The Cubs’ hiring of Manny Ramirez as a player-coach at Triple-A Pacific Coast League Iowa “just became the most intriguing storyline of the season for the last-place Cubs,” according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein on Sunday said of Ramirez, “There’s potential high impact here … If he can just influence one player in a positive way, then it was worthwhile.” Epstein added, “There’s relatively low risk involved. It’s something that if it doesn’t go well, we can terminate. But I think it will go well.” Epstein said that Ramirez “initially balked at signing with the Cubs as an instructor because he wants to continue his playing career.” Wittenmyer noted if another club “wants to add” Ramirez to its big-league roster this season, the Cubs “will release him from the deal.” However, Epstein said that Ramirez “won’t play at the expense of Cubs prospects.” Ramirez will get “perhaps one or two starts a week, and there is no scenario in which he’d join the Cubs’ big-league roster.” Epstein: “In part because we don’t want this to become a sideshow.” Epstein said that the Cubs were “up front with Ramirez about that from the beginning” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/26).
WRONG DIRECTION: In Illinois, Mike North wrote, “I fail to see the upside to hiring the 41-year-old former slugger who was suspended twice late in his career after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs." The hiring of Ramirez is a “misguided decision and sends a bad message.” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has been “busting his tail to implement better drug testing and precautions to clean up the game -- and this news can't make him happy” (Illinois DAILY HERALD, 5/27). In Chicago, Rick Morrissey wrote the Cubs “keep making all the wrong kind of news, which is what they tend to do.” Epstein “mostly has managed to stay away from the goofy stuff, which is why the Ramirez decision is such a head-scratcher.” He has now created a "major-league distraction that isn’t necessary” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 5/26). Also in Chicago, David Haugh wrote either Epstein “believes he owes Ramirez a debt of gratitude for the two World Series they won together with the Red Sox or Epstein lost a bet.” How does a Cubs organization that “keeps Sammy Sosa away for reasons Chairman Tom Ricketts defended hire one of the most prominent faces of baseball's steroid era?” Under Epstein, the "Cubs Way involves selling hope -- and apparently buying the benefit of the doubt” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/26).
