LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers confirmed that free-agent slugger Manny
Ramirez rejected their latest contract offer Monday night.

Team spokesman Josh Rawitch wrote an in e-mail that agent Scott Boras
notified general manager Ned Colletti of the decision. Colletti made
the offer Sunday, reportedly for one year and $25 million.

"We still want to sign Manny," Colletti said earlier Monday. "We still
want to make him a Dodger. That hasn't changed."

With less than two weeks before Spring Training starts, not much had
changed between the Dodgers and Ramirez since the 2008 season ended.
During the General Managers Meetings in November, the Dodgers offered
Ramirez two years at $45 million, plus a third-year option for $15
million. Ramirez never responded and the club withdrew that offer when
the exclusive negotiating period expired Nov. 15.

The Dodgers offered Ramirez salary arbitration in December, which
would have bound him to the club with a one-year contract at a salary
to be determined, but he did not accept the offer.

The market for the gifted slugger, who turns 37 in May, has been
murky. The Dodgers are the only club known to have made an offer. The
Giants are the only other club to have acknowledged interest, although
like the Dodgers, it is short term only. Boras has said he's in
negotiations with several teams concerning Ramirez but has declined to
name them.

The Dodgers, with no designated hitter rule available to provide a
transitional role as Ramirez ages, have insisted they will not provide
the four- or five-year deal he is seeking. The one-year offer is
believed to be a compromise attempt by the club that will reward
Ramirez with the second-highest annual salary in history while
allowing him to return to the free-agent market next year, when the
economic climate might be friendlier and he would still be young
enough to capitalize.

Colletti has been non-committal about what he would do for offense if
Ramirez does not re-sign. From the current roster, the Dodgers could
start Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Juan Pierre in the outfield. The GM
also had touched base earlier in the winter with the agents for
free-agent outfielders Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn, but the club's
interest in them apparently had cooled in the past month.

Source: Ken Gurnick / MLB.com