DUARTE, Calif. -- A day after Manny Ramirez rejected the Dodgers'
latest contract offer, club chairman Frank McCourt said the team still
wants the outfielder back, but added that "at some point, we have to
move on."

McCourt, visiting cancer patients Tuesday at the Dodgers' ThinkCure
partner City of Hope Hospital as part of the team's annual winter
caravan, responded to the latest news on Ramirez, who rejected an
offer believed to be for one year at $25 million, which would have
been the second-highest yearly salary in Major League Baseball history.

"Two things are clear to me," McCourt said. "We very much want the
player back and we're trying hard. We came up with what we thought was
a creative proposal to give him a lot of money, and well deserved in a
challenging economy, and give him flexibility if he feels it's
important to test free agency next year. I don't see long-term
contracts happening in this market we're in.

"The other thing is, the agent [Scott Boras] is challenging to work
with and we've tried hard. We've made three efforts and we still have
not received a specific number from the agent, and I don't know what
to tell you. At some point, you have to move on and start to get ready
to win a championship."

With Spring Training opening in less than two weeks, McCourt said he
did not know when the time to move on would be, but called it
"inevitable."

"There needs to be closure to this," he said. "We're not done looking
at options to signing the player for this season. We'll just take it a
step at a time. It should be clear that signing Manny was and is a
priority."

McCourt said he has not spoken directly to Ramirez, but said he would
welcome the chance. He implied that the lack of communication from
Boras during the past three months has been a contributing factor to
the absence of a deal, stopping short of suggesting that Ramirez
didn't want to re-sign with the Dodgers.

"It's not an exaggeration," McCourt said. "I've done thousands of
deals in my life and I've learned that communication, the
give-and-take to find common ground, is the key to all those deals. It
seems to be, when there isn't conversation, it's much more challenging
to make a deal."

McCourt would not say what other options the Dodgers would explore if
they don't return Ramirez to the lineup. The logical alternatives are
free-agent outfielders Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn, although Los
Angeles' interest in them has been on the backburner while the focus
has been on Ramirez.

"Our team right now is better than we started last year with," McCourt
said, mentioning having a healthy Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake from the
start of the season and other moves in the works (presumably the
signing of a free-agent pitcher like Randy Wolf or Braden Looper). He
also said he was optimistic the core of young players will improve
with experience.

"I'm feeling very good about the team," the chairman said. "That said,
we'd love to sign Manny. But we have to be prudent with our decisions.
This is about winning now, but also in the future."

McCourt sidestepped the question of whether he had two tentative
payroll budgets -- one with Ramirez and another without. The Dodgers
spent $120 million on salaries last year, and could slash that by
anywhere from $20 million to $40 million with the loss of numerous
free agents.

"I assure you, we'll do anything we can to win," he said. "We're going
to spend wisely, be competitive, focus on winning. Fans get excited
about competitive teams playing hard and winning. I don't believe they
get excited about an owner mouthing off how much money he'll spend."

McCourt repeated his warnings about the deteriorating economy and its
possible impact on running a team, but tempered that by saying the
sport was in a "privileged space" as an industry that people "look to
at times like these as a place of refuge for people to get their minds
off things.

"That's one of the reasons I'd love to bring Manny back and provide
that kind of joy and fun for our fans," he said. "If we can duplicate
the last 2 1/2 months [of the 2008 season] for the fans, it would be
great for the fans and the community, and it's my hope Manny sees it
the same way."

The Dodgers consider this their third attempt to ink Ramirez. During
the General Managers Meetings in November, Los Angeles offered him two
years at $45 million, plus a third-year option for $15 million.
Ramirez did not respond, 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 team to have acknowledged interest, although
like the Dodgers, it is short-term only. Boras has said he's in
negotiations with several teams on 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 would reward Ramirez financially 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.

Source: Ken Gurnick / MLB.com