On the anniversary of the trade that brought Junior home, newspapers in Seattle and Cincinnati made news of his routine appearance on revocable waivers last summer, just to see if the mention of his name can still make nothing seem like something. It ought to be understood that the Reds' general manager, Jim Bowden, is likely to talk to any club about any player at any time, regardless of whether the player is touchable, untouchable, good, bad or indifferent. General managers, after all, don't trade on abstract mathematical formulae toward assessing player value. So there's no better way of assessing player value than to throw scenarios onto the table. Talking about Griffey, or Barry Larkin or Juan Castro or whoever else, generates a lot of information about how other clubs value their players.
Information is an edge, and talking is information.
You can't trade without talking, but that doesn't mean you're going to trade everyone you mention. Unfortunately, where Griffey is concerned, any hint that all isn't cozy, any perceived slight or any sign of friction creates a widespread Chicken Little effect that benefits no one except the small-town gossip hounds. It had been hoped these silly maneuvers were dispensed with last season, but now this waiver matter is sure to come up when Griffey reports to Sarasota. We're headed for another year of this joyless nonsense unless someone puts a stop to it. It's not going to be the media, which is in the business of delivering audiences to advertisers.