Los Angeles – Manny Ramirez’s agent, Scott Boras has made it clear that the Dodgers’ offer (he still won’t confirm the details) wasn’t sufficient. The length of the proposed contract is too short for Boras’ taste. To buttress his negotiating position that age shouldn’t matter in the case of a hitter like Manny, Boras offered this:

“There is evidence of major league teams giving a player that’s older a contract for five years.”

Of course, that refers to the contract Barry Bonds signed when he was 37. And look how well that worked out for the San Francisco Giants, right? They got the revenue from his chase for the record books as he passed Hank Aaron on the career home run record and were able to dump him immediately thereafter when his the contract expired.

Ned Colletti, the Dodgers GM, was quoted yesterday as warning Boras that the Dodgers offer, whatever it is, would not be on the table forever. I’m sure Scott is shaking in his boots. Do you think he wears boots?

In Southern California, sports talk radio has been ablaze with talk about the Dodgers offer to Manny Ramirez and if it will fly with his agent Scott Boras.

Boras threw out the fishing line at season’s end with the announcement that the bidding would start at $25,000,000 for a multi-year deal of four years or more. The Dodgers have a short and exclusive period to see if they want to bite on what Boras is dangling on that line and Wednesday afternoon the team released a cryptic statement about an offer.

It was described by the Dodgers as “the highest average annual value in the history of the franchise and the second-highest average annual value in baseball”.

In other words, the offer was less than what A Rod makes and more than Johan Santana’s annual haul. Neither Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti nor Scott Boras was willing to be specific about the dollar amount or the length of the deal on the table.

Notice the use of the words, “annual average”. Obviously this is a multi-tiered compensation package that either front-loads or back-loads some of the money and might include various bonuses. As I wrote yesterday, the looming new tax bite on the top income earners has agents trying to get clubs to shell out bonus money prior to year’s end.

The Dodgers are being very tight lipped about it as is Boras. No one else can intervene with an official offer until fifteen days after the final game of the World Series was played. But you have to presume that Boras was mixing and mingling with club officials and owners during the meeting held this week here in So Cal and knowing winks and nods were presumably exchanged. Whether they turn into definitive offers remains to be seen.

What is certain is that Dodger fans are saying their prayers that their team lands the biggest fish they’ve had in their pond for a couple of decades.