Sheffield back in the Big Apple

The New York Mets have reached a contract agreement with the recently released slugger Gary Sheffield today. Sheffield is expected to be in New York on Saturday and his contract will be official upon his passing of a physical.

This seems like a very odd move for the New York Mets. Their corner outfield positions are held down by Ryan Church and Daniel Murphy, with Marlon Anderson, Jeremy Reed, and Fernando Tatis serving as backups. Anderson would appear to be the odd man out even though he is a versatile player capable of playing every outfield position and first base. I just don’t see the benefit of having Gary Sheffield in a Mets uniform. Even if an injury were to occur he is still seemingly behind Tatis in the depth chart and is really no longer capable of playing the outfield everyday anyway.

The only positive I see coming out of this signing by Omar Minaya is that Sheffield is almost guaranteed to hit his 500th career home run in a Mets uniform in the first season in new stadium Citi Field. Possibly Omar Minaya heard of the Phillies interest in Sheffield and wanted to grab him from their arch rivals and defending World Series Champs. Whatever the reason for the signing, Sheffield wont cost the Mets anything more than a roster spot so anything they get from him should be a positive but it’s hard to see him helping the Mets in any way.