Adam Lind is Dead. Love Live Matt Adams

The Nats are successfully recreating their team from the end of 2017. Kintzler is back meaning the 7-8-9 from the pen is returning. And now Matt Adams has come in and replaced Adam Lind as the first big lefty bat off the bench.

Who is Matt Adams?  Short answer is he's a lefty first baseman who has hit well but can't hit LHP, who isn't well regarded in the field. He's had been relegated to back-up play for most of the past few years but an injury to Freddie Freeman opened up full time work. The 131 games he played last year being the second most of his career. If this sounds familiar it's because Adam Lind was a lefty first baseman who had hit well but couldn't hit LHP, who wasn't well regarded in the field and had been relegated to back-up play for some of the past few years.

There's a general sense that Matt Adams is a better fielder than Lind was. There's also a general feeling that Lind is more of a professional hitter, more likely to work a walk or put the ball in play than Adams is. But these are niggling things. For a back-up/platoon 1B Adams should be every bit as good as Lind. Both these guys are worthy starters vs RHP and are great bench players.

The Nats won 97 games last year and while part of that was the NL East, a lot of that was a roster that was arguably at it's peak at the end of the year. So recreating it isn't the worst idea. Is it enough? Well it wasn't last year but if you aren't for going "ALL IN" for the sake of trying everything, I don't see how you can ask for more than what they are doing now. Get a Stephen Drew replacement and a cheap but ok 5th starter and you'd have to expect another 90+ win season, NL East title, and crack at breaking through. (barring injuries/surprises) of course

In other news - Tommy Milone is back. You may remember him as one of the "Gio 4" sent to Oakland for Gonzalez. Milone stands now as the 2nd most successful of the bunch, three of which turned into useful players.* Milone had a handful of decent seasons filling the back of the rotation for the A's and Twins. However he's been terrible the past two years and there isn't much for him to fall back on. He doesn't have strikeout stuff and is not a master of control. His "success" came from being not particularly bad at any specific things. That's a tightrope walk that can't be maintained and it wasn't. He's organizational filler and nothing more. 

*Derek Norris was a legit good C for a few seasons before suddenly crashing. Brad Peacock struggled to find himself until 2016 when he emerged as a valuable swingman / spot starter for the Astros. The fourth man the Nats brought back very quickly and has not made a name for himself, Mr. Alan Jervicious Cole (may not be his real name).  Still he was the youngest of the bunch and almost was useful last year.