Everyone waiting on Manny

The entire baseball universe is revolving around Manny Ramirez. According to Nick Cafardo, the lovable slugger has dominated conversation at baseball's winter meetings, with teams waiting to see if a Manny blockbuster comes down before making other deals.
With that in mind, we'll do a special Manny day here at Notes, breaking down each potential trading partner and the pieces that would likely change hands in separate posts. Stay tuned as the day goes on.
Sox GM Theo Epstein, with the team in dire need of a closer, middle relief help and a shortstop, said yesterday that the Sox would actively seek to trade Manny only until Wednesday at midight, at which time they would turn their attention to addressing the teams other needs.
"I think at some point, if we realistically get past Wednesday, we're not going to take up more of the team's time and energy," he said. "We'll certainly be listeners. At some point, you can't let it get in the way of other things you're trying to do. There's also the free agent market and pitching to deal with."
Theo did say however that convincing teams to take on Manny's salary has not been the sticking point this season.
"In this market, teams aren't backing off from taking salaries," he said. "Trading for large salaries hasn't seemed to be an issue."
Obviously the team will be willing to trade Manny going forward. Anyone with any experience in negotiating understands that deals tend to get done at the deadline. By creating an artificial deadline for trading Manny, Theo may be able to push some of these competing teams to sweeten the pot.