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Boston and Ramirez remain together for now

On Friday, it was seen as a three-team deal. For a while Saturday, it had fallen down to a two-team deal. But now the discussions regarding the future of Manny Ramirez are a zero-team deal: late Saturday night, a source involved in the Ramirez discussions pronounced the Ramirez trade (or trades) to be "99.9 percent dead".

According to sources familiar with the three-way conversations, the original three-team trifecta involving left-fielder Manny Ramirez collapsed over a dispute between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

The D-Rays were insisting that Boston trade both its top offensive prospect, Hanley Ramirez, and its top pitching prospect, Jon Lester, to the Rays in order to finish off the deal. The BoSox, however, couldn`t convince themselves to trade their two best prospects AND their 150-RBI cleanup man in one massive transaction. Tampa Bay held firm, but Boston didn`t give up any slack either, so the negotiations failed.