Manny Ramirez: Teams Shouldn't Gamble on Loudmouth Slugger

Manny Ramirez is plotting a comeback and while he will undoubtedly find a team to take the bait, no team in the bigs should be drinking the Manny Ramirez Kool-Aid.

The guy has way too much baggage.

We're talking about a guy who has been busted for using PEDs, sat out the 2011 season and presents a huge distraction to any team that signs him.

While, for a time, his dominant play grossly outweighed the repercussions and backlash of "Manny being Manny," it doesn't anymore.

According to NBC's D.J. Short, Ramirez has been reinstated from the retirement list.

There are teams that are going to be interested in working out the 39-year-old slugger, but he's the sort of high-risk, low-reward addition that can cripple a baseball team.

He's a media circus and he's coming off a mini-sabbatical from the sport. There was a time when bringing in Ramirez would have given a team a .300 hitter that was guaranteed to go yard at least 40 times in a season.

That time is long gone.

Ramirez is a shadow of the player he once was and any team who is willing to gamble on him is going to get nothing more than a big name and has-been baseball player who takes away from the team.

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