No probe of Manny Ramirez trade from Red Sox to Dodgers
DODGERS
Commissioner Bud Selig's office says there were follow-up questions but no formal investigation of the last-minute deal that changed the terms of Manny Ramirez's contract.
The baseball commissioner's office has not launched a formal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Manny Ramirez trade and does not plan to take action against any party in the deal, his spokesman said today.
The Boston Globe reported in today's editions that Commissioner Bud Selig had ordered an investigation into "the circumstances of Manny's final hours with the Red Sox."
Pat Courtney, the spokesman for Selig, said the commissioner had asked for clarification on several issues involving the trade and did not order a formal inquiry into the matter.
"There were some follow-up calls," Courtney said. "It's closed. It's not ongoing."
The Dodgers acquired Ramirez from the Red Sox in the final minutes before the July 31 trading deadline. Ramirez agreed to waive his no-trade clause and the Red Sox agreed to drop two option years from his contract, making him a free agent this fall when he otherwise would not have been.
The Globe previously reported that Scott Boras, the agent for Ramirez, called the Red Sox shortly after the deal was completed and suggested that Ramirez would be happy to stay in Boston for the remainder of the season since the Sox had agreed to drop the options and let him become a free agent.
Boras, who did not negotiate Ramirez's existing contract and would not earn a commission without negotiating a new or revised one for him, told The Times that report was "completely inaccurate." The Red Sox have declined to comment.
Boras said Ramirez did not hire him to figure out how to become a free agent this year, let alone to devise a scheme to get the outfielder out of Boston before then.
Had Ramirez remained with Boston under his existing contract, Boras said, "there might have been a renegotiation with the Red Sox in the future."
bill.shaikin@latimes.com
