With so many good players still looking for work — including outfielders Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn and second baseman Orlando Hudson — Colletti has options. He signed starter Randy Wolf on Friday but said the Dodgers’ priority was still to sign Ramírez.  “We’re continuing to talk to the other players’ agents to know what our other options are,” Colletti said. “At the same time, we need to be sure Manny doesn’t want to play for the Dodgers and that we’re not going to make a deal. When we know it’s time to go, we’ll go.”  Boras’s position is clear. He has long used the Maddux precedent as a reason teams should keep elite players instead of using the same money to fill multiple holes. And, he said, Ramírez is prepared to wait for the right offer. “Talent doesn’t have a wristwatch,” Boras said.  Boras is well known for protracted negotiations, but he has often secured lucrative deals with much greater ease. The Dodgers have been especially eager to sign his clients, no matter their ownership. Fox Group spent wildly for pitchers Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort, and Frank McCourt has enriched outfielders J. D. Drew and Andruw Jones.  None of those deals worked as the Dodgers hoped, but Ramírez has proved his value with his staggering production late last season. Even in his stormy final month in Boston, when he forced a trade from the team he led to two titles, Ramírez hit .347. He draws fans to the ballpark and captivates them on television.  “This is not someone you add to your payroll,” Boras said. “This is someone who pays for himself.”  Ramírez is a free agent because he and Boras required the Dodgers to drop his two option years, at $20 million each, before accepting the trade from the Red Sox. There was reason to be confident that Ramírez could command more on the open market, even though he turns 37 in May.  The Dodgers started negotiations with an offer of $45 million for two years, with a $15 million option for 2011. Boras ignored that proposal, but it remains the largest reported offer Ramírez has received. The Mets, the Yankees, the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Nationals have insisted they are not interested in him.  Besides the Dodgers, who continue to negotiate with Boras, only the San Francisco Giants are known to be involved.  One major league official, who was granted anonymity so he could speak candidly about another team, said he was baffled that the Giants’ new owner, William H. Neukom, had not pursued Ramírez more aggressively.  “Neukom wants to make a statement,” the official said. “They must have money because they were talking about C. C. Sabathia, and they know the effect of a great hitter from having Barry Bonds. Plus, they could hurt L.A. and win the West. You can’t rule them out.”  Boras has used competing bids effectively this winter, steering pitcher Derek Lowe to Atlanta for $60 million over four years and first baseman Mark Teixeira to the Yankees for $180 million over eight years. But there seems to be nothing to spur the Dodgers.  “All you can do is look at the other teams and see if their outfield is set,” Colletti said. “Or, if it’s an American League team, are they looking for a D.H.? And you try to guess how deep they’d be willing to go.”  Boras knows precisely what the Teixeira bidders offered in that negotiation, and he could be waiting for one of those teams to shift attention to Ramírez. But that has not happened yet, even from the Angels, who need a big bat and revel in tweaking the Dodgers.  Angels Manager Mike Scioscia praised Ramírez in a December radio interview, but he is perceived as being a bad match with a combustible star. In his stormy exit from Boston, Ramírez had a physical altercation with the traveling secretary, complained of a knee injury the team disputed and took three strikes against Mariano Rivera in a sleepwalking role as a pinch-hitter.  “That’s not Mike Scioscia’s kind of guy,” said one general manager, whose team is not interested in Ramírez. “The biggest thing about Manny in Boston is they didn’t know if he was going to play. Nothing is worse for a manager. The guy is the greatest right-handed hitter we’ve ever seen, but he’s a time bomb. Why do it if they have alternatives?”  That is the question the Dodgers are debating. At stake is the balance of power in the National League West, and the future home of a prodigious hitter.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP2 of the New York edition with the headline: For Dodgers, Ramírez Is Still the Top Priority, but Not the Only Option. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
With spring training nearly upon them, the Dodgers’ question is whether to raise their offer to Manny Ramírez or spread the money around to several free agents.