Lynn Henning

Why getting Sheffield was still the right move

I have heard steady streams of "I told you so" from those who believed the Tigers should cut Gary Sheffield.

The critics win.

But I still believe he was a smart acqusition when the Tigers traded for him a couple of weeks after they lost the 2006 World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Sheffield was on fire in 2007 until he bumped into Placido Polanco on a freakish outfield collision. And there went the Tigers' investment in Sheffield.

He wasn't the same hitter the rest of 2007 and for most of 2008. By this spring, he was 40, and his healed shoulder wasn't enough to re-ignite his old fire or to merit the Tigers carrying him when they have more pressing needs.

I've heard the criticism that the Tigers were foolish to have extended him through 2009 when they traded for him. To me, that ignores the fact Sheffield would not have approved the trade had he not gotten the extension.

If the Tigers were going to entice him to play in Detroit, they had to offer a sweetener. And that $14 million sweetheart of a parting gift is what he will take to his next team and job.

I remain convinced that had he not collided with Polanco, Sheffield would have been the keg of dynamite, perhaps even into this season, that he has been for most of the past 20 years.

I think he will hit for another team. I believe he will help another team. And I suspect the Tigers, at some point, will wonder what they were thinking when they cut him loose today.

But in terms of the full view that must be taken toward 2009, I sense the Tigers knew what they were doing and made -- for them -- the right move. It doesn't make the investment look terribly shrewd, not when you're paying that kind of money for non-performance.

But apart from the collision, the wisdom of trading for Sheffield in November of 2006 was, in this view, just that: wisdom. It unfortunately was offset by a crazy collision on a Saturday night in July of 2007. And that's all that it took to ruin what should have been at least a two-season party for Sheffield and the Tigers.