White Sox Officially Get Manny Ramirez From Dodgers As Waiver Claim

As one final update to the story, Bob Nightengale says that Manny Ramirez is indeed on his way to Cleveland to join the rest of the White Sox, but adds that Manny waited for the deal to be finalized, meaning he will arrive too late for Monday’s game.

Depending on how quickly Manny moves, he may end up available to pinch-hit, but more likely is that he will take this opportunity to introduce himself to his new teammates and get ready to be in the lineup on Tuesday.

The inevitable is finally upon us - Manny Ramirez has been sent from the Dodgers to the White Sox in exchange for nothing more than salary relief.

To see how White Sox fans react to the move, you should keep your eye on South Side Sox. Chicago will absorb all the remains of Manny Ramirez’s salary, and they will hope to use up all that remains of Manny Ramirez’s Hall of Fame-caliber offense.

So much for prospect Jon Gilmore. According to MLB.com, the Dodgers are going to give Manny Ramirez to the White Sox straight up as a waiver claim, and Chicago will assume the rest of his salary.

The Dodgers will continue to run with an outfield of Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Scott Podsednik. The White Sox, meanwhile, should plug Manny right in at DH, and may have him in uniform in time for Monday’s game in Cleveland.

This Manny Ramirez situation is all going down very quickly now. Bob Nightengale has the latest, and be warned: it’s getting mighty specific.

Jon Gilmore is a third baseman who just turned 22 years old. With A-ball Winston-Salem, he’s batted .318 on the year with a .754 OPS. The 33rd overall pick in the 2007 draft, Gilmore only has four home runs and has yet to show much of a stick, but as you would guess for a guy chosen so highly, he’s got a lot of tools. They just have yet to translate to much professional success.

Sunday afternoon, Manny Ramirez made a pinch-hit appearance for the Dodgers and was ejected after one pitch for arguing a called strike. According to Ken Rosenthal, that could and should be the last thing he does in the uniform.

This is the most concrete language we’ve seen with regard to the situation, and it would appear that there’s little left to sort out. While the White Sox may trade some young players or they may just take on Manny’s contract, all indications are that they’ll end up with their slugger for the stretch run.

Despite having recently returned from the DL, Manny Ramirez hasn’t started a game since Wednesday. He’s been out of the lineup for four days in a row, and Bob Nightengale reads between the lines:

Joe Torre says Manny is “tentatively” penciled into the Monday lineup, but that doesn’t carry much weight - if the Dodgers thought they needed Manny to make a playoff run, they’d be playing him. It certainly looks like he’ll be sent to Chicago.

The White Sox have reportedly won the claim for Manny Ramirez, according to both ESPN’s Jayson Stark and SI’s Jon Heyman. Chicago was awarded the claim because their record -- 69-58 -- is worse than that of the Rangers and Rays, two of the other teams that were rumored to have also placed a claim.

Now, as we pointed out earlier, the Dodgers have until Tuesday to work out a deal with the White Sox. It’s unlikely that the Dodgers will just let him go to the White Sox for nothing in return -- and even more unlikely that Chicago would want to pay the $4.1 million in salary -- so if he’s moving to the South Side, it would probably require a trade. But Manny leaving Los Angeles at all is hardly a definite, now that the Dodgers are winning.

The waiver wire process for any player takes 47 hours. Manny Ramirez’s 47 hours expired on Friday afternoon, and sure enough, he has been claimed. By at least one team, and possibly more.

Nobody is sure right now which team - or teams - put in a claim. Whoever has waiver priority now has until Tuesday to work out an arrangement with the Dodgers, and while it looked for a few days like the Dodgers might want to move quickly to deal Manny away, they’ve won three in a row and are only five games back in the Wild Card, so they could prefer to see what happens over the weekend before deciding whether or not they want to ship their slugger off.

T.R. Sullivan reported that, while the Rangers are thinking about adding a bat, Brad Hawpe isn’t an option, as he’d be another lefty on a team full of lefties. You know an available bat that isn’t left-handed? From the same Sullivan article:

“Mulling the possibility”, of course, isn’t the same as actually making a move, and the Rangers don’t seem like a perfect fit given that Manny can’t really play the outfield and the team already has Vladimir Guerrero. Odds are this is just idle chatter. Any team will consider adding any available player. Still, it’s the first we’ve heard of any interest on the Rangers’ part, and it’s worth keeping an eye on.

For several days, it’s been assumed that the White Sox would claim Manny Ramirez off waivers and work out a way to get him from the Dodgers for the stretch run. Ken Rosenthal tells us that it may not be that simple:

The fact that the Dodgers are kinda sorta on the fringes of the race isn’t very meaningful. At 5.5 back of the Wild Card, they’re also trailing Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Colorado, and the odds that they’ll be able to leap past all four are highly unlikely.

As part of his contract with the Dodgers, Manny Ramirez was given full no-trade protection. However, lest one believe that would prevent Manny from being dealt, here’s Bob Nightengale:

Manny, for his part, seems to be very up to speed on the current situation. Where some players say they don’t pay attention to the rumor mill, Manny’s very much plugged in.

Manny Ramirez was only just today placed on the waiver wire, but if the Chicago Sun-Times is to be believed, the White Sox have already made the move it was rumored they would make, and are now closing in on a deal to get the aging slugger from the Dodgers:

If this is true - and there’s every reason to believe it is - then Manny should be playing in Chicago before too long, as the White Sox have clear interest and a clear need, while the Dodgers have long been ready to ship Manny off. Though Ramirez has a no-trade clause, he should waive it here and relish the opportunity to join a potential contender.

Manny Ramirez is expected to hit the waiver wire Tuesday or Wednesday, as the Dodgers explore their options for dumping him off. And one team that appears interested in taking him on?

The White Sox make sense. They don’t have a fragile clubhouse incapable of handling a distraction, and they do have a need at DH, where Mark Kotsay and an assortment of others have combined to bat just .237 with a .709 OPS on the year. Whether Manny would be enough to push them past the Twins, of course, is unknown and unlikely, but if Kenny Williams could afford the price tag, there’s little risk to taking a gamble. That’s a team that needs help, and Manny could most definitely provide a shake-up.