Yankees Trade Rumors: They're Interested in Ty Wigginton

According to Ed Price of AOL MLB FanHouse, the Yankees are interested in trading for Baltimore Orioles infielder Ty Wigginton to improve their bench.

We’ve actually discussed Wigginton on this site recently when we found out that the Orioles were interested in acquiring a shortstop in return for the veteran. That likely means that the Orioles are going to want SS Eduardo Nunez who is a 23-year-old hitting .313 with a .773 OPS in Triple-A Scranton.

The Yankees may try to hold on to Nunez though and offer Ramiro Pena instead, but with Nunez as an option it doesn’t seem likely that the O’s would be willing to settle for Pena.

Wigginton is hitting .258 with a .342 OBP a .808 OPS and a 116 OPS+ in 73 games this season. He also has 14 homers and 42 RBI’s. On the Yankees Wigginton would mostly serve as a backup third baseman, but he can also fill in occasionally at second, first, and the corner outfield positions if necessary.

It doesn’t surprise me that the Yankees would have interest in him. Wigginton is very similar to Jerry Hairston Jr. in some ways whom they traded for last season. The thing that could become an issue is that the Orioles may not want to trade with the Yankees, but if the Yankees offered them a good enough package it probably wouldn’t matter.

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