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White Sox reportedly planning waiver claim on Manny Ramirez

Aaron Gleeman
Aug. 24, 2010, 1:10 PM ET


Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com wrote this morning that "claiming Manny Ramirez off waivers would be nuts." And now he's reporting that the White Sox plan to place a waiver claim on Ramirez.

General manager Ken Williams and the White Sox were said to be interested in Ramirez prior to the July 31 trade deadline, so Chicago's apparent willingness to take what now amounts to little more than a $4 million flier on the 38-year-old slugger certainly isn't surprising. Or particularly crazy, despite what Rosenthal suggests.

Ramirez certainly isn't the dominant offensive force he once was and has also been limited to just 62 games because of injuries, but if reasonably healthy he's still a damn good bat. He's hit .312/.404/.508 overall this season, which is good for a .912 OPS that ranks seventh among all MLB outfielders with at least 200 plate appearances.

Beyond that, the White Sox's have a gaping hole at designated hitter caused by the misguided decision not to re-sign Jim Thome at manager Ozzie Guillen's urging this offseason. Thome has been amazing for the Twins with a .269/.393/.583 mark that tops the measly .237/.308/.401 cumulative production from the White Sox's designated hitters by 267 points of OPS.

Ramirez can't get back the production and games lost by choosing to replace Thome with Mark Kotsay, but his still-powerful right-handed bat would fit very well into the White Sox's lineup and by using him primarily at DH they could cross "defense" off the list of potential issues.

Of course, just because the White Sox are planning to place a waiver claim on Ramirez doesn't mean a team in front of them won't do the same, and even if Chicago ends up with the winning claim they'd still have to work out a deal for him unless the Dodgers are simply willing to give him away to save money.

As usual, Ken Williams has plenty of gamble in him.