(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
His numbers aren't bad, .275 batting average and 25 RBI in 57 games played. Sheffield has also hit eight home runs, tied for the most on the team with Carlos Beltran, except Sheffield has done it in 96 fewer at bats.
The numbers are there, but to measure Sheffield's contribution in numbers alone is not doing him justice.
Sheffield has played both corner outfield positions in 2009. He has been better in the field (and at the plate) in left than Daniel Murphy, and more productive with the bat than opening day right fielder Ryan Church. When clean-up hitter Carlos Delgado went on the disabled list with a hip injury that may cost him the season, Sheffield stepped into the fourth slot in the order and barely missed a beat.
Sheffield has played whenever and wherever he has been asked to play, even at DH. He's played hurt and still hustled on every play (even running out ground balls and sliding into bases hard against the Yankees even with his team down by 13 runs).
But maybe most importantly, Sheffield has displayed a leadership and toughness that the Mets have seemed to lack the past couple of seasons. They have been competitive, even against the likes of the Yankees and Phillies, at a time when most teams would have used the injury excuse to go through the motions and start preparing for next season. That's Sheffield's persona, and it's starting to become the Mets persona.
So maybe this offseason didn't bring the hope or glamour that last season's did. So the Mets didn't get a big name pitcher, or sweet swinging, slick fielding, switch hitting first bagger, or a guy who is having the best season of his career.
All they got was Gary Sheffield.
So far, however, they got just what they needed.
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