Peter Gammons on Manny Ramirez and Brad Penny

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Peter Gammons, the Hall of Fame baseball reporter, had a chat today on the Boston Globe’s website and weighed in on Manny Ramirez, Brad Penny, the Dodgers and other winter musings. Here are some excerpts.

-- Where Manny Ramirez will end up: ‘The Giants have already said they are not in on them. The winter of disinformation from the agents has been astounding. The Mets have told Scott Boras [Ramirez’s agent] they are not interested in Manny. The fact that the Wilpon family [who own the Mets] lost $500 m[illion] in the Madoff scandal makes Manny’s plight seem pretty ridiculous. The question that the Dodgers have right now, if they go back to two years at $45 m[illion], will Manny be very unhappy? There was a report this week that the Dodgers have discussed going into the [free agent] market and signing a discounted OF like Bobby Abreu for one year, then going into the market for Matt Holliday next winter.’

-- Why the Red Sox signed Brad Penny: ‘What’s interesting about Penny, is that if he had gone out on the [free agent] market last winter, he would have gotten an A.J. Burnett contract [because] he was coming off finishing third in the Cy Young race. He did break down the last three months [of last season with the Dodgers], but Burnett has broken down 2-3 times himself. Over the last three years, Burnett and Penny have each won 38 games, and Burnett has only averaged 10 more innings a season. One of the reasons Penny wanted Boston was (because) of the way that Terry Francona and John Farrell handle pitchers, so there’s a good chance he can turn out to be a major contributor.’

-- On the Red Sox shopping for a catcher: ‘Early in the fall, they tried to make a run at Russell Martin of the Dodgers and Mike Napoli of the Angels, but without success.’

-- Barry Stavro