(Boston Sports Buzz Illustration)

One of Manny's many "close friends" claims to have firsthand information that the Dodgers left fielder wants to sign with the Yanks after the season "so he can get back at the Red Sox." What possible reason could he have for wanting to "get back" at the Sox? If I recall correctly, he was the one that bitched and moaned (and whiffed and shoved) his way out of town...

I say, Good. Have at him, Yanks fans. We'll see if Girardi, Cashman and the Steinbrenners put up with his shenanigans the way Tito, Theo, Henry, Werner and Lucchino did. Think all that Manny-being-Manny crap will fly in the Bronx? (No? Me neither.) I welcome the move - in fact, I wholeheartedly endorse it - as it would serve as yet another example of the Yankees' willingness to overpay for our unwelcome, unappreciative, on-the-back-nine castoffs. Pay him $100 million over the next 4 years and we'll sit tight with Jason Bay and his $7.5 million 2009 salary in left. Maybe Manny'll hit 30 homers and drive in 100 next year; he might even keep his average north of .300 and appear in more than 130 games, which he's only done once in the past three seasons, at the age of 37. But he'll play horrible defense in the substantially larger left field in Yankee Stadium, and he'd presumably have to DH a fair amount of the time with the OF projected to be pretty full (Damon, Matsui, Cabrera, Nady and Gardner are all under contract for '09, and Abreu has been vocal about his desire to stay in NY), which would mean far less ABs for other aging Yanks (especially Jorge Posada).

So go ahead, Cash and co., saddle your franchise with a financial albatross for one or (maaaybe) two semi-productive years out of the MLB's mood-swing extraordinaire. Maybe you could even use a possible Manny signing to hype the the opening of your new stadium:

The New Yankee Stadium: The Stomping Grounds of Former Red Sox Greats.