Infancy Unit

So Omar Minaya cautions that trade talks between the Mets and Yankees involving Gary Sheffield, Mike Cameron, and perhaps Miguel Cairo and a young Met pitcher are in their infancy.

Let me be one of the first to tell you that this is an infant that needs to be put up for adoption as soon as possible.

It's long been rumored that the Yankees have wanted Cameron, but now all of a sudden Sheffield is available? Wouldn't it behoove the Mets to inquire as to why Sheffield, numbers and all, is available immediately following a round of meetings to figure out what's wrong with the Yankees? Obviously, Gary Sheffield is part of the problem if he's available in a trade. And he's the very picture of the aging, slowing mercenary that has become the very component that the Yanks want to get rid of...not to mention the antithesis of everything that is right with the Mets. So is this really a deal that the Mets want to make?

And why would Omar Minaya, in one fell swoop, take care of every weakness the Yankees have, in effect bailing them out of the mess that they've created for themselves? Too many teams have done just that in the past (see Ricky Ledee for David Justice, or Jeff Nelson for Armando Benitez), mostly for salary purposes. The Mets are one of the few teams that don't need to make a trade to get rid of payroll, in fact they would be adding payroll with this deal. So again I ask: Why give the Yankees the center fielder they need, the young pitcher that they lack in their farm system, and the second baseman they foolishly got rid of in the first place?

The Mets need offense, and Sheffield certainly would bring that with his .300 avg., his .400 OBP, and his .500 slugging pct. Sheffield also brings 17 seasons of mileage on his various body parts. He brings 17 years of baggage which would bring him to his seventh organization, and there's a reason for that. Outside of Florida, which was a pure salary purge, it's interesting that none of the other organizations that employed Sheffield thought enough of him to build a franchise around him. He admitted that he purposely tanked on throws from the outfield to get himself traded out of Milwaukee...not the definition of the term "professional". San Diego was a salary dump but if they thought enough of Sheffield, believe me the Padres would have found a way to keep him since there were other players that found their way to getting lost. Los Angeles? They couldn't afford him? Between the contract squabbles, the steroid allegations, and the random hissyfits he's thrown after feeling disrespected, Sheffield would be a horrible fit in the youthful funhouse known as the Mets clubhouse.

Infancy? This trade needs to be thrown out with the bath water.