What are the odds that both Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez are supposedly on the trading block?

Think about it.

Two of the highest paid players in the game and both supposedly as available as a generic backup second baseman.

Welcome to baseball, on the eve of this off-season.

On the surface anyway, you couldn't find two more different personalities, A-Rod caring too much, and Manny not caring enough; A-Rod too effected by what people think about him, Manny almost oblivious; A-Rod who seems to shrink the bigger the stage gets, Manny who seemingly is oblivious to that, too. That's the perception anyway.

But if Manny and A-Rod are indeed available, it's for different reasons.

Manny again says he wants out of Boston, and this time the Red Sox seemingly would like to buy him the ticket, as if there have been too many times of Manny being Manny. Maybe the defining moment was this past season when he apparent shut it down early after (1) being upset at an official scorer's ruling, and

(2) the Sox fell out of the race as though they were pushed out of a plane without a parachute.

Then again, with Manny we never really know. Maybe he really was hurt and went through some form of personal anguish for not being able to be with his teamates as they fought valiantly in their futile attempt to hold off the Blue Jays in the race for second place.

Whatever, the word is Manny's available. Then again, we shouldn't be surprised. It seems like he's always available, whether it's to get out from under his onerous contract or because the Sox simply grown tired of the act.

With A-Rod, there's the growing suspicion that it's simply never going to work for him in New York, at least not the way it was supposed to. His rift with Derek Jeter. The perception he's the new Mr. May. The very real sense that he's become the flash point for the fans' discontent. The very real sense he doesn't have the psychological makeup to handle the pressures of New York.

No matter that he was the MVP of the league last year, someone who has put up big numbers in his tenure with the Yankees. No matter that he's been called the most talented player in the game. When the the Yankees flamed out against the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs, he became the baseball version of public enemy number one, the guy the Yankees had to get rid of, as though his removal would be some sort of symbolic exorcism.

Is there anything that can change that?

Makes you wonder.

It's almost as if Rodrigues would now have to win the World Series with a walk-off home run to be truly embraced in New York, as though he never can meet the expectations that his coming to the Yankees generated.

Which comes back to money.

I suspect that's at the heart of the discontent with both Manny and A-Rod, the fact that they both make so much money, $20 million and $25 million a year, respectively, raises expectations. Would it be different if they didn't have such gargantuan contracts, if money wasn't an issue?

No doubt.

Manny's salary has always been viewed as an albatross by this new ownership of the Red Sox, especially for so problematic a player. Or if you're paid $20 million a year, can't you at least hustle most of the time? And if A-Rod makes the most money of any player in the game, why isn't he carrying the Yankees on his back like the Yankees' greats of old did? Money is always part of the equation with these two players. How can it not be?

Which is not to say it's a sure thing either will be moved.

We've heard this before with Manny, of course.

But whom do you replace him with him?

No one questions his talent. Nor does anyone question the theory that without Ramirez hitting behind him, David Ortiz won't be as effective, might go to June before he actually gets a good pitch to hit. It's one thing to be tired of the act, another to find a way to actually make your team better if you actually move him.

In the days following the end of the Yankees' season, the rampant speculation was that A-Rod would surely be gone soon after the leaves fell off the trees, dealt to acquire more pitching. Now comes the counter argument in the past week, both Brian Cashman and Joe Torre saying they think Rodrigues will stay in New York, and agent Scott Boros saying A-Rod wants to stay in New York. Spin? Trying to get the price up?

Who knows?

So why are they both supposedly available?

Maybe it's this simple: quirky personalities don't fare well with unsuccessful teams. In other words, Manny's eccentricities seemed almost loveable when the Sox were winning the World Series, far less so when they fail to make the playoffs. A-Rod's self-absorption would no doubt be viewed differently if he'd carried the Yankees deep into October.

And maybe this is all speculation, and come next spring nothing will have happened, and both will be ready to write another chapter on the blank slate of a new season. But the fact they're both supposedly available is the surprising thing.

Who would have figured?

breynold@projo.com / (401) 277-7340