PORT ST. LUCIE – Lenny Harris carried a message from pal Gary Sheffield into the clubhouse yesterday: Clear out a locker for him. He wants to play for the Mets.
“I talked to him (Tuesday) and he said, ‘Lenny, you stay on Steve Phillips and tell him to trade for me.’ I told him there wasn’t much I could do about it, but we’d all love to have him here,” Harris said. “I told him we’ve got guys who could hit behind him over here and he’d love it here.”
Harris was preaching to the choir. Sheffield expressed last season a desire to call Mike Piazza a teammate before their playing days are over. He sounded the same sentiment during his telephone conversation with Harris.
“He said to tell Mike Piazza he’s not being traded for him this time,” Harris said. “He said to tell Piazza this time they’re playing together.”
As Harris said, there isn’t much he can do about it and given the way the teams’ talent matches up, there might not be much Phillips can do to keep Sheffield from being traded to the hated Braves, either.
Phillips has pursued three-way trade avenues, but the most widely reported one, a three-way trade among the Mets, Cubs and Dodgers that would have sent Sheffield to the Mets and Sammy Sosa to the Dodgers, was not a trade the Cubs had any interest in making because they would be the only team not landing a superstar.
Furthermore, the Cubs believed Sosa when he said his preference is to stay in Chicago for his walk year and he only would be interested in approving a trade in the event his next team signed him to a long-term contract extension. Sources throughout the industry say the Dodgers are not interested in giving Sosa the monster deal he seeks.
The Braves, whose catcher Javier Lopez is coveted by the catching-challenged Dodgers, are the favorites to land Sheffield, who has a room full of friends in Port St. Lucie, including Jim Leyritz.
“I’d love to see him walk through that clubhouse door,” Harris said.
Chimed in Leyritz, before leaving to join his wife, who went into labor yesterday: “This whole thing has nothing to do with the old Gary Sheffield. This is the Gary Sheffield who wants to win.”
Leyritz said he believes Sheffield matured when he married a gospel singer.
“I’m not an extreme religious guy or anything, but I think he became a more spiritual person when he married a gospel singer,” Leyritz said. “I think it’s sincere. It’s not like you see with guys who do drugs then turn to God. Don’t get me wrong, it’s better to turn to God than to drugs, but I question the sincerity of guys who do that sometimes. I don’t question Gary’s sincerity at all.”
Leyritz said he thinks Sheffield is frustrated the Dodgers told him they planned to improve the roster then made it worse by losing Todd Hundley and doing nothing to address their weakness up the middle of the diamond.
“He’s a great guy for a team,” Leyritz said. “I saw him day in and day out when I was with the Dodgers last year and he’s a guy who really cares about winning. When you see a guy day in and day out you can tell what he’s really like. I think he’d be great here.”
No doubt about it. Doesn’t mean he’s coming here.
“I think he’ll end up in Atlanta,” Leyritz predicted. “As far as how the teams match up, that makes the most sense.”
The Dodgers are not interested in right fielder Brian Jordan. He has a great personality but gets injured often, is coming off a bad season and makes $8 million a year. They are interested in Lopez. The Braves made it to the World Series in 1999, even though Lopez was limited by injury to 65 games.
In Eddie Perez, the Braves had a quality defensive catcher who has a penchant for hitting in the clutch that season. Perez missed most of last season and is coming off rotator cuff surgery. If the Braves agree to part with Lopez, they could require the Dodgers to include veteran switch-hitter Chad Krueter in the deal.
There remains another possibility if the Dodgers can’t broker a deal with either the Mets or Braves or any of the other teams not on Sheffield’s no trade list. The Dodgers could simply decide not to trade him. They have some work ahead of them if they choose that path.
“I tell you what, they better trade me,” Sheffield told Baseball Weekly. “I know they didn’t have to trade me. I never made any demands. All I said was that if there’s no extension you’re going to have an unhappy Gary Sheffield. Believe me, you don’t want to see that.”
A Sheffield wearing a Mets uniform would be a happy Sheffield. The Mets want to see that.
“He’s a great guy,” Jay Payton said. “I want him to come here as long as I’m not in the trade.”