LAKELAND, Fla. — When star third baseman Aramis Ramirez was traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to cut payroll in 2003, manager Lloyd McClendon began to realize he might not have a realistic chance of winning before he was fired himself.

McClendon lasted two more seasons before being let go in September, but said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press that Ramirez's departure ultimately led to his own.

"My fate was probably sealed when we traded away the franchise player," McClendon said. "Even today, that's tough to swallow because he's such a good player. That was awfully tough. That really set us back because of what he was starting to accomplish at a power position, and we haven't been able to replace that.

"How much better could we have been if we could have held on to players? Jason Schmidt? Aramis Ramirez? Even Kris Benson?"

McClendon was fired with a 336-446 record late in his fifth consecutive losing season with the Pirates, a franchise that's three losing seasons away from tying the Phillies' major-league record of 16 in a row. After his teams lost 100 games in 2001 and 89 in 2002, McClendon was beginning to see progress in 2003.

But when ownership ordered general manager Dave Littlefield to trade rising star Ramirez for marginal players before the trading deadline because it didn't want to pay his $6 million salary in 2004, McClendon began to wonder if he would ever have a chance to win with one of the majors' lowest-payroll teams.

Ramirez's contract turned out to be a bargain by major league standards, and he has averaged 33-plus homers and 104-plus RBI in his two full seasons with the Cubs. McClendon, now the Detroit Tigers' bullpen coach under former Pirates manager Jim Leyland, would like to have seen Ramirez in the middle of the Pirates' current lineup, which includes Jason Bay, Sean Casey and Jeromy Burnitz.

"It seemed like every year, we lost half of our players at the All-Star break," McClendon said. "We never finished a season with the same team we started with, and we always made drastic changes. People don't realize how tough that is."

McClendon said he remains on good terms with Littlefield, who fired him after Pittsburgh lost 61 of its final 86 games under the former Pirates outfielder and batting coach following a 30-30 start last season.

However, asked if some others in the Pirates organization were glad to see him fail, McClendon said, "Next question."

Did he feel like anyone else working for the Pirates betrayed him, pledging allegiance to him only to work to get him fired? "Next question," he said.

At various times, McClendon called the Pirates "we," only to apologize, saying, "I was there 15 years as a player, coach and manager — sometimes, in Tampa, I still take the wrong exit" toward the Pirates' camp in Bradenton, rather than the Tigers' camp in Lakeland.