Jan 16 2007 01:37 AM
Here's a possible lefthanded power source:
Mets Clear a Comeback Trail for Sierra
By MURRAY CHASS
Published: January 16, 2007
How can you like a guy like this?
The Mets are trying to sign the veteran Rubén Sierra to a minor league contract. He has played for nine major league teams, including two stints with the Yankees.Rubén Sierra is batting in the ninth inning of a game against Texas, the last game before the All-Star Game last July. Minnesota is down by three runs with a runner on second base, two out and Joe Mauer on deck. Ignoring a take sign, Sierra swings at what might be ball four and misses, then strikes out for the final out.
Rubén Sierra would be the first two-time Yankee/three-time Ranger to play for the Mets.
How can you not like a guy like this?
The Twins released Sierra the day after that game, and the Mets wanted to sign him to a minor league contract last August with the understanding that they would recall him in September when rosters expanded. But Sierra’s mother had had a series of medical problems and he opted to take care of her instead of playing.
The Mets continue to believe in Sierra’s goodness and are in the process of negotiating that minor league contract with him.“We haven’t finalized anything yet, but that’s probably what will happen,” Sierra’s agent, Chuck Berry, said yesterday.
Sierra's agent wooed the Mets with a vision of Sierra rounding third and heading for home, a brown-eyed handsome man.
The Mets have no immediate plans for Sierra, a 41-year-old outfielder, to make the major league team out of spring training, but he will be in their system if the need arises for a veteran hitter. In the meantime, he will be able to help the Mets’ young players.
“With the Yankees, he was known as something of a mentor working with younger kids and it was the same way in Texas,” Berry said. “People in those organizations appreciate how he has taken to helping kids.”
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Sierra has had an unusual career. In 17 years of major league service spread over 21 seasons, he has been one of the most productive players in the American League and he has made more comebacks than your garden variety cat. He has undermined his career with a decline in his hitting and with a tendency to put his foot in his mouth.
“It’s like you don’t give a damn about me, just about the team,” he said when the Yankees traded him to Detroit in 1996. “They just give a damn about winning.”
He had previously made similarly silly comments about the Oakland Athletics, and years later he apologized to the managers he offended, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa.
“When he was playing in Atlantic City,” Berry said, “he went to New York one day, met with Torre and apologized. When La Russa was in Philadelphia, he did the same. He tried to make amends for some of his mistakes.”
At that time, Sierra, then 33 years old, was in a downward spiral, his career taking him to the unaffiliated Atlantic League and, the next year, to Mexico. People go to Cancún to seek sun and sand. Sierra, seeking to revive and extend his career, played baseball there.
“He went down as far as you can go,” Berry said. “He got a couple opportunities, then kind of disappeared. But he was fortunate. Hector Florin, a Cuban refugee businessman in South Florida, got to know Rubén, took him under his wing and encouraged and helped him. He also worked with him from a mental standpoint, like, ‘you’ve screwed up a lot; what do you have to do.’ ”
Sierra succeeded in reviving his career, playing for Texas and the Yankees again as well as Seattle and Minnesota. But he has not been able to recapture the slugging productivity of his early years. In the past seven seasons, he has hit 67 home runs and driven in 275 runs. Those numbers include his 23 home runs and 67 R.B.I. for Texas in 2001, the year he was named the American League comeback player of the year.
The overall drop-off was reminiscent of his loss of productivity in the mid-90s.
“He had an interest in a musical career at that point,” Berry said. “He cut some CDs. He lost a little bit of his focus and drive.”
If Sierra can demonstrate an ability to hit in the coming season, he could join Omar Minaya’s collection of aging, if not aged, players. Earlier this off-season, Minaya, the Mets’ general manager, signed the 40-year-old Moises Alou to play left field for a club that has a 48-year-old utility player, Julio Franco, and two 40-plus pitchers, Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernández.
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Sierra’s biggest problem, Berry said, is his age, though not because of a decline in skills. “It’s the increase in injuries,” Berry said. “The body starts breaking down. That’s the problem Rubén has had. We’ve talked about how he trains to see if he can avoid injuries.”
Last year, injuries limited Sierra to 14 of the 74 games the Twins played while he was on their roster. But injury did not prevent him from signing with the Mets last August.
“His mother has had a number of medical problems,” Berry said. “He was taking her to Mexico for treatment and things got worse. She had a heart attack while she was there, so what we initially thought would be a two-week stay was a two-month stay.”
Sierra’s mother recovered, went to Florida, where Sierra lives, for treatment, then returned to Puerto Rico a healthier woman. Now Sierra is ready to play again in his latest comeback.
