Class of ’98 Leaves With No Honors

If there was anyone between Tujunga and Tora Bora who didn’t think it was the worst trade in Dodger history, they now have to be reexamining that opinion.

I’m not referring to the Tuesday trade in which new General Manager Dan Evans finally pulled the trigger, sending Speaker of the House Gary Sheffield to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Brian Jordan and pitcher Odalis Perez.

I’m referring to the 1998 trade in which Fox executive Chase Carey undercut then-general manager Fred Claire by trading Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile to the Florida Marlins for Sheffield and four others.

The trade spawned almost four years of tumult and soaring payroll, and now the Dodgers have nothing left from it in the way of personnel.

Sheffield was the fifth and last remaining player that the Dodgers acquired in it, and the end of their rebellious relationship should come as a surprise to no one but Carey.

The TV executive simply ignored--or may not have been familiar with--Sheffield’s pattern of erratic and outspoken behavior with three other teams when he usurped Claire’s authority and made the lamentable trade for Piazza, but the Dodgers could no longer ignore Sheffield’s almost annual verbal assaults on management.

The time bomb had to go, and Evans seemed to do as well as he could considering it is late winter and he was operating under duress, trying to trade a player other teams knew he was probably willing to trade for a used equipment bag.

Jordan is a proven run producer and acknowledged clubhouse leader.

Perez is a legitimate young pitching talent.

Only one problem.

If Sheffield, who greeted the New Year by calling Evans a liar less than a year after he ripped club Chairman Bob Daly and several teammates, finally talked his way out of Los Angeles, his replacement wasn’t and isn’t exactly thinking Dodger blue.

In fact, Jordan, whose Atlanta roots extend to his years as a defensive back with the NFL Falcons, was left blue at the thought of it.

He said he was shocked, angered and real disappointed to learn he had been traded.

He even accused General Manager John Schuerholz of stabbing him in the back given that Schuerholz had elicited Jordan’s help in lobbying Terry Pendleton to return to the Braves as hitting coach and then gave him no warning he might be traded.

“Life’s a bummer,” Jordan said, “[but] the Dodgers have a great organization and I’ll go out there and do the best I can. I’ll go out there with the idea of making them better. They finished only six games out [in the National League West] with a lot of injuries last year. They can win, no doubt about it.”

Soon to turn 35, Jordan is a football-hardened pro who came back from two shoulder operations last year to hit 25 homers and drive in 97 runs. He is guaranteed $17.5 million over the next two seasons and can be counted on to give his best, but here are the Dodgers still scuffling amid the long and dark Piazza shadow, having finally dumped Sheffield for a player whose heart is likely to remain in Atlanta, a right fielder not thrilled with the idea of switching to left, and who can demand a trade after his first season with the Dodgers. In addition, Jordan will be coming west with a young pitcher whose development, even Jordan acknowledged, has been delayed by a lack of focus.

Could Evans have done better? Should he have done better?

The missed opportunity probably came in December when Evans may have wanted one player too many in negotiations with the Oakland Athletics, failing to close a deal that would have brought him closer Billy Koch and outfielder Jermaine Dye. He would eventually trade Luke Prokopec to Toronto for reliever Paul Quantrill and infielder Cesar Izturis, but when the A’s deal died, the Sheffield market went with it. Clubs that may have been interested were wary of the risk Sheffield represented in the clubhouse and the likelihood he would demand a contract renegotiation if traded.

Ultimately, having long insisted that he would have to be overwhelmed to trade Sheffield, Evans was at a point of having to get what he could. He maintained Tuesday that he wasn’t simply out to dump Sheffield, that he wasn’t totally motivated by Sheffield’s most recent diatribe, but it can be said with certainty that from Daly down, the Dodgers were determined to avoid another season with his explosive bat and personality.

The bottom line is that Evans--at a difficult time in an impossible market--was able to consummate a trade that has the potential to make the Dodgers better, even with Jordan’s hesitancy and the question of Perez’s focus.

The addition of another left-hander with the versatility to start or relieve--Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox recently said Perez is coming up to a breakthrough season--improves the Dodgers’ pitching depth and puts them in position to possibly trade a pitcher for the still-needed closer or better operate by committee in that role. Jordan doesn’t have Sheffield’s home run power, but he figures to pick up a significant portion of the run production and brings charisma and leadership to a clubhouse in which several players harbored resentment over Sheffield’s comments of last spring and merely tolerated his mood swings.

Of course, Sheffield’s talent and temperament have long been in the eye of the beholder.

Speaking from Atlanta, where he is trying to keep pace with the improving New York Mets in the NL East, Schuerholz said no one in his organization questioned the acquisition.

“If we had any trepidation about [Sheffield] we wouldn’t have gone forward,” he said. “Good players and good chemistry have always been equally important to us. You can’t win if one is absent. We measure that every time we make a personnel move, and in this case we feel that we’ve made a hell of a trade. We talked to Gary and he’s very happy about coming here. He’s one of the most dynamic right-handed power producers in the game. The world knows we’ve had trouble scoring runs the last couple years, and this addresses that in capital letters.”

For the Dodgers, the only certainty is that a controversial chapter in the Mike Piazza ghost story has finally ended.