Fox broadcaster Tim McCarver said during Saturday's game that Theo Epstein told him the Red Sox will make an effort to deal Manny Ramirez if he waives his no-trade clause....The Sox plan to investigate potential deals for Ramirez before Thursday's trade deadline, sources told the New York Post Saturday. Mets GM Omar Minaya is "infatuated" with Ramirez, according to the report. Sources told the Post that the team with the best chance to trade for Ramirez is the Phillies, because Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel has perhaps the strongest relationship with him of anyone in the majors. ... "Trading him is a possibility," Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy said in a Boston.com video after Friday night's game. Citing sources in the upper echelons of the Sox front office, Shaughnessy said the Red Sox are "fed up" with Ramirez. ...The Red Sox have until Nov. 9 to pick up the 2009 option (worth $20 million) on Ramirez's deal. ...At the All-Star Game in New York, the Sox slugger told the Boston Herald's Rob Bradford that he would like to stay in Boston after this season, but that if the team doesn't exercise the first of two one-year, $20 million options they have on Manny, he'll play elsewhere. "To be honest with you, I don't know, I want to stay in Boston, but I want to sit down after the season with ownership and see what my future is going to be in Boston," he said. "If they don't pick it up, I'm a free agent and I'll go play somewhere else." Ramirez added that holding court with the Sox' executives will be a priority because "I want to know what's my situation. I want no more (expletive) where they tell you one thing and behind your back they do another thing. I think I've earned that respect, for a team to sit down with me and tell me this is what we want, this is what we want to do." Responding to Ramirez's comments via e-mail to Bradford the next day, Sox owner John Henry wrote, "I find remarks that we have been anything other than completely straightforward to be personally offensive. Manny has been a crucial part of two world championships. I do not believe we would have won either without him. He has never played a more important role than he has thus far this year."

-BOSTON.COM -------THE BUZZ

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