Or all of the above. Part of Manuel's reluctance to use Wilson may be his trying to avoid getting caught short-handed in case someone gets injured, which is also the big reason managers avoid using all their catchers in a game. If Wilson gets used more as a defensive replacement for Greg Norton now, then we'll know. In the meantime, Rodriguez is sort of wasted on the bench. The best-case scenario for him is a Joey Cora career, but even that's a longshot.
Second base is becomingan oozing sore for the organization.
To make matters worse, they're carrying three catchers because they've already made the mistake of keeping Kirt Manwaring around after wasting the chance to let him walk away last winter. So now some extra-zesty combo of Kurt Abbott, Terry Shumpert and maybe even old, mostly harmless Lenny Harris will log more valuable service time. Hey, at least Leyland gets to give his old buddy the Cangy-man a cozy sinecure after mean old Jerry Manuel cut everyone's favorite sixth outfielder in camp. Cruz is being called up for an emergency start, with Justin Thompson unable to go. He s a changeup artist of no great note, so he's not going to turn into Jose Lima anytime soon.