Yankee greed costs Carter his best shot

For no other reason than to tweak their two biggest rivals, the Yankees stepped in Thursday and claimed Boston’s Chris Carter off waivers, preventing him from immediately becoming a Met as a player to be named in the Billy Wagner deal. In so doing, they kept the Mets from adding a legitimate bat to their depleted lineup for the final five weeks. They’re also forcing the Red Sox to keep Carter on the 40-man roster for now, which will be a minor annoyance as they try to set up their September roster. So, it’s mission accomplished for Brian Cashman and company. And caught in the crossfire is Carter, a soon-to-be 27-year-old first baseman-outfielder who probably won’t ever have another chance to establish himself like he would have received as a Met next month. The Stanford prospect is a career .304/.378/.507 hitter in 2,745 minor league at-bats, but he’s not a true slugger and he’s quite limited defensively. The Mets will have him next year, but there will likely be plenty of alternatives at first base and in left field by then. This was Carter’s chance, and it’s not going to happen for him simply because the Yankees saw some miniscule advantage for themselves.