" The Mets made a splash yesterday, and not just with the major-league opening of sparkling new Citi Field.

Shaking up both their outfield and clubhouse practically on the eve of Opening Day, the Mets landed 40-year-old slugger Gary Sheffield three days after his abrupt release by the Tigers.

The signing, which came just hours before the Mets hosted Boston in the first of two weekend exhibition games at their new 42,500-seat stadium, is contingent on a physical. Sheffield is scheduled to join the team today and could be on the Mets' Opening Day roster Monday in Cincinnati.

Financially, it is a low-risk move because the Tigers will pay $13.6 million of Sheffield's scheduled $14 million salary and the Mets can release him if it is obvious the former Yankee has nothing left.

On the field, assuming Sheffield still can play in light of recent shoulder and knee injuries, he brings a powerful right-handed bat to a Mets lineup dominated by lefty hitters. He also is on the verge of history, standing at 499 career home runs in 21 major-league seasons.

But the Mets will be Sheffield's eighth team, and there is a perception in baseball that the outspoken nephew of Doc Gooden can be a chemistry problem in the clubhouse. That perception prompted the Mets to contact all of Sheffield's former teams this about his personality, as well as gauge the feelings of key players such as Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado.

The verdict, according to GM Omar Minaya, was that the Mets don't have much to lose and potentially much to gain by adding the nine-time All-Star.

"Everything across the board, everywhere we checked, all the teammates that have played with Sheff, said this guy is about winning and he's for the team," Minaya said.

Minaya added that Sheffield -- who reportedly chose the Amazin's over the Phillies and Reds -- made no demands on the Mets as far as at-bats or playing time. "