Breaking News: Looks Like Manny To Fish…Jason Bay to Sox

Baseball Prospectus says it will happen soon….developing

Multipe baseball sources say the Red Sox are on the verge of sending disgrunted left fielder Manny Ramirez to the Marlins in a trade for a package of three players that included low Class A Greensboro outfielder Mike Stanton, an 18-year-old who is hitting .275/.351/.569 with 26 home runs in 96 games.

UPDATE: MLB.com is reporting it is a 3 team deal here are the details:

Ramirez would go to the Marlins, while Jeremy Hermida would go to the Pirates, and Jason Bay would go to the Red Sox.

UPDATE II: Jason Stark of ESPN reports that talks between the Rays and Bucs have cooled because:

One possible reason those conversations between the Rays and Pirates have slowed could involve Manny Ramirez. Officials from several teams theorized Wednesday that if the Red Sox were to trade Manny, they would target Bay as a right-handed bat to replace him.

UPDATE III: President of Florida Marlins on the possibility of trading for Manny:

Asked specifically if a deal for Ramirez was possible, Samson said, “I’ve always told you everything is possible. There are all sorts of crazy things. There’s no way to say which trades are going to happen.”

Update IV: MLB.com has several sources talking about the deal:

That issue, the money and the limited time left before the deadline are working against a Manny-to-Miami deal.

UPDATE V: ESPN’s Buster Olney has more on the deal:

the sides are also discussing lefty reliever John Grabow moving from Pittsburgh to the Red Sox. The current sticking point, according to a well-placed source, is that the Marlins want the Red Sox to add a prospect to their take in the deal.

UPDATE VI: Could Lowrie be involved in the deal? From timesoline.com:

Part of the deal could also have Pirates left-handed reliever John Grabow going to Florida and Marlins right-handed pitching prospect Ryan Tucker, who is at Class AA Carolina, ending up in the Pittsburgh farm system.

The three clubs have talked about various version of a deal including some that would send Boston rookie shortstop Jed Lowrie to the Pirates with veteran Pittsburgh shortstop Jack Wilson going to the Red Sox. The Pirates also have interest in Red Sox left-handed pitcher prospect Hunter Jones, who is at Class AAA Pawtucket.

UPDATE VII: Done Deal….more from BP:

The Commissioner’s Office has been informed of a deal involving the Pirates, Red Sox, and Marlins. The Commissioner has to sign off on any deal involving cash considerations of more than a million dollars and there was clearly going to be cash involved in any deal. There’s also some formality about Manny Ramirez waiving his 10-5 rights and no trade clause and I’ll admit not understanding the technicalities.

So here’s what Pee Wee Herman would call the “big but.” The teams, I am told, have not agreed on the specific prospects to be included in the deal. It’s expected that in addition to the principals, the Red Sox would get John Grabow and give up two prospects while the Marlins would get one prospect and give up two. There’s still a lot of haggling but my scribbling notes make it look like the structure of the deal is:

Marlins get Manny Ramirez, one prospect (BOS), and cash (likely Ramirez’s remaining salary)
Pirates get Jeremy Hermida and three prospects (two FLO, one BOS)
Red Sox get Jason Bay and John Grabow

There is still potential for this to fall apart over the prospects, though things appear closer now than ever before.