With baseball's worst record at 29-59, the Orioles are expected to start selling off their veteran players any day now as they build for the future. That process appears to be in full swing, with Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun reporting that several teams have interest in utility man Ty Wigginton while at least one may have their eyes on Miguel Tejada.
The Phillies, Rangers, and Yankees are all in on Wigginton, and in fact the O's have been talking to the Phillies about him for weeks. Zrebiec says Philadelphia may also have interest in Tejada, who they could use at third base while sliding the currently injured Placido Polanco over to second base while Chase Utley is on the shelf.
The Rangers, meanwhile, will have a scout in attendance for Baltimore's game against the Blue Jays tonight. Texas has been looking for a righthanded bat since the offseason, and the trade of Justin Smoak may have increased the team's efforts to find a platoon mate for Chris Davis. Wigginton could be a perfect fit given his versatility.
Zrebiec is convinced that Wigginton will not be an Oriole come August 1st, and it's hard not to agree with him. He isn't so sure about Tejada, however he does say there are several teams out there that believe the former AL MVP would elevate his game if pushed back into a pennant race.
Wiggi is a pretty useful player. He plays a lot of positions with some contact and solid pop. At 2B or off the bench that’s a nice plus. At 2B he’s good at making all of the basic plays, esp. up the middle, but the range gets exposed when he has to move to his left. All in all, he is solid. Better than, say, an Uggla there. That being said, he’s actually a pretty solid 1B. He’s made some nifty balls in the dirt plays and saved a few errors. Pretty underrated guy. The power has sagged in the last month but he’s got a decent track record of coming out of slumps. Given consistent playing time, and maybe a better lineup, he’s a decent bet to be around or over 20 HRs.
Every Os trade under MacPhail, for experienced veterans has been for multiple young players, usually a central piece with a piece or two to round it out. In the case with Bedard and Tejada (Trade 1), each was for 5 players respectively. Bedard’s had maybe 2-3 quality pieces coming back (SP Tillman, CF Jones, CL Sherrill). With Tejada, it was maybe 1 or 2 depending how valuable you regard Luke Scott and Matt Albers. With SP Trachsel (RP Rocky Cherry, UT Scott Moore), CL Sherrill (3B Josh Bell, SP Steve Johnson), and Huff (RP Brett Jacobson), it was for multiple guys too.
For a possible Wiggington trade, the closest guess in value I think would be a package better than Huff and as close as possible to the Sherrill trade. Specifically, a legit SS prospect would do it. I think what makes it necessary to better the Huff deal is because, Huff was in his final yr of a contract, that was a waiver deadline deal, and it was an addition-by-subtraction thing. Moving him actually made the roster crunch better at the time. It was more or less close to being a PTBNL transaction. In Wigginton’s case, it’s a July deadline deal and losing him would create a solid hole in an already shaky lineup with a lot of the season left to play. A team needs to entice MacPhail enough to offset that kind of damage.
Wigginton hasnt hit since May….not going to get you anyone who will ever contribute more than mop up relief innings in the bigs. Sorry
Longest comment about a pathetic Orioles team ever.
Wow. That’s a pretty snide comment. Fans of winning teams beating up on losing teams. How nice?
A legit SS prospect for 2 months of Ty Wigginton? Please.
As opposed to a legit 3B prospect for 2 months of Sherrill?
well Sherrill is still on the Dodgers, although I’m guessing at this point they wish it was only a 2 month rental
Right. It was a bit tongue in cheek. Still, I think that MacPhail will get something of value for Wigginton, though I doubt it will be something so valuable as a legit SS prospect.
man, that went right over my head haha
I am not saying it’s worth it, in an even market. A Wiggington is not worth a legit SS prospect in a vaccuum, I agree. The thing is that this is a deadline deal, and negotiating leverage is not even. Perceived value and demand affects what his worth is. Let’s forget if it is true or not, for a sec, but if you deem your team to be a 2B/3B/UT away from going all the way from a hedged bet of a solid majorleague prospect (Let’s not kid ourselves, every baseball prospect is a crap shoot), that’s a cheap price. If any given prospect of any worth has an unpredictable value of ever becoming at least an average majorleaguer, and the difference between a playoff berth/championship is a good bat in a key situation, it’s at least worth a consideration.
Keep in mind, I am not saying that Wiggington is worth it. I think it really depends on the team and context of their farm system. If you tell me it’s the Yankees, then, yeh, I think it’s worth it for them. They can always offset their developmental loss with free agency. If we’re talking about the Reds, I’d probably say it’s not worth it, they aren’t close enough.
He’s batting 185 over teh last month and a half. His trade value is limited to being a player to add depth on a bench so be happy if you get an arm from A ball with an ERA under 7
You’re taking it a little far. Lower A-ball arm with a sub-7.00 ERA? If those are the offers then I doubt he is traded at all. That kind of minor league arm can be had for nothing on the minorleague waiver wire.
You’re right that he was slumping hard before the All-Star break, but he’s turning it around now. But granting all of that, he’s cheap, not terribly old, and still hitting around .250 with 14 HRs and plays multiple positions in the majors. It’s worth something. I wasn’t suggesting that it’s worth a teams’ top prospects. I am just saying it might be worth, say, a 85-90 mph finesse AA arm or so who has some upside and maybe a future in the bullpen, or, a infield prospect with upside, good contact rate, and some speed. Those sorts of prospects are for depth, and aren’t extraordinarily special (every team has them), but it’s worth something to develop and keep in stock.
If you think anyone would get such a player for a bad minorleague pitcher, then why even bother?
Did you forget, we’re talking about the Orioles here? You think they’re in a position to just give away veteran players for nothing? The Orioles are in the drivers seat, and basemonkey’s points about MacPhail’s track record in these situations are much closer to what will happen than your prediction.
I could see kenny williams going after one of the two, probably wiggy since he seems to have more pop but miggy is an all around better hitter, I would not mind seeing tejada playing 3rd for the Whitesox while vicedio DH’s, or same with wigginton