Phillies acquire Ty Wigginton

I’m sure you have all heard the news that corner infielder Ty Wigginton was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for a player to be named later or cash considerations. The Rockies also agreed to eat up half of Wigginton’s four million dollar contract, so the Phillies will likely be giving up a player. What was sent back to the Rockies in this trade isn’t significant right now, we don’t know who the player even is, and it is pretty obvious that Wigginton wasn’t held in high esteem by the Rockies. This raises the question, what do the Phillies want with this guy? If the Rockies don’t want Wigginton, then how could the Phillies possibly utilize him in their aspirations for a championship? This trade, for the Phillies, revolves around Ryan Howard in more ways than one and is all about the money.

Two million dollars is dirt cheap for a baseball player, although it is well beyond what most mere mortals, such as ourselves, could ever possibly hope for. One of you may actually have this kind of money, but the point remains the same; two million is a lot for us, but not much in baseball terms. Two million dollars is pretty much what a player who accounts for half a win above replacement is worth.  Wigginton, however, was worth about 0.3 WAR last season.

With Ryan Howard out until either May or June, the Phillies needed to find a short-term replacement. Well, the team has decided to find themselves replacements, instead of just one guy to fill the void. The Phillies already signed Jim Thome, and they may even play guys like John Mayberry Jr. at first in their platoon.

While Wigginton does present an upgrade over Jim Thome at first defensively, this isn’t really much of an upgrade given how poor of a defensive player Wigginton is. People point out his positional versatility, he can play every corner position and second, but he stinks at every position. This positional flexibility is still somewhat helpful, because Wigginton can give guys like Placido Polanco– and even Chase Utley– a break when needed.

It’s not like Ty Wigginton was never a good player, because he was once worth 3.1 WAR in 2008 while with the Houston Astros. He had a 126 wRC+ and hit 23 homers with a .350 OBP. Since then, however, he has been on a steadily steep decline in every major offensive category. A part of this decline has to do with a decrease in BABIP (.293 to .274) that has led to a drop in his batting average (.285 to .242).

Digging a little deeper into the stats, I realized that his line drive rate has actually increased to 18.2 % from 16.3%.  Having a good line-drive rate is one of the keys to increasing BABIP, but 18.2% is still below-average. The main reason why Wigginton has seen a decline in his BABIP is his IFFB% (infield fly ball rate). A high IFFB% is the worst thing for a BABIP total, and Wigginton’s 14.9% is unsightly and is up from his previous mark of 11.3%. What makes this even worse is that a high IFFB% pretty much saps most of a hitter’s power, and that’s evident when looking at his decrease in ISO from a very good .241 to a mediocre .175.

Wigginton’s 91 wRC+ doesn’t cut it at first, but he’s not going to be their everyday first baseman. He’s going to get the majority of the playing time at the position for the first part of the season, but he’ll just be relegated to bench duties from that point onward. Two million dollars over one season isn’t much, and there’s always the chance that he corrects things in a new environment and starts driving the ball like he used to.

The Phillies were in talks with Michael Cuddyer, and Phillies fans should actually be happy that the team didn’t acquire him. Cuddyer is an overrated player who was ready to be overpaid, and the Phils saved a load of money on a guy they didn’t really need. The Phillies are already forking over too much to Ryan Howard, and all they needed was a part-time replacement at first anyway. Cuddyer would have commanded a multi-year deal, and that’s not what the Phillies are looking for. Although he could play in the outfield, the Phillies don’t really have room for him there when one considers the money he would have made.

Front offices must obviously look toward the future at pending contracts, and the Phillies just saved themselves money that would be better spent on Jimmy Rollins at short instead of signing a subpar alternative. And guys, could you really envision J-Roll playing short somewhere else? He means a lot to the franchise; that’s for sure. Outfielder Hunter Pence will also want a big paycheck soon, and he’s definitely a far better player than Cuddyer. While Ty Wigginton won’t  light the world on fire, he doesn’t have to. He just needs to provide some marginal value. There is always the possibilty that he regains his stroke, but you could still do a lot worse than pay Ty Wigginton two million dollars.  After all, he wasn’t exactly in the best situation in Colorado, despite the park factors. Baseball is more than just a bunch of statistics, and many players do bounce back in new and better environments.