than Bay, although he does have a fan in Eddie Vedder. For some reason lead singer of Pearl Jam urged attendees of his band’s 2006 concert at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh to vote for Bay as an All-Star. In 2005, Bay hit zero homers in the Home Runs Derby held at Comerica Park.

Although he needed a rock star to stump for him and performed poorly in an over-hyped exhibition, Bay’s production would make him a perennial All-Star if he were in the lineup of either a better team or a franchise in a bigger media market. Should he find himself in Fenway’s left field, the 2004 NL Rookie of the Year will have a tough act to follow. His acquiring team would probably enjoy the fact that he could be a replacement bat for Ramirez but without the incumbent’s antics.