The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that Ty Wigginton - the one who got dropped like 3rd period French at the beginning of this fine weekend - was almost dealt to the Giants, but because of the pay hike he was due in arbitration, the Giants backed off.
Look, if you're the Astros, you knew the contingency plans. It's not like Run-DMc called Easy Eddie and said, "I know we had talked about re-signing him, but...yeah, we're not." The Astros had to have known that they were either going to trade Wigginton, or non-tender him.
So to have an opportunity to trade him and then let the Giants off the hook (insert Arizona Cardinals footage here) is completely unacceptable. Even if it meant covering the hike Wigginton would have received in arbitration over last year's salary, it would have been worth $2.5 to $3.5 million to get some pieces back.
Now all there is to show for it is no Dan Wheeler and no third baseman. And now there are four - wait, perhaps six teams - interested in Wigginton: Twins, Pirates, Giants, Reds, Indians and maybe the Mets. None of them wanted to come up with some ball resin or a hot tub to trade to the Astros for Wigginton, just so we could have something to show for him - other than the happiest day Chris Johnson has ever had?
I'm unhappy.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
