Oh my, is Bill Smith’s face red!

When the Twins stopped looking at Ty Wigginton, the implication was that his asking price was higher than Casey Blake’s, and that the Twins didn’t value him that highly. Well, now he signed with the Orioles, for two years and six million dollars. That’s right. Less than Mike Lamb, except right handed, not a complete dipshit, and with the remote possibility of being decent; and coming off a huge offensive year.

I’m not usually one to scream “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater, but this signing is a disaster. It’s one thing to say “We don’t think Wigginton is worth $18M,” but it’s quite another to say “We don’t think he’s worth $6M.” And by the way, he absolutely is. Over the past three seasons, he’s been worth $5.6M, $5.6M, and $13.5M. I figure he’ll drop back down to somewhere in the $5-6M range in 2009 and probably a bit below that in 2010, which means the Orioles just signed a ludicrously team friendly contract. You don’t think we could have enticed him with something along the lines of “You’ll play on a contender, you’ll be protected by two of the best left handed hitters in the game, and you never have to face a left handed pitcher if you don’t want” or something along those lines? How in blazes did the Baltimore Orioles convince him to go there? And here we are, hands in pockets, letting good deals pass us by while we have money to spend.

Oh. Speaking of which, the other bit of “news” mentioned in that article is something I wasn’t planning to mention, because it seemed so stupid that nobody would even bother caring about it. A Seattle newspaper is reporting that the Twins and Mariners have been talking about a Delmon Young for Jarrod Washburn and Jeff Clement swap.

JoeC’s analysis is, well, let’s just say “interesting:”

If that’s true — and we haven’t confirmed this – perhaps the Twins had plans to spin Clement off as part of another deal. The Twins have this Mauer guy at catcher, and one of their top prospects is catcher Wilson Ramos.

Given our recent history of making trades, we’d probably fail to trade Clement and release him instead. Or send him to the Red Sox for a thirty second video of Theo Epstein laughing hysterically at us. Either way, why would we want to deal for a no-field catcher whose only other defensive abilities include 1B and DH? (You know, the only other two positions that we have guys locked into, besides C.)

But he really just falls off the wagon regarding Washburn:

The Washburn part makes sense, however. The Twins tried getting him last summer. Washburn, a Wisconsin native, will make $10.35 million this season in the final year of his contract. The Mariners are trying to shed salary, so they can add Bobby Abreu or Ken Griffey, Jr., and the Twins have room to add.

Oh, okay then, acquiring Washburn makes sense because:

1. The Twins mistakenly tried to acquire him during last season because they really didn’t want Liriano winning games for them.
2. Washburn is from Wisconsin.
3. Washburn will make over $10M this season.
4. The Mariners want to get rid of his contract.
5. The Twins have a bit of extra money in the budget.

This all follows pretty logically, I think. I mean seriously, how could the Twins possibly not make this deal after considering those foolproof bullet points?

Wait, what’s that you said? None of those sound like benefits to the Twins? You mean the Twins are not obligated to make talentless millionaires and poorly run organizations happy? Why, where’s the goodness in your heart?! The Twins are a charity, not a baseball team!

You have got to be kidding me. Whoever started this rumor wasn’t thinking straight, and the Twins people who are “thinking” about it aren’t thinking straight either.

The Twins have the best catcher in baseball established behind the plate, and he’ll be here for two more years unless we do something smart and extend his ass. We also have a big time prospect coming up to replace him by the name of Wilson Ramos, who also has the advantage of being a bit of a power hitter. They are not going to acquire a catcher.

The Twins also have a cadre of talented young starting pitchers, and a whole set of them waiting in the minors to replace them. This is the primary strength of the organization. They have no need to pay $10M + talented players to acquire a guy who wouldn’t even be good enough to start for us.

For reference: Jarrod Washburn hasn’t been worth $10.35M since 2002, when he was with the Angels. He has basically sucked ever since. Over the last three years he’s been worth $6.9M, $7.6M, and $5.7M while getting paid $7.5M, $9.9M, and $9.9M. You simply cannot tell me that the Twins would be better off by overpaying him to lose for us?

Delmon Young still has a whole bunch of talent and a whole bunch of potential, and is just 23 years old. Is now really the time to sell low on him? I mean, it’d be a good time to buy low, but shouldn’t the Twins actually get something out of a potential deal, as opposed to just making sure it works for everyone else?

I could shout about this until I’m blue in the face. In fact, I have been for a few minutes.

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