Tony Masarotti of the Boston Herald reports that Scott Boras denies having ever called the Red Sox in a last ditch effort to keep Manny Ramirez in Boston, as reported yesterday. Ramirez seems happy to be gone and it didn’t make sense that he would’ve made an attempt to stay in Boston after such a messy divorce.
MLBTR readers seem to be either exhausted by this story, or think the Red Sox made the right move. Peter Gammons’ blog entry from last week is a must read.
Moving on, in another article, Masarotti details just how much money the Red Sox will have to play with this offseason:
"Look at it this way: Based on the formula used to calculate luxury tax, the Red Sox finished 2007 with a payroll just shy of $165 million. By Opening Day of this year, that number was down to about $150 million. By November, that number will be closer to $110 million, which means the Red Sox could have between $40 million and $55 million to spend, if not more."
