Manny Ramirez To Retire From The Tampa Bay Rays

The short answer: enough. The Rays entered into this season close enough in talent level to the Yankees and Red Sox that it was conceivable for them to compete in the AL East and possibly eek out one of those two titans for the AL Wild Card spot. But after this news…well, SB Nation’s Rob Neyer captures it all:

The club seemed to have capable replacements for Pena, Crawford and Garza. Rebuilding the bullpen wouldn’t be easy, but wasn’t like the organization had never rebuilt a bullpen before, or that manager Joe Maddon doesn’t know how to handle one. And this team did win 96 games just one year ago.

So there was hope. Or there should have been.

The margin for error was not large, though. Some things were sure to go wrong — some things always go wrong — but too many things couldn’t go wrong and more things would have to go right.

The Rays were projected before the season began as around an 88 win ballclub. Losing Manny knocks off about two of those wins, and the Rays’ poor start has them in the hole around three wins already. Toss in the fact that Longoria is out for another couple weeks, and the Rays are looking closer to a .500 ballclub than playoff contenders.

Anything can happen as the season goes along, but Manny’s retirement isn’t the only thing that’s gone wrong for the Rays so far this year. Competing in the AL East is tough even under the best of circumstances – this just only makes it tougher.

With the new that Manny Ramirez has just retired, one of the first questions on most people’s mind is: does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Ramirez was one of the best pure hitter’s of his generation, and has put up some of the best stats by any right-handed hitter in baseball’s history. However, will those statistics be enough to get him into the Hall?

When you look at Manny’s pure numbers, it’s hard to make the case that the doesn’t belong in the Hall. Manny had 555 career homeruns (14th all-time) and 1831 RBIs (18th all-time), and his .410 career OBP is good for 32nd all-time. And when you combine his slugging ability and on-base skills, Manny has a .996 career OPS, ninth all-time behind such names as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire. Simply put, Manny was a Hall-of-Fame caliber offensive player.

Sadly, though, the statistics may not be enough to get him in. As we’ve seen with Mark McGwire, even if you have prodigious numbers, the BWAA voters are very hesitant to vote anyone into the Hall that has any association with steroids. Mark McGwire has been blackballed for the past few years of voting, and player like Jeff Bagwell are receiving less support simple for “looking” like they did steroids. If the current reports out there are correct and Manny is retired for steroid-related issues, then he’s the first person in baseball to fail two drug tests since the new policies were put in place. It’s unlikely that the voters will be willing to look past this information, unless something drastically changes before Manny is on the ballot.

For Manny Ramirez’s full career statistics, check out his page at SB Nation. And for more coverage of how this move affects the Tampa Bay Rays, go to DRaysBay.com.