Jon Heyman
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Trade bait feeding frenzy after waivers?
August 14, 2005
Ken Griffey Jr., Mike Piazza and Tom Glavine are among high-salaried veterans who have gone unclaimed, cleared waivers and remain eligible to be traded, baseball officials have told Newsday.
If the Reds can finally let go, the White Sox are a logical landing spot for Griffey (who cleared Friday), given that they came close to a trade before the July 31 non-waiver deadline but Reds ownership foolishly killed the deal.
The Yankees inquired about Griffey in July. But a Yankees person said Griffey's name hasn't come up lately, and they assume the Reds will not deal him to them.
While Griffey has veto rights and is believed most interested in Atlanta, people around the Reds believe he'd approve a deal to the playoff-bound White Sox.
If the Reds don't trade Griffey, whom they've been begging to trade for two years, they should change their team name to the Yellows.
Also clearing . . .
Newsday has learned that Mets who have cleared waivers, in addition to Piazza and Glavine, are Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Kris Benson, Doug Mientkiewicz, Victor Zambrano, Danny Graves, Miguel Cairo and Ramon Castro.
Mets who have been blocked on waivers and are thus ineligible to be dealt are Mike Cameron, Aaron Heilman, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Roberto Hernandez, Chris Woodward and Marlon Anderson.
As of Friday, these Yankees had cleared: Jorge Posada, Shawn Chacon, Tony Womack, Al Leiter, Felix Rodriguez, Wayne Franklin, Felix Escalona, Aaron Small and John Flaherty.
Which goes to show, the Mets have a lot more desirable contracts than the Yankees.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/printe...y-sports-print