The Seattle Mariners currently hold one of the worst contracts in all of baseball with Chone Figgins right now. After signing the speedy infielder to a four-year, $36 million dollar deal in 2010, Figgins has done nothing other than really struggle at the plate and continually draw the ire of M's fans everywhere.
Despite his rough play the last few years in Seattle, manager Eric Wedge said on Thursday that releasing or cutting Figgins was not an option at this point. We take a deeper look at this story after the page jump...
MLB Trade Rumors has a quote from Wedge on Figgins and all the team has done to try and accommodate him.
"Not right now,'' said the manager. "Right now, that's not even an option for us. With Chone, as you all know -- we were very open with you (media) guys about that -- we wanted to give him every opportunity to get back on track. We feel like we did that, leading him off, switching his role a little bit, and it didn't work out."
The Mariners have tried just about everything to get Figgins back on track, hitting him everywhere from leadoff to the bottom of their order. Nothing has worked, and now his defense is struggling as he begins to age.
All of Figgins' salary is guaranteed, and he is owed around $15-16 million through the end of 2013. The M's have looked into just about every possibility of dealing Figgins, but no team in their right mind is going to take on that albatross of a contract. Short of Seattle eating at least 90% of the remaining money on his deal, it appears that Figgins will remain with the team unless they decide to waive or release him.
Certainly not an ideal situation for a rebuilding Mariners team.
For more on Figgins and the M's, be sure to check out Lookout Landing. For the rest of your baseball needs, Baseball Nation is the place to go.