We had an election and if you wanted to dump some stuff out on the public, the last few days was the time to do it. So a short recap of the Nats news stories over the past few days.
Nats don't give Ramos QO
Some people debated it but that's only if you believe the injury risk Ramos is going to be worth playing at least half the year next year. Otherwise it's hard to see how he affects the season enough or gets ready fast enough to matter for a possible post-season. Nats obviously are thinking that's optimistic so take pragmatic route. It is still possible he re-signs here. Don't rule that out.
Nats would trade Espinosa
This only makes sense to me if they feel he is going to be a liability on the bench. I'd rather have him that Stephen Drew and they are basically the same player. The trade market for Danny would be there, but would probably be slim. He's only an impactful upgrade if you are terrible at short and not a lot of contenders are. A Gott like return would be best Nats could hope for. And they might go for that. Rizzo likes his arms.
Nats aren't going to be big spenders
Doesn't mean they will not make a big deal but it would have to be a deferred one or something else that doesn't raise next year's payroll that much. Nats payroll is basically what it was last year. Granted there are not a lot of promising FAs out there. This is more about trades. We didn't notice much because of the winning and the lack of obvious need, but the payroll add in-season was again non-existant. So stop expecting the Nats to trade for anyone that will cost any money.
Bryce won't play in WBC. Max might.
Someday someone will get injured during this and there will be an outcry. It's unlikely for any single player though. Let's hope it's not a Nat.
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I know he was hurt and all. But with bryce and all his patriotic stuff he does and all, I'm shocked he's not jumping at the chance!
The worst thing about last night's election is that DC is likely the first place to get nuked when Trump's temper flares against Russia/China. Bye bye Nats Park
In all seriousness, though, I really wish it was baseball season still. I need a distraction
We had an election
Wait, what?!? Why didn't anyone mention this ahead of time?
I'm sorry to see the Buffalo roam off elsewhere, but he's not worth the risk with that injury. Best wishes to him, though. Unless he signs with an NL East team, and then I'll hate him.
Does anyone know the status of the masn angelos lawsuit? If it is resolved soon, does that mean that the Nats will be big spenders in the off season?
"This is more about trades." Agreed.
The kinds of trades Rizzo excels at, however, involve sizing up other teams' latent value and then pouncing opportunistically, as in the 3-way deal that brought us Ross and Turner in 2015 -- or Roark and Ramos in earlier years. These are the gifts kids wish will be under the tree come Christmas. But who can predict them?
Most big FA deals are of the "buy high" variety (very risky). We do have some "sell high" trade bait, though. And they aren't named Espy. What rebuilding team wouldn't want the Nats' minor league stable of RH arms? But none of them are "sell high."
The best clubs are the ones who stay on top by cultivating and promoting quality farm talent. I'd have to say Cole is someone to watch in 2017. (He'll be 26 next year, the same age at which Max broke out. Tanner's break-out year came at age 27.) If Cole or Lopez-Giolito-Fedde can break into the rotation, that frees up some "sell high" guys (not Ross).
The Nats farm system lacks quality OF talent. We need a young LH SP. That's who I want under the tree. And maybe a catcher.
Dont see MASN being resolved for at least two more years.
I am sorry to see Buffalo go too, but Nats arent an AL team so it just doesnt make sense unless he is willing to defer a bunch of money and Nats are comfy with prospect of him never getting back to catching if knees do not hold up.
Espy should go elsewhere. He does not want to ride the bench and will not be the long term answer for Nats. Was willing to have him just in case he figured it out. It is apparent he will not figure it out. Greener pastures.
Manfred mentioned at the beginning of the world series that the MASN fiasco is not likely to end anytime soon and will very likely require multiple court proceedings. I agree that it looks like it is a ways off. The only caveat is that if the Nats win (seems likely based on judge's ruling that the Nats were due more money but had a conflict of interest by using the same law firm as MLB), they will be paid owed money for the last few years with interest. So it is extremely likely the MASN dispute has little to no impact on signings. Anyway, it's just another reason to hate Angelos imo.
MASN is a stalemate - courts said "Hey this is funny what you did with lawyers" It should be an easy work around (get new lawyers, implement Bortz(sp?) system) but something is in way. A lot of people think there's an implicit $ amount MLB promised Nats to go along with original deal. Problem is revenue might be hitting turning point.
Flapjack - Victor Robles!
Could someone provide a quick rundown of what the MASN controversy is about? I see it mentioned here a lot but don't really know what the background is.
What could have been... http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/11/andrew-mccutchen-trade-rumor-nationals-pirates.html
I agree with Fries. Could have been a pretty cool move. Not sure if 2016 is an anomaly going forward.
Also, one the Nats right handed relief pitcher blew out his elbow pitching for Mexico in the WBC years ago. The set up man for Cordero, Luis Ayala. Hopefully, Max doesn't A) get hurt and B) run out of gas toward the end of the year from ramping it up so early this year.
Robot - In order to get Angelos to not fight the move of a team to DC they gave the right to air Nats games to the Orioles planned regional sports network (to which the Nats owner would be a large minority stakeholder). The Orioles would pay the Nats team a small figure to air games and that would be re-figured at a later date. Later date came and the Nats said "Pay us like the Yankees!"* and the O's said no and so it went to MLB arbitration. Arbitration ruled that Nats should get paid more than O's wanted. O's sued listing a bunch of (mostly spurious) reasons. However the one that stuck was that the lawyers used for arbitration by the Nats were the same ones used by MLB all the time. That smacked too much of collusion for the arb panel.
After some initial balking the Nats tried to move on with new lawyers** but O's refuse to go back saying any MLB arbitration is obviously not going to be fair to them and have appealed to make a non-MLB arbitration panel part of the decision.
Now we're in speculation land : Why don't the Nats just go along with a non-MLB panel and new lawyers (or old lawyers at that point COI wouldn't matter)? Theory is that there is an implicit deal between Nats and MLB to get a certain amount from MASN at rebid. If the Nats go outside MLB arbitration they may not get that amount (even though they are almost certain to get more than Orioles want to pay). The other speculation is that the Nats are faking poverty with these deferred deals in order to show "damaging effects" of current deal to strengthen their case. With potentially hundreds of millions on the line down the road it's not a crazy thought.
*Why would the Nats start with a ridiculous figure? Because they want out of MASN. They want their own RSN.
**Forgot that part.
Thanks, Harper. Very helpful.
I can't help wonder if the advent of "choose your own bundle content" in the cable world will eventually reduce the amount of tv revenues for baseball and other sports leagues.
ESPN has lost 7 million subscribers over the past three years. Thats 7 million subscribers not getting billed $7 per month, ESPN's carriage rate charge. This results in a much smaller budget from which to purchase broadcasting rights. Eventually, this will flow downstream to the sports league themselves.
The same forces will also hit MASN. Non sports fan won't have to subsidize sports networks, leaving less revenues for MASN - trickling down to less revenues for the Nationals and Orioles.
If this is true, than the Orioles will benefit from any arbitration delay as the tv revenues decline. When this eventually gets arbitrated, they could find less pie for everybody.
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