St. Louis Cardinals' Ty Wigginton contract makes little sense at a glance

The St. Louis Cardinals signed Ty Wigginton to a two-year, $5 million contract on Friday, surprising two kinds of people: People who thought Ty Wigginton was retired, and people who thought Ty Wigginton was on a succession of minor league deals at this point. Well, three classes of people--it probably surprised Matt Carpenter, too. There's no getting around, with this signing, just how bad Wigginton has been over the last two years--and how replacement-level he's been over the last six.

Ty Wigginton is absolutely not a second baseman anymore, if he ever was. He's not really a third baseman anymore--and if the Cardinals don't plan on trading Matt Carpenter after making this move, the question is academic, because he's not as good as Matt Carpenter. He's a first baseman, but he'll play behind the Cardinals' other right-handed first baseman who's no longer a third baseman, Allen Craig.

Basically, he's a guy who will take swings against left-handers. He was reasonable there last year, hitting .234/.360/.411 in 150 plate appearances. But are the Cardinals really paying him $2.5 million a year for 150 plate appearances? We'll see what John Mozeliak says about it later, but right now this looks like a minor league contract that inexplicably metastasized.