Best All-Time Left Fielders Manny Ramirez (#9)
"“I have fun every day. The game is supposed to be fun.”—Manny Ramirez"
Manny Ramirez was drafted by Cleveland with the 13th pick of the first round in the 1991 Amateur Draft. He was worth more than all 12 picks ahead of him combined. Other than a 22 game sample in his first year and a 5 game sample in his final year, Ramirez was an above-average hitter throughout his career.
In the strike-shortened 1994 season, Ramirez slugged 17 home runs in 91 games and finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting. The next season, he made the first of 12 all-star teams when he launched 31 homers and had 107 RBI.
He would end up hitting 30 or more home runs 12 times and drive in 100 or more runs 12 times. His 165 RBI in 1999 is the most by any hitter in the last 80 years.
Manny Ramirez could hit like few players ever have. In 19 seasons, he hit .312/.411/.585, with 2574 hits, 1544 runs, 555 home runs, and 1831 RBI. His 153 wRC+ is third-highest among these 20 greatest left fielders of all-time. Only Barry Bonds and Ted Williams were better left fielders offensively than Manny Ramirez.
If hitting were all that mattered Manny would be in the top five on this list. Unfortunately for Manny, playing defense is also part of the game. Manny was really bad defensively, like, epically bad. Based on the Fangraphs defense metric, Manny was the worst left fielder ever, even worse than Adam Dunn.
The career of Manny Ramirez had more than its share of interesting twists. In his first eight years, all with Cleveland, Manny was known as a big kid who could rake like few right-handed hitters before him. He led the league in slugging percentage twice and RBI once and was a big part of the success Cleveland had in the mid-1990s.
Then came the Red Sox years. Manny was just as good a hitter with Boston as he was with Cleveland, but became more well known for the unusual things he did on and off the field.
He was still a big kid, but the spotlight shined brighter in Boston. He was an all-star every season he played with the Red Sox and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting five straight years from 2001 to 2005.
In 2004, when the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, Manny led the AL in home runs and slugging percentage. He kept it going in the World Series, where he hit .412/.500/.588 and won MVP honors. He was a big part of their 2007 World Series-winning team also.
Things turned sour for Manny in Boston in 2008. He fought with teammate Kevin Youkilis in the dugout and got into a heated exchange with the team’s traveling secretary that reportedly led to the 64-year-old secretary being shoved to the ground.
He lollygagged to first base on ground balls. Fans and local writers wanted him gone. On July 31, 2008, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Manny was unbelievable with the Dodgers in the last two months of the 2008 season. He hit .396/.489/.743 in 53 games and ended up fourth in NL MVP voting. He hit well again in 2009 but only played 104 games because he was hit with a PED suspension.
He was back with the Dodgers at the beginning of the 2010 season, but injuries cut into his playing time and he was selected off waivers by the White Sox at the end of August.
Manny’s White Sox career lasted just 24 games. He signed a free agent deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. His career as a Ray lasted five games. Once again, it was reported that he had failed a PED test and now faced a 100-game suspension.
He never made it back to major league baseball but did play minor league ball for the Athletics, Rangers, and Cubs, and played with the Kochi Island Fighting Dogs of the Japanese Independent Shikoku Island League.
The legacy of Manny Ramirez is muddled. He was a joy to watch as a hitter, one of the best of his generation. He was also a joy to watch as a fielder, albeit in a much different way. He almost always looked like he was having the time of his life, so he’s an easy guy to like.
At the same time, he had those two PED suspensions and was among the 104 players listed in the Mitchell Report. How much of Manny’s hitting excellence was artificially enhanced? It’s something baseball fans will never know.
Manny Ramirez has been on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot twice and received 23.8 and 22.0 percent of the vote. That doesn’t suggest he’ll get close to the 75 percent threshold, but it’s almost double the vote percentage that Rafael Palmeiro ever received and Palmeiro only failed one PED test.