The Jack Wilson saga: Now what?

Dejan over at the Post-Gazette has spent countless column inches of his newspaper’s money over the last week or so trying to convince the world that that Dodgers are interested in Jack Wilson.  It wasn’t going over to well but Alan Robinson with AP (one of Dejan’s friends, mind you) also came out in support of Dejan’s work.

Those two reports obviously caused quite a stir in the Los Angeles sports community as radio shows and discussion forums lit up over the possibility that Wilson might “come home” to play.

Then along came little known writer Tony Jackson at the LA Daily News yesterday and announced the Dodgers haven’t talked to the Pirates in months.  Problem is, Jackson is known for his credibility following the Dodgers.

But that didn’t stop Dejan – in his latest output today he was still trying to convince the world - and the Dodgers – Wilson is right for LA because, get this, Wilson is now willing to restructure his contract to facilitate the trade to $12M over two years.  He’s due to earn $7.25M in 2009 and $8.4M in 2010, so that’s a savings of $3.65M.

Then later today Ken Rosenthal over at Fox Sports obviously had enough of all the Jack Wilson rumors and said:

“The Dodgers are not actively pursuing Jack Wilson, Craig Wilson, Preston Wilson, Enrique Wilson or any other player named Wilson. They spoke to the Pirates about Jack Wilson earlier this offseason..” 

Jayson Stark at ESPN also piped in with a report of his own: “the Dodgers seem to have much less interest in Jack Wilson than has been reported elsewhere.”

Now, we have no earthly idea if the Dodgers did, or ever will, have any interest in Jack Wilson.  Who knows, he might get traded out there tomorrow. 

But obviously it doesn’t make any sense for LA to take on almost $8M in guaranteed money on a one-year for a light hitting shortstop with health issues well on the downside of his career, no matter how much fielding range at the premium position he once had.  But as you’ll see in a minute, while Dejan might have been writing ghost stories, he possibly could have stumbled across a way to make this work.

Wilson is a +1.5 wins above replacement player (WAR) at best if he plays full-time but, if you really want to stretch it to the max, maybe +2 WAR.  Each one WAR is worth about $3.5M in today’s world, although some will probably argue it’s as high as $4M. 

Yet Wilson hasn’t played a full year of baseball since 2005 and the only year his offensive stats looked even reasonable the last three were in 2007 when the Pirates played in a lot of games that were blowouts in the second half.  Because Wilson was platooned so much, he put up a second-half split of .356/.405/.567 over 203 trips to the plate. 

Simply put, Wilson isn’t worth $8M, or $15.6M over two, and Colletti knows that.  There just isn’t any equitable value for a trade and if Huntington ended up clearing all the salary off the books and getting a “B” prospect in return, he deserves a medal.

If Bud Selig would even allow the Pirates to do the deal as it would reek as a salary dump.

However, if Wilson did restructure to a $12M deal over two years – say $6M per – then there still isn’t any equitable contract value but there would be some potential for value at the back end in the form of a draft compensation pick if Wilson was to remain at least a “B” player under Elias rankings.  True, there isn’t much chance the Dodgers would offer him arb in 2011 but you never know – Wilson might get a second wind.  So it’s not much, but it’s something. 

But still only yields the Pirates one “B” prospect in return.

So why even deal him?  Since Wilson expressed his willingness to restructure his contract to go to LA, and since Dejan seems to be in love with the guy, what the Pirates should do is tell Dejan they intend to ask Wilson to not only restructure his contract with them, but to ask him to give them a hometown discount to boot so he can remain a Pirate for the next two years. 

Say, $10M guaranteed over two and allow him to keep his six no-trade clubs. 

Guess what?  Then Wilson becomes affordable, the Pirates would be able to deal him for more than a ”B” prospect, and Wilson gets two years of guaranteed money to boot.  And hey, if the Pirates still can’t find any takers for Wilson at the cut-rate price, then ole’ Jack can stay a Buc for two as he’s told the fans for years-and-years he’d love to do.

It’s win-win, but like Brian Boehringer might say, I doubt Jack is man enough.

One problem though.

If you haven’t noticed by now, the Pirates are actually trying to purge out cultural problems – not keep them around longer. 

I’d rather take the defensive hit of -40 runs and a “C” prospect or two since we weren’t smart enough to deal him last winter.  I’m not so proud to know the difference between 95 losses and 115 as long as we’re moving forward.

Keep writing Dejan.  Maybe you can talk Wilson into something more than missing groundballs.

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I heard a nice report on Andrew McCutchen and the time he spend in the Florida Instructional League this year working on his swing which I’ve been telling you scouts have been questioning some.  It turns out that at least one person very familiar with McCutchen’s work said:

“[H]e made some great strides.. it was a very impressive 2 weeks, both the effort and attention to detail as well as the results.”

That’s really, really good news.  Cutch can be an absolute monster if he continues to work on his game.  Now we’ll see if it translates next year in 3A now that Jim Skaalen (see below) is around.  Keep up the hard work Andrew.

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In case you don’t watch the “Rumor Mill” page above, I announced yesterday that the Pirates inked Jim Skaalen to a minor league rover position Thursday.  What a great hire for Kyle Stark.  His pop also pitched in the Pirates farm system in the 40’s.

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I’m working on the comment form problem where you can’t login.  I upgraded a couple of plugins and one didn’t like my theme.

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Gas under $1 in a few months?  Wow.

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Jesse has posted a nice hope piece over at The ‘Burgh Blues.  Go check it out.