Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez went jaw to jaw -- David Ortiz had to separate them -- after the left fielder refused to play Wednesday.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, July 30, 2005

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Spurred by his request to be dealt and, to a lesser extent, by increasing frustration in the clubhouse with his antics, the Red Sox stepped up their efforts yesterday to deal Manny Ramirez, talking trade with at least five major league teams.

Ramirez further alienated himself from teammates and members of the organization when he rebuffed the team's attempt to put him in the lineup Wednesday at Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field after the Sox found themselves short a position player.

Ramirez's insistence that he be given a day off Wednesday as promised, sources indicate, infuriated some teammates and resulted in an angry confrontation between Curt Schilling and Ramirez.

Schilling got into a heated argument with Ramirez and David Ortiz had to step in and separate them.

The Sox talked on-and-off with the New

York Mets yesterday about a complicated three-way deal that also would involve the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In the deal, the Sox would get outfielder Mike Cameron from the Mets and first baseman/outfielder Aubrey Huff from the Devil Rays while Ramirez would join former teammate and fellow countryman Pedro Martinez with the Mets.

The Devil Rays, meanwhile, would walk away with two of the Mets' better prospects. It's possible the deal could be expanded to include closer Danys Baez going to the Mets.

But an industry source indicated last night that, of the number of deals being discussed for Ramirez, the Mets-Devil Rays scenario was the "least likely" to happen.

It's unclear how much of Ramirez's remaining $64-million salary -- $7 million for the final two months this season and an average of $19 million per season over the next three years -- the Sox would have to eat in order to get the deal done.

The Red Sox and Mets had talked about a deal for Ramirez last December at the winter meetings that would have sent Cliff Floyd -- a former Sox outfielder -- to Boston along with a number of top prospects. The Sox would have then shipped Floyd to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a number of younger players.

But that trade fizzled when the two teams couldn't agree on how much of Ramirez's salary the Mets would be responsible for.

A major league source said at least four other teams -- two in the National League besides the Mets and two more in the American League -- had discussed deals for Ramirez yesterday.

In addition to last December's swap, the Sox twice have attempted to deal Ramirez. First, they placed him on irrevocable waivers in the hopes that another team would take him and be responsible for the rest of his contract. Ramirez, however, went unclaimed.

Later, the Sox were set to include him in one of the biggest deals in baseball history, hoping to send him to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Alex Rodriguez. That trade, too, fell apart when the Sox couldn't convince the players association to allow Rodriguez to give up some back-loaded money in his record-setting $252-million deal.

Months later, Rodriguez was traded to the New York Yankees.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, hit hard by injuries, could be an interested suitor for Ramirez. But they would likely insist on the Sox taking back a similarly outsized contract, such as that of outfielder J.D. Drew or pitcher Odalis Perez.