Cursed Images

This one’s a bit of a cheat. No, I’m not talking about Manny Ramírez. I’m talking about his entry into the Cursed Images series as an Oakland Athletic. Technically, he should be here with the Chicago White Sox or Tampa Bay Rays. But as an Oakland A’s fan, seeing Manny in the green and gold is personally one of the more horrifically awesome entries in the series (even though he never did get the call while stashed in AAA). So, while he’s enshrined in the Hall of Cursed Images in an A’s cap, consider this one a Manny Ramírez Cursed Images Greatest Hits—the backend of his career is a unique case of a player refusing to give up on the dream.

After eight equally dominant years in both Cleveland (30 bWAR) and Boston (33.2 bWAR), he was traded at the 2008 deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-team trade. The deal also saw Jason Bay head from Pittsburgh to Boston as the other ‘big’ piece. Manny’s 2008 with the Dodgers was insane: .396/.489/.743 in 53 games, with 17 home runs, leading them to the NLCS, where they fell to the eventual champion Phillies in five games. The performance earned him a two-year, $45 million contract for his age 37-38 seasons.

Manny performed well with the Dodgers, but after falling out of a playoff race in 2010, he was placed on waivers. The White Sox claimed him, trying to close a 4.5-game gap on the Twins with 32 games remaining. Ramírez was a huge disappointment with the Chisox, knocking just a single home run over 24 games en route to a .261/.420/.319 line. The South Siders ended the season in second place, six games out.

Now looking for a new contract, Manny signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Tampa Bay Rays, reuniting with longtime Red Sox teammate Johnny Damon. Sadly, he only appeared in five regular season games before he voluntarily retired in lieu of serving a 100-game suspension after testing positive for steroids for the second time. Ramírez went 1-17 with Tampa Bay, in what would ultimately prove to be his final major league at-bats at the age of 39.

That poor showing and subsequent disgraceful exit from the Rays didn’t stop Manny from trying to extend his remarkable career, however. The following February, he signed a minor league pact with the A’s, worth approximately $500,000 if he made the team. In a low-risk move, Billy Beane was thrilled to add the veteran to a team that had just signed Cuban defector Yoenis Céspedes. Céspedes had stated a desire to play alongside Manny, and it seemed like a great fit.

Though reduced from 100 to 50 games, he was still facing suspension as he opened the 2012 season with Triple-A Sacramento. There, Manny slashed .302/.348/.349, but the power was nowhere to be found. In 17 games, he tallied just three extra-base hits (three doubles). Though Oakland had suggested that Manny would be recalled when first eligible on May 31st, his inability to drive the ball and consistent, nagging injuries led Ramírez to request his release to pursue a better opportunity.

That opportunity with an MLB club didn’t come until over a year later, when the Texas Rangers came calling. At the time, Manny had been playing with EDA Rhinos of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, where he was hitting .352 with eight home runs and 43 RBIs in 49 games before signing the pact. Again worth $500,000 if recalled, the Rangers rolled the dice on the legend after 37-year-old DH Lance Berkman battled knee issues following surgery the year prior. That would be some platoon at DH if it worked out—the lefty Berkman and the righty Ramírez combined for 921 career home runs. Unfortunately it never did: Ramírez spent just 30 games with Triple-A Round Rock, slashing a meager .259/.328/.370 with three home runs before his release on August 13, 2013.

His last opportunity with a major league club came with the Chicago Cubs, who signed Manny on May 25, 2014 to be a player-coach at Triple-A Iowa. The move was announced by the Cubs’ President of Baseball Operations, Theo Epstein, who knew Ramírez well after spending seven years together in the Red Sox organization. Epstein made this optimistic statement after the signing:

“We are excited to welcome Manny to the Cubs organization and look forward to him working with our young hitters. Manny is not only one of the best hitters of all time, he is also a dedicated student of hitting and has proven to be a gifted teacher with younger teammates who have worked with him in the batting cage. Behind the scenes he has always been a tireless worker who is very serious about the craft of hitting. Manny has made real mistakes in the past but he has owned up to them and moved his life in a positive direction the last couple of years. He is in a really great place right now and wants to share the lessons he’s learned along the way. We think he deserves another chance and that our young hitters will benefit from it.”

Theo Epstein

Manny made his first appearance a month later, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. However, he knocked a home run in his next game while going 3-for-4. Ramírez lasted the entire season with Iowa, playing sporadically while mentoring young players such as Javier Báez, Kris Bryant, and Jorge Soler. While he clearly wasn’t there for his bat, he still managed to sock three home runs, ending with a paltry .222/.273/.375 in his last action with an MLB affiliate.

Just two months later, and still with the itch, the never-ending urge to compete, Manny signed on for his second stint with Aguilas Cibaenas of the Dominican Winter League. There, he managed a much more Manny-esque line, knocking five home runs in 41 games, good for a .313/.409/.510 line. That’s his last entry on his baseball reference page, but not his last attempt to get back on the field. In 2017, Manny signed with the Kochi Fighting Dogs of the Shikoku Island League, an independent professional league in Japan. 2017 was also his first year on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, where he got 23.8% of the vote, falling well short of induction due to his PED suspensions. In August 2020, at 48 years old, he signed another player-coach contract, this time with Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League. He was unfortunately cut loose in January due to health concerns before playing a game.

And then in 2024, Manny again joked that he hadn’t given up on a comeback:

A fitting end to an incredible career. Just Manny being Manny until the very end.