Sheffield Says He Shouldn’t Be Traded

Gary Sheffield said Wednesday the Dodgers should “make a lot of trades” to improve the team but should not trade him.

Although the Dodgers failed to complete a deal that would have sent him to the Oakland Athletics for closer Billy Koch and outfielder Jermaine Dye, Sheffield remains one of the few marketable players on a team with a bloated payroll. In the last three seasons, the outfielder has batted .312 with 113 home runs and 310 runs batted in, and he is signed for the next two seasons, for a relatively modest $20.5 million.

In an appearance on Fox’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” Sheffield said the Dodgers should “absolutely not” trade him.

“Of the top five players in the game, I’m going to be right there with them, or somewhere close,” Sheffield said. “So why would you trade somebody that’s going to give you consistent numbers?”

Sheffield batted .311 with 36 home runs and 100 RBI last season, which did not rank him in the top 20 among major league hitters in any of those categories.

He played 143 games last season, despite a severely sprained finger that required postseason surgery.

First baseman Eric Karros, limited by a back injury, played in 121 games and hit 15 homers with 63 RBI. When asked whether Karros would need to hit 30 homers with 120 RBI for the Dodgers to contend, Sheffield readily agreed.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Eric Karros battled a lot of injuries. As players, we tried to help him through that. We know it was difficult for him. But everybody has injuries, and you just have to learn to play with them.”

After Sheffield concluded taping his interview, conducted via satellite, Fox producers asked him to stay on and answer a few questions--presumably more pointed ones on the Dodgers’ efforts to trade him--for air on the Southern California Regional Sports Report. Sheffield declined.

“I don’t want to get into the questions they’re going to ask me,” he said.