Those waiting for an encore act of the hit soap opera "Manny Being Manny" may have to wait a little longer.
Manny Ramirez is eligible to return to Major League Baseball on Wednesday, after he serves a 50-game suspension handed down for a second positive drug test. But the Oakland A's, who signed Ramirez to a minor league deal this offseason, have no timetable for calling Manny up to the big leagues.
Ramirez is currently playing for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. He is batting .250 with four RBIs, seven strikeouts and three walks in nine games. More surprisingly, he hasn't shown any sign of his trademark power. He has yet to hit a home run or extra-base hit.
The A's could definitely use the offensive help. Oakland's .211 team batting average is the worst in the majors. They have 42 home runs, 162 runs and 384 strikeouts to just 159 walks. In addition, they are missing one of their bigger bats in Yoenis Cespedes who is on the 15-day DL with a hand injury.
But the A's will not rush Manny's transition back to the big leagues, even with their struggles to score runs. "I think we're trying not to make a short-term decision here," assistant general manager David Forst said. "Obviously, we'd like to improve the major league offense. We're not even 50 games in yet. There are still four months to play. We're trying to make a long-term decision."
When Ramirez is called up, the A's want him to remain on the team for the rest of the season, meaning he needs to be major league ready when he joins the club. "We want to make sure Manny feels he is 100 percent ready when we pull the trigger on this move," Forst said.
Ramirez retired from baseball last year while playing for the Tampa Rays after testing positive for a banned substance for the second time rather than serve the 100-game suspension. His suspension was cut to 50 games since he did not play last year. He played in just five games for the Rays, going 1 for 17 (.059).
Once on the team, he will have the chance to do some more damage to the record books. He is 14th on the career home run list with 555 home runs.
