Conditions Put This Game on Storm Watch

Intermittent snow and rain fell on a gray Sunday that marked the start of baseball’s winter meetings.

The weather reflected the climate in baseball--cold and getting colder.

There’s union leader Don Fehr telling players to be prepared for a spring lockout by the owners.

There are the owners clinging to the nonsense of 2002 contraction and foolishly hoping the union will agree not to fight contraction in 2003 if the concept is withdrawn for next season.

There’s a comparatively stagnant free-agent market that has been slowed by the uncertainty of contraction and the sudden caution of several big-spending clubs.

Nothing much can be done about the New England weather in December, but maybe the market for trades and free-agent signings will warm up some before these meetings end Friday.

Maybe Jason Giambi will make it official Tuesday that he’s joining the New York Yankees.

“There’s a certain momentum building,” agent Arn Tellem said of the final decision, “and as Bob Dylan, the greatest songwriter of my generation, wrote, ‘You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.”’

Maybe free agents of the Barry Bonds, Bret Boone, Juan Gonzalez and Chan Ho Park caliber, among others, will emerge with multi-club offers they don’t have now. For some, even one offer would be appreciated.

Maybe Scott Rolen, Cliff Floyd, Jeromy Burnitz, Jeff Cirillo and Carl Everett will be traded before Friday, and maybe David Justice, traded only a few days ago from the Yankees to the New York Mets, will be traded again.

Then too, there’s the possibility that the Dodgers may make the move they failed to make in a tumultuous spring.

There’s the possibility they will trade Gary Sheffield to the Oakland Athletics, or to the Mets or some other club when and if ongoing talks with the A’s finally collapse after several days.

Those talks may be on life support now.

The A’s, with the departure of Giambi believed imminent, are reluctant to create one hole (trading recently acquired closer Billy Koch) to fill another (acquiring Sheffield as a Giambi replacement in a deal in which they also would send Jermaine Dye to the Dodgers).

The possible acquisition of Justice at a lighter price in players might make more short-term financial sense than dealing for Sheffield, who could force a contract extension or exercise his right to demand a trade after his first year with the A’s. He also might represent a measure of clubhouse concern for a young team losing a swaggering leader in Giambi.

The Dodgers haven’t confirmed that Sheffield is on the trade block, but the Oakland scenario has removed any doubt and raised a familiar question in regard to their left fielder: Having accepted the risk of retaining the human time bomb after his bombast of the spring, including a verbal assault on Chairman Bob Daly, can they do it again?

Can they put Sheffield back in blue when he knows they have tried and are trying to trade him only a few weeks after he said in October that he accepted his contract situation and wanted to stay with the Dodgers?

General Manager Dan Evans said all the right things Sunday, not wanting to spoil an already limited market by making it seem he is forced to trade Sheffield.

Evans said there was no way to predict what the roster would look like April 1 but he was comfortable with the possibility of Sheffield being part of it and performing like a professional. He said that he is under no pressure to trade Sheffield and has not been offered any deal that makes sense.

The new general manager has inherited a roster of inflexible contracts. If high salaries and/or no-trade clauses inhibit his possibilities, he is reluctant to move the few players who interest other teams.

Now, needing a closer, a No. 1 pitcher (depending on Kevin Brown’s physical status) and a center fielder and leadoff hitter, the Dodgers’ situation has been further complicated in that Sheffield knows he is not entirely welcome. This despite a third consecutive season of at least 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in while battling a finger injury, despite accepting the lineup switch that moved him behind Shawn Green and contributed to Green’s spectacular season of 49 homers and 125 RBIs, and despite the change in his public and verbal persona after new agent Scott Boras helped defuse the spring onslaught.

“When you’re a professional athlete, the first focus you have to have is that this is business and you have a contract,” Boras said Sunday. “The rights of your contract are going to dictate the conduct of your employer in a business. I think Gary has come to recognize that. He [understands] that his long term is served by being a good employee and to serve the interest of a team that he’s contractually committed to and play ball.

“Gary loves L.A. and offers something few right-handed hitters offer, a player who bats .300 and hits 40 home runs in a pitcher’s park. I think it would be hard for the Dodgers to replicate what he and Shawn Green have produced in the middle of the lineup.”

That may be true, but mistrust dies hard, and it seems evident that Daly and the Dodgers remain leery, recalling the events of March and the career behavior Sheffield never completely escapes.

The Dodgers may have trouble getting equal value, as they did when they tried to trade Sheffield in the spring, but now that they have told their public, and their employee, that they are again trying (even eager, perhaps) to trade him, the storm that chilled Boston Sunday may prove to be only a mild interlude compared to a potential summer of storms if Sheffield returns.