Nationals Baseball: Monday Quickie - continuing all that we have

Monday, January 08, 2018

Monday Quickie - continuing all that we have

Harper, what would you do about a 5th starter? Try to make a boffo trade for Chris Archer? Go after a journeyman/wild card like Sean Manaea? Make deals with reclamation projects such as Chris Tillman and others with a Spring Training invitation attached? Or see what A.J. Cole or Eric Fedde can produce and hope Joe Ross can recover in time for the second half of the season? Me, I'd offer Soto, Ross, and Fedde and a pair of decent throw-ins for Archer. 

What would I do? I'd sign Darvish! Or Arrieta! Not my money! 

Given how the NL East hasn't built itself up yet, I'd ignore the journeyman route (unless you can get a bargain on a them late - which is what I think will happen with a Lackey or Garcia). I also wouldn't go the reclamation route. The last thing the Nats need is more injury risk players. So I guess I would in a more "this is baseball today" sense - would go young. Go ahead and try out Fedde again, give Voth a shot, etc. etc. and then trade for someone come July if need be. The Nats have this flexibility so use it. I guess.

But honestly I think they end up with that bargain journeyman at the very least to give Fedde a few months in the minors.

Christian Yelich’ Wikipedia page lists Boston RedSox 2018- under the “Teams” section. Has anyone heard any news on this? Lol

What? Does the WaPo Sports Desk edit Wiki pages now?   No news that I've heard.

Yeah. As you mention, the people who think Yelich (particularly a yelich who has to play CF where he is average to below average) is a comparable return for everybody but Robles/ those who think yelich plus realmuto for every prospect we have including Robles and MAT is fair....are nuts. That’s all I will say. If you want Realmuto, offer Soto and MAT and hand CF to Robles. That will almost certainly get it done. If you want realmuto ANd Yelich, offer Robles and MAT. That also probably does it IMO. And I would support both I think.  

I wish there was a "fan trade database" of sorts where you could enter your in-your-head fair deal to the fan of the other team and watch them rip it apart.

As for your deals - the idea that the Marlins really would want MAT... I guess in a Soto+ deal for Realmuto he could be part of it - but if the Marlins are giving up Realmuto (or Yelich) they want guys they can control and probably a handful of them. I think they'd rather have Soto + Kieboom + a couple #10-#20 Nats prospects. Same with the Realmuto, Yelich deal. Why would they give up two great players with control and in part get back MAT, a worse player with less control? That makes no sense. They may take him to help the Nats make space but not at the expense of getting what they really want.

Harper. One other quick comment/q. Am I the only one that think Lucroy would be a great fit for Nats if they strike out on realmuto? He’s better than Weiters, even the version of him from last year. And I feel like there is a 25-40% chance you get lucky and you sign him at his absolute bottom value and he pops halfway back up to what he was a couple years ago and suddenly you have a moderately priced C who hits .270/.350/.450 and plays ok defense. He’s an ideal guy to grab for a pillow contract of 1-2 years and make Weiters back up and deal severino. 

I doubt you are the only one but convincing the management to see Wieters as a sunk cost is the issue. They probably want to play him out in 2018 at least for a 2-3 months before giving up on him. And you could argue that's not unfair. He was reliably blah before last year. I'm sure this is what Boras is telling them. If you expect to dedicate half a year to seeing if Wieters can play there's no point in signing/trading anyone that isn't a long term replacement. (and I don't think you get Lucroy on a long-term bargain deal)

10 comments:

Dusty's Toothpick said...

I really want to get rid of Matt Wieters. Aside from the obvious reason of his mind numbing debacles during the playoffs (which upon research the umps got one of those debacles wrong)besides him coming up clutch with some timely hits his hitting in general was un-impressive. His overall demeanor was rather poor and always seemed to have that Eli Manning look on his face. I just didn't like the vibe, and although I am a numbers guy I think there is definitely a mentality and "vibe" on a baseball field that either hurts the makeup of a particular team. For example Koda Glover (bar brawler) vs. Blake Treinen (church activities)type of guy as a closer. I think we can do a lot better with catching and should spend more considering the pitching staff the Nats have accumulated. If anyone has catching stats on Wieters that would make me think differently that would be great!

Harper said...

Eli won two Super Bowls! Two!

The only way to get rid of Wieters is to eat another contract closer to the same size and I'm not sure I see a buyer. Maybe you can flip him to TB for Denard Span? Texas for Matt Moore?

Ric said...

Blake Treinen's mentality and vibe may be "church activities", but he had 13 saves with a 1.95 ERA with Oakland and took over the closer role. At what point is that a reflection on the Nationals coaching staff, as opposed to just a beneficial change in scenery?

SM said...

I'm ambivalent about Wieters.

His offensive liabilities have been chronicled here on more than one occasion. And, of course, his performance in last season's Divisional Series remains a burr under the saddle of many Nats' fans.

Dusty's Toothpicks references to Wieters's demeanor notwithstanding, I think back to Max's Cy Young, Strasburg's breakout season and Gio's tippy-toe flirtation with Ace-status. Somebody had to call those games behind the plate.

I would also note one of the most glaring--to me, anyway--differences between Wieters and the departed/beloved Buffalo: When an outfielder (especially Matt) fired a bullet to the plate to nail a runner, Wieters held on to the ball.

Fries said...

@Ric,

while I didn't love Maddux, he's definitely an above average pitching coach. I think Treinen truly did need a change of scenery, moving to a team where all he had to do was prove himself, not live up to World Series expectations. He was never going to get out of his own head if he stayed on a team with increased pressure like the Nats. In hindsight we may say the trade was a bad idea when looking at numbers, but I don't think Treinen would have ever put up those numbers in DC.

Josh Higham said...

@Ric and Fries,

I think Rivero is a much clearer case of mishandling by the Nats. We have a shorter pre-trade window to look at him in DC, and even so it seemed pretty clear he was being overused here. Now Rivero has been dominant for more than a year since being traded away. Treinen had a great second half, and I hope he continues to excel because I like him a lot, but for several years his profile in DC was the same: filthy stuff, poor performance under pressure. Oakland doesn't have a lot of pressure to offer.

BxJaycobb said...

Starlin Castro wants out of Miami. If I’m the Nats and I’m really “going for it” or whatever the dusty rationale was, that’s not a bad idea.
1. Murphy is hurt and we don’t REALLY know when he’ll be back.
2. Zim is hurt every year ever except for last year and f he goes down you could move murphy to 1st (avoiding his hideous 2nd base D) and plug in Castro at 2B.
3. Left side of infield also has injury history. And Castro can play at a pretty high level (grade A infield Super sub) anywhere.
4. This allows you to package Difo to Marlins and pull off a possible big time trade. Instead of yelich and realmuto (our outfield is deep) what about Realmuto + Castro for Soto, Kieboom, Difo? I really don’t think the Marlins could refuse that trade

Fries said...

@Bx

I like it except for the money issue. Castro's owed 10, 11, and 16(option) over the next 3 years. If the Nats are going to make that trade, they're gonna have to find a way to get the Marlins to take Weiters

blovy8 said...

If Castro's third year isn't guaranteed, 'm ok with that...if it's an almost dump, the Marlins want to save face, get a 30th prospect and eat 8 million every year, that's a happy ending.

Anonymous said...

We are signing Howie Kendrick again two years 7 million