Boras: Don't play chicken with Manny

Twenty-four hours after he dismissed a second offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers on behalf of client Manny Ramirez, this one for $25 million for a season, Scott Boras insisted Ramirez's market is healthy and warned the Dodgers about believing otherwise.

As if on cue, a San Francisco Giants official said in a radio interview Tuesday night his club is "going to stay engaged [in the Manny proceedings] and see what happens."

Thus far, "stay engaged" has not translated to "step up and make an offer," but the Giants don't appear to be going away. Whether their interest is true or serving to wring a few more quarters out of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is undetermined.

"Manny is doing fine," Boras said while awaiting a flight back to Southern California from New York, where he attended the press conference announcing pitcher Oliver Perez's new contract with the Mets.

Asked if he still believed Ramirez would have a contract by the start of spring training, Boras said, "I don't really think about a timetable. Anything can be done any day. You just don't know."

Then, seemingly calling out the Dodgers on their 48-hour deadline to accept or reject their $25 million, which he rejected within minutes, Boras added, "What I do know, you better watch out when you're playing chicken."

Earlier, Giants player personnel director Bobby Evans told XM Radio, "You can't deny interest if there's an opportunity to bring him to the Giants. … We're going to monitor the market on him. It doesn't seem to be going down, although he did turn down this offer.

"Again, ultimately I don't know which way it will go, but we're going to stay engaged and see what happens."