Ramirez spent sleepless night

MIAMI – It should have been the most restful night’s sleep of his 24-year-old life. Yet Hanley Ramirez was awake, part of him terrified accepting $70 million was a mistake.

Was he selling himself short? Should he wait until season’s end and possibly secure the future of one more generation of Ramirez children? Or did risking injury while holding out for another $30 million make him greedy and irresponsible?

“It was 4 or 5 a.m. and I was still talking to my wife,” Ramirez said Saturday, after signing the richest deal in Marlins history.

“I talked to David Ortiz, to (Miguel) Cabrera, with Manny (Ramirez), with (Edgar) Renteria, and they gave me a lot of advice. Some tell you to wait and others tell you to secure your family’s future. That was the best thing I did, to secure my family’s future and to relax knowing I’ll be on the same team the next six years.”

Marlins fans can relax knowing Ramirez is all but certain to be in a home uniform when the new ballpark opens in 2011. That notion certainly was not lost on the Marlins, considering they made the announcement on a youth baseball field adjacent to the Orange Bowl rubble.

What currently is a demolition project in some ways became a construction project Saturday. The ceremonial shovels won’t hit the dirt until later this year, but the Marlins consider Ramirez their foundation.

“You’re taking about a player who could be an MVP candidate every year,” Marlins President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest said. “He’s the type of player you would want to build a team around.”

Or in the Marlins’ case, a stadium. Beinfest and owner Jeffrey Loria were clear in that having stadium financing in place and the prospect of future revenue streams helped facilitate this commitment, believed to be the largest for a player with less than three full seasons of major league service time.

In exchange for immediate financial security, Ramirez likely gave up at least $30 million over the term of this deal. Had he maintained his current performance trajectory and gone year-to-year, his annual salary by his third year of free agency (2014) would be in the $20 million-plus range.