Angels infielder Brandon Wood was demoted to the minor leagues today.

Brandon Wood has been raking all spring, his K-rate is down from where it was before, and he's done everything a man possibly can to earn a spot.  I get that we've got other guys on the depth chart, but this is probably still the top "prospect" (I use the term loosely on our team) in our organization, he's not getting any younger, and he's proven his talent now at every minor league level.  The man has nothing more to prove at this point and, if I wanted to cherry pick, he was just beginning to get into the swing of things toward the end of last season with the big club.

Look, Chone Figgins and Erick Aybar are all fine, and I want to see them get playing time, too.  But I just don't see any reason at this point to continue to delay the inevitable by continuing to steam ahead with a self-created logjam that is going to keep the current situation the same until something is done about it.  Sure, there's no room for Wood right now in an everyday role.  But if Aybar and Figgins are going to be long-term pieces (and I think one of them should not be), then that logjam is going to be around until someone acts on it.  And in the meantime, our (potentially) power-lacking club could use a contributor like Wood who is, might I add, quite the defender, as well.

The man has earned his shot, and it's not fair to him to leave him sitting in the minors for so long while management sits on its hands and lets his potentially best years go to waste behind two players with considerably less offensive upside.  I love both Aybar and Figgins, but the jam-up on the left side of the infield (nevermind Maicer Izturis) is not worth the delay in getting him in front of major league pitching, in my opinion.

Or who knows, maybe I'm just insane and bitter and my man crush got the best of me.