Dodging two bullets, by accident

Last season there was much controversy, and vitriol, about the handling of two "Marquee" players on the Pirates roster. Best buddies Jack Wilson and Freddy Sanchez were both offered what many FO-bashers claim was a low ball offer.

Lets handle Freddy first. The offer for Sanchez was 2 year $10 million dollars. The catch was that he had to give up a vesting option of $8.4 million contingent on him getting 600 PA last season. If he were to give up that option and reach 600 PA it was like he was making $1.6 million in two seasons, a terrible deal given his track record. Even though he was having some injury problems, and really always was kind of fragile, most assumed he would get the plate appearance just out of hand. We all know how that ended though, he didn't even come close to 600 PA. Freddy Sanchez was then re-signed by the Giants at two years $12 million. A bit higher than the Pirates offered but very much within the ballpark.

That's a great deal for Sanchez no doubt, but what has he given the Giants since the trade? 29 hits. That is all. He hasn't played at all this season due to injuries and missed 51 games last season. That type of cash into an oft-injured, powerless second baseman with little defensive range is just ludicrous looking back. There is a chance he is out of the league before his contract is up with his injury problems.

Now onto Jack Wilson, who has also missed a lot of time. Jack Wilson was offered $8 million over two season, he had a club option for 2010 of $8.4 million which the Pirates were never intending to use. Wilson also has an injury history too, he hasn't played in 150+ games since 2005 and his stick has been very unimpressive. He is the definition of an all glove no stick SS. He also has 6 errors in this young season, his previous career high was 18 in 2006. The latest bad news for Wilson? Another injury, actually 2. A hamstring and a knee have both knocked Wilson out of the lineup recently. Could you imagine paying $4 million a season to Wilson part time the next two years? Almost seems like something David Littlefield would do. The Mariners thought it would be prudent to do just that and more, they signed him to a 2 year $10 million deal.

Even if we get little in return for these guys, it was the right move. Hell just moving Snell's salary with Wilson was worth it. Ronny Cedeno does about what Wilson does and is much much cheaper. These aren't keystone guys regardless. Even Aki, who has been bad is contributing more than Sanchez. It was said that tying up over $16 million on a middle infield of Sanchez and Wilson wasn't a good allocation of funds, and that is 100% dead on obvious.

The problem is that Huntington did try to extend these guys, and he had the benefit of really knowing their full injury problems and the like. I'm not sure if Huntington ever wanted them to sign for this reason but tried to please the fans, or build up their value, but if he seriously wanted these guys back, I'm sure glad he failed.