Producer May Steal NL Show

The New York Mets shuffled and spent, shuffled some more and spent some more. They traded for Roberto Alomar. They bought Roger Cedeno. They traded for Mo Vaughn. They bought David Weathers. They traded for Shawn Estes. They traded for, then traded away, David Justice. They tossed $25 million at Juan Gonzalez, who said no.

The Atlanta Braves, another year older, their offense no better, seemed vulnerable.

Until Tuesday, when the Braves punctured the Mets’ balloon.

While Dodger fans debate whether their team is better off without Gary Sheffield, the trade that sent him to Atlanta tilted the balance of power in the National League East back to the Braves.

“As much as the Mets have done, I’ll take Atlanta,” San Diego Padre General Manager Kevin Towers said.

The Braves, who will be aiming for their 11th consecutive division title, surrendered outfielder Brian Jordan, pitcher Odalis Perez and a minor league pitcher to obtain the kind of hitter who makes pitchers quake.

The soap-opera soundtrack that accompanied Sheffield’s tenure with the Dodgers--from his charging them $2.5 million to buy out his no-trade clause before he would join the team in 1998 to his almost-daily bashing of Chairman Bob Daly last spring and his charge that General Manager Dan Evans lied to him last fall--cannot drown out the blare of his production.

In each of his three full seasons with the Dodgers, Sheffield never hit lower than .300, never hit fewer than 34 home runs, never drove in fewer than 100 runs.

And while the Mets have put together an infield that has plenty of run-scoring potential with Vaughn, Alomar and Edgardo Alfonzo, Atlanta’s trio of Sheffield, Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones gives the Braves a big advantage in the outfield.

“That’s a pretty good outfield, when you’re talking about B.J. Surhoff as a fourth outfielder,” Towers said.

The Braves’ projected starting outfield combined to hit 108 home runs last season; the Mets’ outfield of Cedeno, Jay Payton and Benny Agbayani hit 20.

And the Braves start with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine and finish with John Smoltz, Cy Young Award winners all, while the Mets start with Al Leiter and four question marks and finish with erratic closer Armando Benitez.

Met General Manager Steve Phillips has been looking to add a starting pitcher and has been talking to Pedro Astacio’s agent. Rick Helling and James Baldwin, two other starters who remain on the free-agent market, are other possibilities. None does to a pitching staff what Sheffield does to a batting order.

Astacio, 32, was 8-14 with a 5.09 ERA in 26 starts last season for Colorado and Houston, and sat out the final month because of a partial tear of the labrum in his right (pitching) shoulder. He has been pitching in the Dominican Republic this winter.

Phillips conceded that the Braves got “a great player.” Although, he added, “I’m not sure he can hurt us as much as Brian Jordan did. I’m not tempting him to do that. I’m just saying Brian Jordan killed us. Our preference would have been for them to wind up in the American League, East or West, considering we play the Central this year.”

Jordan hit .295 with 25 home runs and 97 runs last season. He probably will replace Sheffield in left field for the Dodgers.

As for Perez, he joins a suddenly crowded stable of starters. With the trade for Omar Daal, with the signing of Hideo Nomo and the anticipated signing of Kazuhisa Ishii, the Dodgers could open training camp with eight candidates for the starting rotation. And if Kevin Brown and Andy Ashby can return from surgery as the team expects, Eric Gagne and Terry Mulholland would offer a nice surplus.

“They could have a heck of a rotation, but that’s a lot of ifs,” Towers said. “And they don’t have [Jeff] Shaw. You’ve got to have a closer if you want to go deep into the postseason.”

To get there, the Dodgers would have to hurdle the San Francisco Giants and the World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants retained Barry Bonds, signed outfielder Reggie Sanders, who hit 33 home runs for Arizona, and re-signed Jason Schmidt, who went 7-1 after they acquired him from the Pittsburgh Pirates in July. The Diamondbacks again play trump cards in Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

“I think everybody in our division will beat up one another,” Towers said. “But, if Schilling and Johnson each win 20 games again, it’ll be tough to beat the Diamondbacks.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.