Baseball's holiday shopping season about to heat up

How do you replace a Manny Ramírez?

''You don't," Cleveland Indians executive Mark Shapiro said. ''You can't replace a Manny Ramírez."

That was five years ago, at the baseball winter meetings in Dallas, where then-Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette wrested Ramírez from the Indians by lavishing him with the second-biggest contract in major league history, an eight-year, $160 million deal eclipsed only by the 10-year, $252 million deal Texas gave Alex Rodriguez a couple of days earlier.

Tomorrow, the winter meetings return to Dallas for the first time since that spending orgy, and this time it is the Red Sox who not only are braced for the possibility that they will lose Ramírez, but are actively working to satisfy his request to be traded.

A few things have changed in the interim. Back then, Pedro Martínez was calling Ramírez, urging him to join him in Boston. ''The city is awesome," Martínez told Ramírez. Now, Martínez is a Met, after his own contentious parting from the Sox last winter, and before he left for the Dominican Republic after this past season, Martínez advised beat reporters to call him only in the event of an emergency -- say, ''when Manny is traded to the Mets."

Back then, one of Ramírez's representatives, Gene Mato, was saying that despite his new riches, Ramírez intended to live in Boston as relatively simply as he had in Cleveland. ''He doesn't want, like, a penthouse," Mato said. ''Just something simple, in a quiet area. He doesn't want to live downtown."

This past week, Ramírez placed his penthouse suite in the Ritz-Carlton for sale, at an asking price of $6.8 million.

Back then, Ramírez was so torn between whether to stay in Cleveland or leave for Boston that he contemplated flipping a coin to decide, according to Mato. And ESPN, which was filming the negotiations, showed Ramírez's then-agent, Jeff Moorad, essentially mocking his client for suggesting he would go to Boston only if he was allowed to take along the Indians' clubhouse attendant, Frank Mancini.

Now, Ramírez has the right to dictate where the Red Sox send him, though short of pledging to be miserable -- and making everyone around him miserable as well -- if they keep him, he can't force a trade. And the Sox, who will be operating without a general manager in Dallas but will have CEO Larry Lucchino on-site, insist they will not trade Ramírez unless they are satisfied with the return.

The party line was expressed by assistant to the general manager Jed Hoyer in a conference call Friday.

''We're going to keep on listening," Hoyer said. ''But no one has sort of stepped up to meet the price that we want for him. I wouldn't anticipate anything in regard to Manny. We're going to keep listening and if someone were to [offer] something that would benefit the club, short term and long term, I think we might act. But we're certainly not going in with the expectation that we're going to make a trade. Someone really has to step up and meet our expectations."

But, if as Hoyer maintained, five clubs had expressed ''strong" interest in Ramírez, the likelihood of a match would appear significant. And there is little doubt the team that will be most aggressive will be the Mets, who already have scored major coups this offseason with the free agent signing of closer Billy Wagner and first baseman Carlos Delgado.

The Mets, who have started their own TV network and will be moving into a new stadium in a few years, can credit last winter's big additions, Martínez and to a lesser extent Carlos Beltran, for a dramatic spike in attendance and other ballpark revenues, money that GM Omar Minaya now can spend on Ramírez if he so chooses.

The ''whither Manny" story line -- to be followed closely by Sox efforts to re-sign Johnny Damon -- should dominate a winter meetings that, because of a paucity of premium free agents, could spawn far more trade activity than in recent years. The other primary Sox story line centers on David Wells, who also wants out and appears headed back to his native San Diego.

The Florida Marlins, blowing up their franchise because of their inability to get public support for a new stadium, already have made major deals with the Red Sox (Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, Guillermo Mota), Mets (Delgado), and Twins (Luis Castillo), and will be looking to peddle center fielder Juan Pierre (Yankees, Cubs) and catcher Paul Lo Duca.

A's GM Billy Beane, who stunned many last winter when he dealt Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, comes to Dallas with another ace a year away from free agency, lefthander Barry Zito. Teams will be lined up if Beane makes Zito available.

Diamondbacks pitcher Javier Vazquez has demanded a trade, and the Reds could move Austin Kearns or Wily Mo Pena.

Seven teams come with new general managers, with reputations to be made, while the Sox will operate with a GM-by-committee headed by 71-year-old Bill Lajoie, who won a World Series 21 years ago in his first year as GM of the Tigers.

Yesterday, Lucchino called White Sox player development head Dave Wilder and told him the team was going with the committee ''right now." Jim Beattie, who appears to be Lucchino's first choice as GM, remains on hold.