Oakland A's Sign Manny Ramirez

By - Kris Fletcher

ESPN is reporting that the Oakland Athletics have reached a one-year deal with Manny Ramirez.

Photo by: Kim Klement

The deal is reportedly worth around $500,000. However, Ramirez is still on the hook to serve a 50-game suspension without pay before he can play following a second failed drug test last year. That would put him not being active until sometime around the beginning of June.

Manny went just 1 for 17 (.059) in 5 games last season with the Tampa Bay Rays before announcing his retirement on April 8th after he was was made aware "of an issue" under Major League Baseball's drug policy.

This would be Ramirez's 20th major league season. He is a career .312 hitter, with 555 home runs and 1,831 RBIs.

I suppose this can be looked at as a low-risk, high-reward signing for the A's, considering they could use some pop in the middle of their order, and if they get anything resembling the Manny of old, he could certainly provide it.

Still, he turns 40 in May, and taking into consideration how bad he looked in limited action last year with the Rays, I'm sure Oakland is simply hoping for the best but expecting the worst with this deal.