MLB

GIANT MISTAKE NOT TO WAIVE GOODBYE

AS a player who never had a contract he didn’t ultimately conspire to break, Gary Sheffield understands he made the rumpled bed from which he bounded yesterday morning, with what he claims is a renewed purpose in remaining a Met.

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“From the past, I understand people thinking what they thought and they have a right to,” said a player with 509 home runs and almost as many bridges burned and who asked for Thursday night off after learning the Mets wouldn’t trade him to the Giants.

“First thing that crossed my mind when [general manager Omar Minaya] said he pulled me back [off waivers] was, ‘That’s good for me because I could just stay a Met this year and next year.’ So I asked, ‘If you are keeping me from going to a contending team, what’s my future here?’

“I got a maybe-maybe not. That’s not much of a future. It kind of baffled me for a little bit.”

Confuses the hell out of us, too, considering the Mets are eight games under .500 with six weeks remaining, considering that in the absence of Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Delgado, Sheffield, who had an infield single and a bases-loaded strikeout in four trips during Mike Pelfrey’s impressive 4-2 win over the Phillies last night, isn’t going to sell one more ticket for a franchise not only hopelessly out of contention but apparently hopelessly detached from reality.

“Bottom line, we are trying to win as many games as we can,” Minaya said. “If a team is not willing to give us value [in a trade], we have a responsibility to the manager and players that are here.”

What do the Mets owe Jeff Francoeur for his inability to learn the strike zone or Luis Castillo for his refusal to cover second base, or any of these recycled subs with whom they assuredly will not be moving forward in 2010 as regulars? We only can assume Minaya thinks he owes it to himself and to manager Jerry Manuel to win 75 games because, despite evidence of administrative ineptness, a presentable finish might save their jobs.

If, having repeatedly watched smart organizations recycle expiring contracts during hopelessly broken seasons, you wonder how the Mets could be so delusional as to rationalize keeping a 40-year-old, you haven’t paid attention to the mounting evidence of disorganization in the monster garbage mounds of Mets’ bad luck. Common sense comes as hard as homers at Citi Field, another reason to rebuild with speed and defense. Besides, if Minaya didn’t like what was offered for a six-week rental of an ancient, fragile player, why would we resume trusting the Met general manager’s book on other organization’s prospects?

He should have taken what he could get and moved on for the very reason that moving on should entirely be what is driving the organization, not the fear of empty seats near the end of Year One of a new ballpark.

For the record, Minaya confirmed Sheffield never asked for a new contract. But whether or not he made a passive-aggressive move for the release that apparently he is not going to get, we still would be willing to bet the left fielder’s head is on a lot more straight for the rest of this season than the organization’s.

Among the very few reasons to continue to watch this team — such as the development of Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell and, maybe, Dan Murphy — Sheffield is not one of them.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com