The Red Sox have tried to release him, trade him, appease him. Now Manny Ramirez is entering the final year of his team record $160 million contract and the Red Sox have him right where they want him.

Life has a funny way of working out sometimes, and so it is in the never-ending soap opera between the Boston Red Sox and Manuel Aristides Ramirez. There have been good times. There have been bad times. And now Ramirez is in what amounts to a contract year, playing for a $20 million contract option that currently rests in the hands of Red Sox management.

But then, on some level, hitting is about leverage.

“I'm gonna get four more years here, man,'' a smiling Ramirez told the Boston Herald recently while walking out of the team's spring training home at City of Palms Park. “I'm going to get the two options and I'm going to get two more years.''

Here is the background: Slightly more than seven years ago, during the same Winter of Recklessness in which both Alex Rodriguez ($252 million, downsized to $171 million) and Mike Hampton ($121 million) signed obscene contracts, Ramirez and the Red Sox agreed to an eight-year, $160 million deal that had $20 million options for each of the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Now Ramirez is playing for the right to make his deal worth $180 million (over nine years) or $200 million (over 10 years), either of which would make him the recipient of the biggest contract in baseball history.

Think about it: Both Hampton and Rodriguez were traded in the middle of their landmark deals; only Ramirez remains with the team that signed him. (What were the odds on that?) And while Rodriguez has since signed a 10-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees, he has a long way to go before he fulfills that obligation.

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For the moment, Red Sox officials are suggesting that they have made no decisions on Ramirez, which may or may not be true. Regardless, Ramirez is in line for a big payday (with Boston or as a free agent) if he has a productive season, and all indications are that he is as ready as ever.

"He seems very comfortable in his own skin,'' said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "I think he's in a very good place.''

The wrinkle? Last season, his seventh with Boston, Ramirez had his worst year as a member of the Red Sox. Even before an oblique injury late in the season, Ramirez had 20 home runs, 88 RBI and a slugging percentage of a mere .493. Nonetheless, he made it through an entire year with any real Manny moments, those behavioral eccentricities that Francona likes to call "episodes.'' (The Red Sox seem to regard Manny's World as a sitcom.)

Of course, Ramirez then went out in October and completely terrorized the Los Angeles Angels, Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies, batting .348 with four home runs, 16 RBI and 16 walks in 14 postseason games. (Think about that for a minute. In 14 games, how does someone walk 16 times and drive in 16 runs?) Lest there be any doubt that the soon-to-be 36-year-old Ramirez still can be a highly productive major leaguer, think again.

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