Manny Ramirez Trade

I'd like to keep Manny but if he's really hell bent on getting out of Dodge - I'd propose the following trade to get the most value for him.

Red Sox send Manny Ramirez, David Wells and Guillermo Mota to the Dodgers in exchange for JD Drew, Brad Penny and Hee-Seop Choi.

Manny has three-years and $57 million left on his contract. He's played for Grady Little before and by all accounts really likes Grady. Manny is the second best right-handed hitter in all of baseball and a sure Hall of Fame player. You can almost pencil in David Wells for 30 starts and 15 wins. Wells' contract is just for $4 million plus incentives (which should push it up to about $9 million). Mota is a very popular former Dodger and getting him back will be a PR feather in Dodger GM Ned Colletti's hat.

Yes JD Drew is owed $44 million over 4 years, is injury prone and as dumb as a box of rocks but when healthy he's an OPS over 1.000 waiting to happen. Brad Penny is the poster child for Paul DePodesta's reign as GM and trading him helps airbrush DePodesta out of Dodger history. Penny has potentially 4-years left on his contract (three years plus an option worth as much as $33 million). Some critics out in LA view Penny as an often injury pitcher who's barely over .500 (56-53 for his career). DePodesta saw Penny as a potential staff ace who is still only 27 (I'm in the DePodesta camp). Hee-Seop Choi is a spare part for the Dodgers - especially now that Nomar Garciaparra has been signed to play 1st base. For the Sox he'd make a very good left-handed platoon partner with Kevin Youkilis at 1st or maybe his arrival makes a Youkilis and Bronson Arroyo deal for Torii Hunter more likely.

Trust me when I say I've spent a lot of time thinking about trading Manny and this scenario is the best one I can come up with. It would be fair talent-wise and contract dollar-wise for both sides.

So let it be written - so let it be done.