Chone Figgins A Possibility?

Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

January 17th: The bench is punchless, it’s exactly what Ned Colletti wanted when he envisioned his “futility bench”, little to no pop, extra grittyness and of course, the positional flexibility most of these guys have. Colletti of course has been notorious for benches that have little power and lots of grit, why do we think the 2014 bench is going to be any different?

And the more important question: ask yourself why Chone Figgins WONT be a Dodger? He fits the exact template that Colletti loves in a player. He’s played a total of 2703 innings in the OF (LF, CF, and RF), he’s played  2211.1 innings at 2b, and has played most of his career at a position in which the Dodgers have NO depth at, 3b. He’s been a plus glove at third in his 5260.2 innings in the major leagues! Unfortunately for Figgins, he’s only played 746.4 innings there since he left the Angels in 2010. There’s a perfectly rational reason for this, he’s arguably been one of the worst offensive bats in, Seattle Mariners history there. He compiled a wRC+’s of 88, 37, 54 in each of the past 3 seasons. He batted  .227/.302/.283, this line is actually deceiving to his true performance, he hit .185/.249/.253 in his last 2 seasons.

That’s like Adam Dunn with no plate discipline or a lick of power at all!

Yeah, I get why you’d be underwhelmed by a Figgins signing. He has no power, is up there in age and probably isn’t good enough to win a spot on a major league bench…

But of course not all major league benches have Justin Sellers, Miguel Rojas, Dee Gordon likely to see significant playing time as of right now.

Personally I don’t care, because it’s officially NRI season! NRI’s don’t hurt you at all, and we’d see a motivated Chone Figgins in big league camp trying to pry a spot away from the DEE GORDON and JUSTIN SELLERS.

Oh and lets not forget that Miguel Rojas guy.

Or even bench savior, Brendan Harris!

If things sound bad, it’s because they are. There is little to nothing to lose in signing Figgins to an NRI because it can’t hurt you, worst case scenario it gives Dee and Sellers something to work with and it gives Figgins an opportunity at a roster spot, Michael Young has pretty much drifted into irrelevancy by now, the Dodgers might as well take a flyer on a former all star.

*Former is a very important word in that sentence*