LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers took a second stab at re-signing Manny Ramirez by extending the slugger a one-year, $25 million contract offer, according to a baseball source, but the offer was turned down late Monday.
Agent Scott Boras rejected the offer during a conversation with General Manager Ned Colletti, according to a statement released by the Dodgers hours after Colletti confirmed that he had made the offer Sunday.
“We met with Scott, and we’ve made Manny an offer,” Colletti said. “Hopefully, it’s an improvement in one of the areas.”
The Dodgers are the only known team to have made offers to Ramirez, who never responded to a two-year offer worth $45 million with a $15 million option for 2011 in the fall before that offer was withdrawn by the team.
This latest offer would have given Ramirez, who hit .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 games for the Dodgers who dealt for him last July 31, the second-highest average salary in baseball history at a time when the economy is slumping, but it fell short of the four- or five-year contract Boras and the 36-year-old left fielder have desired.
Ramirez had previously declined salary arbitration from the Dodgers, which essentially amounted to a one-year offer that would have given him a raise from the $20 million per year he had been making.
The Dodgers have resisted bidding against themselves, and the rival Giants are the only other team to have publicly expressed interest at signing Ramirez, who went 13-for-25 with four homers in the Dodgers’ eight postseason games last October, to only a short-term deal.
Colletti is also in negotiations with the agents for free-agent starting pitchers Randy Wolf and Braden Looper, whose agents he spoke to over the weekend.
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