SI.com’s Jon Heyman reported on Friday that Reds OF Ken Griffey Jr. was telling friends he would think about waiving his no-trade clause to head to the Tampa Bay Rays, the team closest to his Orlando home. However, Griffey’s agent told MLB.com on Sunday these rumors were false.

What’s interesting about that original Heyman article is how it affected the media perception. ESPNEWS jumped on the buzz, reporting it as breaking news and making it sound like a deal could happen soon. But in Heyman’s article, he merely said Griffey would “consider” moving and would “monitor” the Rays’ progress. Nothing sounded imminent.

In fact, Heyman quoted the Rays GM as more or less saying they are fine with their current players. You could say the general manager is simply playing his cards close to him, but that quote makes it sound like there’s little interest.

When I first saw this on ESPN, I immediately thought to myself: when was the last time a deal was done strictly for public relations and attendance? One could say the Giants’ re-signing of Barry Bonds, but even then, the Giants were simply maintaining their aging team. I honestly cannot remember a trade happening where this was so obviously the case because baseball-wise, the deal makes little sense for the Rays, as other media analysts have already speculated.

The one other component that Griffey could contribute to the Rays would be clubhouse leadership, especially on a team with youngsters like Tampa Bay. One could argue that some of the pressure was taken off Jay Bruce’s meteoric rise to the majors by Griffey’s chase for home run no. 600. If the Rays are starting to feel the pressure of being noticed by the mainstream media for their 2008 success, perhaps Griffey could help alleviate that. Then again, the Rays already have Cliff Floyd for leadership and having them both might be a bit much.

Purely from his individual statistics recently, Griffey does not look to contribute much more in 2008. He’s currently batting just .245 with 7 HR and 30 RBIs. He’s taken a lot of walks, though. He’s coming off his healthiest season in years. He batted .277 with 30 HRs and 93 RBIs in 144 games played last season. However, his year started to tail off after a poor July 2007 in which he batted just .205. This year, if he doesn’t get injured, he’s on pace for the worst production of his career.

If the Rays were to entertain such a trade, they’d have to deal with the Reds’ $16.5 million option for 2009. Certainly, if Griffey asked for that option to be exercised, a deal would not happen. If Griffey asked for that much money, any talks of acquiring him would prove downright foolish.

There was speculation that the Reds were just holding on to Griffey until he hit his landmark home run no. 600, not only for sentimental reasons, of course, but also the attendance the historic feat would bring. Griffey could also wait until the All-Star Game before making any drastic moves, knowing he is getting the nostalgia vote.

It would certainly make sense for Griffey to take advantage of any disinterest the Reds could have now by hopping on a potential contender. But would the wiser move be to just retire, rather than blindly cast a die at one last playoff run?