Aramis Ramirez Clarifies But Un-Clarifies His Trade Stance

Aramis Ramirez created an uproar last night after telling reporters that he would consider waiving his no trade clause if the Cubs approached him with a possible trade. This coming from the third baseman who has said over and over again that he would not waive his no trade clause and wants to remain in Chicago with the Cubs. As expected, Ramirez took to the media today to clarify his comments from yesterday, however, Ramirez–if anything–may have added more confusion on whether or not he will accept a trade with his comments today.

Ramirez spoke to the media today before the Cubs play the Cardinals tonight, and he said that he wants to remain with the Cubs, but he would still consider a trade if the club approached him with one.

"“I want to stay here and he (GM Jim Hendry) wants me here … If he doesn’t want to trade me, he ain’t gonna listen tooffers,” Ramirez said Friday before the game against the Cardinals.So would Ramirez say no to a trade?“That has to happen first. After that happens, I’ll see what’s going on.”Ramirez spoke to Hendry Thursday night to assure him he wanted to stay.“My point is I’m not on the market, as far as I know,” he said. Chicago Tribune"

If anything, it would seem that Ramirez’s desire to remain with the Cubs is directly generated from general manager Jim Hendry. Judging by Ramirez’s comments, it would seem that Hendry told the Cubs third baseman that he is not being shopped, and for that reason, Ramirez wants to remain with the Cubs. In essence, Ramirez does not want to make it look like his demanding a trade by saying that he would waive his no trade clause. But at the same time as saying that wants to remain a Cub, Ramirez told reporters today that he would consider waiving his no trade clause if he is approached by the Cubs with a trade. So while Ramirez was trying to clarify his trade stance, he may have created more questions rather than answers. The two prominent questions are: Are the Cubs Shopping Ramirez, and Will Ramirez waive his no trade clause. Unlike Ramirez’s comments over the past two days, I will try to being clarity to the whole Ramirez/no trade clause situation.

First, Are the Cubs shopping Ramirez? No. Despite Ramirez saying he would consider waiving his no trade if the Cubs approached him with one, Hendry does not appear to be shopping the Cubs third baseman. Hendry appears to be taking Ramirez’s desire to remain with Cubs as the reason he is not fielding offers for the veteran third baseman. However, the conclusion that the Cubs are not shopping Ramirez has been formulated by Ramirez himself when he told reporters that he is not being shopped. But what purpose would it serve the Cubs to publicly announce that they are shopping Ramirez. That would be an immediate hit on Ramirez’s trade value. To compare, the Chicago Bears recently traded tight end Greg Olsen to the Carolina Panthers for a third-round draft pick. However, the compensation for Olsen could have been much greater. The reason the Bears got a low return on Olsen was because the team allowed his agent to go public with the team’s wishes to trade the tight end. Whenever a team knows that a general manager is shopping a player and wants to trade him, that general manager is already at a disadvantage considering the other teams know that you want to trade said player and do not have the intention of keeping him. That could very well be what Hendry is doing with Ramirez. I have no doubt that Hendry is shopping Ramirez, and he may be telling teams that he is not inclined to trade him as a way to up the other team’s ante.

As for whether or not Ramirez would waive his no trade clause, it should be pretty clear by now that the Cubs’ third baseman would accept a trade if the Cubs approached him with one. Ramirez does not want to make it seem that he wants out, and so, that is why he wants his desire to remain with the Cubs to be documented.

It would seem that Ramirez would accept a trade to a contending team, and the Los Angeles Angels are pushing to get a deal done for Ramirez. Meaning the ball is in Hendry’s court on whether or not he will pursue trading one of the final pieces from the Cubs playoff teams of the 2000s.