The Associated Press

Injured first baseman Mo Vaughn plans to join the team during spring training rather than retire, the New York Post reported Saturday.

Vaughn went on the disabled list May 3 with joint and cartilage damage in his left knee and didn't play again last season. He has been working out and wants to give playing another shot - starting with spring training at the team's Port St. Lucie complex in February.

"It's too early to conclude anything, but Mo will do his part and report as required," agent Jeff Moorad told the newspaper.

The degenerative injury appeared to be career-threatening, but Moorad said he envisions Vaughn, who turns 36 next month, with the Mets when spring training begins.

Calls to Vaughn and Mets general manager Jim Duquette weren't immediately returned to the paper.

Vaughn, the 1995 AL MVP while with Boston, has 326 career homers, 1,064 RBI and a .293 batting average in 12 major-league seasons. He has been slowed by injuries, including missing the entire 2001 season with a ruptured tendon in his left arm.

He hit just .190 with three homers and 15 RBI in 27 games for the Mets last year - his second with the team.

STENSON CASE: Jennifer Gaddis, the ex-girlfriend of Dernell Stenson who has been questioned in the Reds outfielder's death, has said she is 11 weeks pregnant with the couple's second child, the New York Daily News reported.

According to a police report, Stenson told Scottsdale, Ariz., police he dated Gaddis for about a year before they broke up in the fall of 2002. But Gaddis said the couple did not split up. She said Stenson also is the father of her 8-month-old baby.

Gaddis cooperated with detectives Friday morning while they searched her Indianapolis house and removed items, Chandler, Ariz., police said in a statement released Saturday.

Stenson, who had been playing in the Arizona Fall League, was found dead Nov. 5.

TRADE WINDS: How high will the Montreal Expos' price for Javier Vazquez be in a trade? In general manager Omar Minaya's mind, it is the cost of a Pedro Martinez clone.

"He's a young Pedro," Minaya said last week in Phoenix.

Martinez was 65-39 with a 3.00 ERA in his first six seasons; Vazquez is 64-68 with a 4.16 ERA in the same period.

CHARITY WORK: Among the items auctioned at Keith Hernandez's charity dinner last Wednesday was a basketball autographed by Kobe Bryant and a guitar autographed by Michael Jackson.

The ball went for $400, while the guitar sold for $700.