Gary Sheffield traveled to the winter meetings on Tuesday from his home in nearby Tampa, Fla. As usual, the 500-homer man had some interesting things to say.

For one thing, the 42-year-old wasn’t ready to declare that he'd retired from playing, despite sitting out the 2010 season. But it doesn’t sound like he’s actively seeking offers.

“Never say never,” he said.

At the moment, Sheffield is working as an adviser on baseball and financial matters. He's started Sheffield Management Company, with former teammate (and free-agent reliever) Jason Grilli as a client.

Grilli missed this season after sustaining a severe knee injury in spring training, but Sheffield said Grilli’s fastball velocity is already back to 95 mph. (Scott Boras, formerly hired and fired as Sheffield’s agent, could not have done the sales pitch any better.)

Sheffield earned $168 million during his 22 major league seasons, according to Baseball-Reference.com. So, we know he is well-versed in two areas – making money and judging pitchers.

-Jon Paul Morosi