The Case for Ty Wigginton

With the flurry of posts by Jeff, Matthew, and Graham, and with the extension of Felix, the M's payroll situation is clearing up, and by the end of arbitration it looks to be around $90 Million. That being said, the Mariners still have two key positions to address: utility and starting pitcher. Though Ty Wiggington is not everyone's favorite player, he is perfectly suited for a role on the Mariners.


I'm not going to go into the Mariners current depth chart (that's already been covered fairly well on the front page), but I will mention that currently the Mariners have only one backup outfielder and again, only one backup infielder in Ryan Langerhans and Jack Hannahan, respectively. That being said, the Mariners should target someone who can fill a needed role in the outfield, as well as potentially occupy half of the infield. In the case of Ty Wiggington, he would spell Ryan Langerhans in LF, allowing Langerhans to cover elsewhere. Additionally, Wiggington has experience at 1B, 2B, and 3B, and would provide necessary depth to the infield. Wiggington's 3B defense has been nothing short of dreadful (-16.4 UZR/150), but I can't imagine him covering third too often with Figgins and a better replacement in Hannahan already covering. Instead, Wiggington could cover the right side of the diamond, allowing Hannahan to focus primarily on 3B and SS. His defense is not great on the right side of the diamond, but it is a marked improvement over what Wiggington would bring to 3B (-7.0 UZR/150 at 1B, 1.4 at 2B; Note: only 1/3 of necessary sample size in both cases). I am not going to supply Wiggington's outfield defensive metrics, as they are not sufficient enough to conclude much, though we can assume Wiggington to be relatively average in LF.

In addition to his positional versatility, Wiggington brings to the table a much stronger bat than Ryan Langerhans. Milton Bradley will need days at DH, and those days will likely be against LHP, as Griffey gets in his ABs against RHP. With Bradley moving to the DH slot and Griffey moving to the bench against LHP, Don Wakamatsu can take advantage of Wiggington's strengths (both offensively and defensively) by placing Wiggington in LF. Ty has a career OPS of .840 against LHP (116 tOPS+), and is an above average hitter against LHP.

Wiggington is due $3.5 million from the Orioles next season, and given Wiggington's contribution last year, its entirely plausible to get him for cheap. While $3.5 Million is about the average cost/win for Wigginton's projection next season, Wiggington's flexibility gives him much more added value to the roster, given the 12-man pitching staff combined with a DH-only player.

All in all, Wiggington makes sense. He can play a multitude of positions, something Wakamatsu will need from the final roster spot. While his defense leaves a lot to be desired, he compensates for that by playing numerous positions other than 3B. Wiggington is strong vs. LHP, and would be used accordingly. While Safeco would soften his numbers, he's still an excellent fit on the roster due to a lack of right handed bats. Finally, Wiggington is on a decent contract with one year remaining and will be cheap to acquire from the Orioles. Add it all up, and you have an ideal player covering many positions, and compensating for the lack of position players currently on the roster.