Acquiring Manny Ramirez From the Boston Red Sox

Manny Ramirez was a phenomenal hitter during his prime, but he came with his own special, well, circumstances. The term “Manny being Manny” didn’t just happen for no reason, ya know.

Despite being named World Series MVP in 2004 as part of the “idiots” that broke Boston’s 86-year championship curse, Ramirez almost became a Met the following winter.

As detailed on MLB Trade Rumors via WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford, the Red Sox wanted to spend big in free agency and had their eyes on both J.D. Drew and Adrian Beltre. To do that, though, they wanted to clear some money.

New York was interested in Ramirez (again, who wouldn’t want that bat in their lineup?), and while the total package did change, Lastings Milledge and Cliff Floyd were the two constants. It seems like this deal could’ve really happened if the Red Sox contributed some of the $77 million Manny was owed at the time (the more things change, the more they say the same…am I right?).

Selfishly, I’m glad this didn’t happen because Cliff Floyd is my totally random favorite Met outside of the usual suspects. The visual of him catching Josh Willingham’s liner to clinch the National League East in 2006 is a vivid memory that’ll never go away.

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Matt Musico is an editor for ESNY. He’s been writing about baseball and the Mets for the past decade. His work has been featured on numberFire, MetsMerized Online, Bleacher Report, and Yahoo! Sports.