Varitek

BOSTON — There was a different aura around the Red Sox clubhouse yesterday.

Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen, but players and management said they were ready to move forward without Manny Ramirez.

Just a day after the Red Sox dealt the slugger to the Dodgers as part of a three-team trade, which included the Pirates, Boston’s mantra has quickly become “turn the page.”

Because the Red Sox had Thursday — Major League Baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline — as an off-day, the players had time to digest the trade and focus on the future of this club.

“To me, Manny’s not a bad guy,” said Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell. “He’s a different guy, but he’s definitely not a bad guy. There was definitely a different sense that was going in the clubhouse over the last week. It was uncomfortable, not so much for the players because we’re used to things going on, but with his relationship with upper management. It was different. It was a weird feeling in here.”

At 3:30 Thursday afternoon Lowell didn’t think Boston was going to trade Ramirez, so with only 30 minutes remaining before the deadline, Lowell took a nap. When he woke, Ramirez was a member of the Dodgers and Lowell had a new teammate in Jason Bay.

“We should celebrate the fact that he was such good player for us,” added Lowell about Ramirez. “I think people may tend to blame him for everything that has gone wrong with this team so far this year, and I don’t think that’s right, either. But we still have a lot of games left. We have a very good player in Jason Bay, and we can’t cry whether Manny’s gone or not. He’s not on our team and we want to turn this around because we haven’t been playing good baseball. We just want to play good baseball.”

What about the reports that Ramirez has been a distraction this season?

“I don’t buy into it all that much,” said Lowell. “When you’re playing in a big market, there’s always something that you can be distracted about. For myself, at least playing with Manny the last two years, he kind of comes with the territory the way he is. He’s a different person. I think at times it’s fun and harmless, but I don’t think it was taken that way this time around.”

Every player in the Sox clubhouse yesterday said they were ready to turn the page. Now that Ramirez is gone, he will also be remembered as a great hitter.

“He’s the greatest hitter I’ve ever seen,” Lowell said “I know there are other great hitters in the league, I just haven’t been their teammates. His swing is unbelievable and he worked hard to perfect it, which seems almost ridiculous when you have such a perfect swing. That’s why his numbers are what they are. For me, he’s a sure first-ballot Hall of Famer, and when he gives his speech, he’ll probably give it via satellite because he’ll be in Brazil. That’s him and that’ll be perfect. He’ll be wearing a Brazilian National Team hat when he does it.”

Of course everyone wanted to know how David Ortiz felt about his good friend not being in a Red Sox uniform anymore. Big Papi was low key on the situation, but he was already making more room for himself in Manny’s locker.

“Turn the page,” he said. “Everybody was expecting it to happen and it happened.”

How much are you going to miss him?

“I’ll let you know after the season,” he said. “We have 25 players and we need to improve ourselves.”

When asked if there were only 24 players on the same page of late when Ramirez claimed injury, Ortiz said “I guess.”

“Hopefully everything starts to go good and everybody moves on and plays the game the way it’s supposed to be,” he said.

Red Sox captain Jason Varitek, sitting at his locker awaiting for the media scrum, said he was missing his early BP session in order to talk about the trade.

“It became more public and he was more adamant that he wanted to go,” said Varitek. “Things got to a point where he made it pretty evident that he wanted to leave more so than any other time. … Those things weren’t just words. He didn’t want to be here.”

The Red Sox held a 15-minute closed-door meeting at 3:30 yesterday afternoon, and even though Ramirez is gone, the rest of the club has to pick up the pieces and move forward, according to its captain.

“We have a lot to do in here [clubhouse] to make things right,” said Varitek. “As far as our play, our pitching and our execution, that all has to be better whether he’s here or not.”

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis, who was involved in a dugout scrum with Ramirez due to a “misunderstanding” back in June, said the team is ready for life after Manny.

“You’re never going to get the stats of Manny Ramirez,” added Youkilis. “He’s a future Hall of Famer. He’s one of many guys you watch in this game and say ‘Holy Cow! How does he do what he does?’ To say we can’t win without him would be wrong. There have been times when Manny hasn’t played and we’ve won. It doesn’t take one guy — it’s a team effort. Over the long haul of 162 games, you win because of the team effort.”

jmcdonal@projo.com