Deal with the Devil

So with Ground Hog day now behind us and with each day we get closer and closer to Pitchers & Catchers reporting to Spring Training, I have to say that I'm shocked at the fact that Manny still has not reached a deal with anyone. Talk about a guy shooting himself in the foot. I mean all he had to do was play hard for a couple of more years and he would have made another $40 million from the Sox. But he had to buy into the hype that so called "Super Agent" Scott Boras could land him another $100 million deal. At this point it looks like he is going to have a tough time getting a contract that will be close to what the Sox would have giving him for the two team options they had, $20 million a year to do what he was doing for the last 8. Specially if he has the audacity to turn down a 1 year $25 million offer from the Dodgers http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3880836 . Must be nice in this type of economy to turn down a contract that would make you the second highest player in the league. However Boras seems to believe that the team he goes to would make money hand over fist with the revenue the would make on apparel an ticket sales just having Manny on their team. If seeing what happened to Vartitek doesn't shed some light on Boras's eyes then it is hope less. He has made his money though so I guess for him it ain't no thing. Tek ended taking a contract for less then half of what he would have got from Arbitration, but rest assure you can guarantee that Boras was the one whispering in his ear that he could get a multi year deal worth over $11 million a season. So months go by with no teams showing interest in his service for that kind of money, as well as having to give up drafts picks for signing him due to the arbitration offer(nice move Sox's). After Tek had some agent free meetings with the ownership he ended up taking a 1 year deal for on $5 million http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/hot_stove/posts/45961-varitek-on-verge-of-two-year-deal-with-red-sox?eref=sircrc with a team option for the next year at $3 million. Arbitration isn't looking so bad now for a guy that had hardly any production at the plate. Maybe Manny should have paid some attention to this. I'm sure he'll make out just fine in the end, but if money is what matters it sure seems like he left a lot on the table. The Varitek contract ended up working in the Sox's favor. If Tek settled for arbitration he would be clearly getting over paid if they with last years numbers, but thanks to Boras we got are Captain back for at least one more year at half the cost. Perfect chance for the Sox to cut back on his starts ands have him work with the younger guys to groom one for the future.