Thoughts of a season without Manny Ramirez have unsettled Larry Bowa.
Instead of looking forward to the start of spring training, baseball's most famous third base coach said he finds himself imagining what the Dodgers might look like this season if Ramirez isn't re-signed.
It's not a pretty picture.
"Without Manny in the lineup I won't say we can't score runs, but we'll be like we were at the beginning of last year," said Bowa, who was Manager Joe Torre's right-hand man with the New York Yankees and first hire with the Dodgers.
The Dodgers were 54-55 and in second place in the National League West before they acquired Ramirez. With the All-Star outfielder in their lineup, they were 30-23 in the regular season, claimed the division title and won their first playoff series in 20 years.
But the Dodgers remain stalled in their negotiations with Ramirez, who became a free agent after the season. General Manager Ned Colletti said he spoke Wednesday with Ramirez's agent, Scott Boras, but that significant progress wasn't made. Meanwhile, Boras is saying that he has entered negotiations with clubs other than the Dodgers on Ramirez's behalf.
The holding pattern concerns Bowa.
"Manny is sort of that constant in that lineup," Bowa said. "With the kids, you don't know what you're going to get."
That includes the pitching staff, which kept the Dodgers within striking distance until Ramirez was acquired. But Derek Lowe, Brad Penny, Takashi Saito and Chan Ho Park were lost to free agency.
"Like [Clayton] Kershaw," he said. "Can he win 15-20 games? No question. Does he have the talent? No question. But you don't know.
"With Johan Santana, before the season starts, you can put down 15 wins. With Derek Lowe, you can put down more than 200 innings pitched."
Because of the team's youth, Bowa said that if the Dodgers re-sign Ramirez, it's important they do so by the start of camp.
"I think it's important, especially [with] a key player. Just being around, getting that rapport, it helps out."
An unsigned Ramirez would be a distraction, he said.
"Everyone's going to be talking about it," Bowa said. "If we had an all-veteran team, it'd be a non-issue. But we don't have a veteran team."
That's something Bowa won't have to worry about, according to Boras, who said he expected Ramirez to be signed by the opening of spring training.
