The Jack Wilson Conundrum

"“I tried to protect Jack by saying he was a little bit hazy and then he made mention of the fact that I took him out of the game,” Wedge said. “I did not take him out of the game. He took himself out of the game. (Bench coach) Robby Thompson and I were underneath there, and wanted him to go back out. Wanted to convince him to go back out. He didn’t think he could do that and ultimately we had to make a change. – Seattle Mariner Manager Eric Wedge"

"Eric Wedge is a manager who believes in competing and fighting and scrapping, what Wilson did goes against Wedge’s most basic rules. – Ryan Divish"

I’m amazed and a little bit sad by all the news with Jack Wilson. Despite the problems that occurred at second base Wednesday he was looking really good to start the season. Not just offensively, driving the ball well across all fields, but he also had previously made some outstanding plays at second.

I was starting to even think about what I had previously said about moving him to second being a “terrible idea”. It was starting to look like a solid move, one which would hopefully bring back something in return at the time in which Ackley would prove ready.

But at this point it’s interesting to see if he sticks around with the organization any longer. As Brett pointed out the other day the club is well equipped with Adam Kennedy and Luis Rodriguez. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think they couldn’t bring the value that Wilson could at second base.

The majority of Wilson’s value was held in his defensive ability at short. Moving him off to second takes away most of that and the differences between Wilson, Kennedy and Rodriguez at the plate are minimal and arguable that Kennedy and Rodriguez aren’t better and Ackley is just 7-10 weeks away.

With there being teams in need of middle infield help already this season I wouldn’t be surprised to see management just simply get an live or vaguely interesting arm in return for Wilson.