Manny Ramirez

One thing many people forget about Manny Ramirez is that the Red Sox signed him mostly as a reaction to losing out on the bidding for Mike Mussina. When Mussina signed with the Yankees, Red Sox GM Dan Duquette was determined to sign Ramirez because Boston had the money and Duquette needed a big name signing in the offseason to placate the fans and sportswriters.

This year Mussina will make $19 million – just the same as Manny.

I’m here to support Manny and say he was by far the better signing. The Red Sox got lucky when Mussina signed with the Yankees. Since 2001 when both players signed with their respective clubs – Mussina has been top 10 in Cy Young voting only once while Manny has had 5-straight top 10 finishes in the MVP voting. Also Mussina has averaged 15.4 wins and 9.2 losses while in that same span Manny has averaged 39.8 HR and 122 RBI. Mussina has not led the league in any of the major pitching categories since he got to New York while Manny has lead the league in OBP, SLG, OPS and HR and oh yeah Manny also has a World Series MVP to his credit during that time.

The Red Sox got lucky when they signed Manny Ramirez – they could have ended up with Mussina.