The Ntas roster continues to round into final shape including...
- Stevenson got outrighted. This is because he is out of options and the Nats preferred Yadi Hernandez, who might DH here and there, up first. There were no particularly promising other options so Stevenson came back and will be in the minors to start.
- Luis Garcia going to minor league camp. We talked about this before but there isn't a GOOD reason for this. There's a poor one involving trying to see if Cesar Hernandez can be decent enough to turn into a 21 yo former 4th round HS draftee converting himself into a reliever with some conflicting stats in Low A. Along with him is Cavalli who got a chance to force the issue in the Spring, but didn't. That move is fine.
- Ol' Friend Clip will also start in the minors to throw some more. Barrera will be there too and Parra, which why? The guy has got nothing left but nostalgia.
- The Barrera move leaves Riley Adams back-up C (instead of getting ABs in AAA - honestly not sure which is best)
- Robles is unburied (in part by necessity - I mean you are forcing someone else into this role if not him) and will play CF and avoided arbitration by signing a deal which I'm sure was unrelated. Lane Thomas, current great crazy Nat hope*, will be in LF.
- Ehire Adrianza, back-up extraordinaire got hurt (quad), Lucious Fox might be the temporary replacement.
- Dee Strange-Gordon made the team as a MI/OF guy with a hot spring. SPRING TRAINING STATS MEAN NOTHING. But I guess it's slightly better than picking at random which is kind of what you would be doing with this bunch of cast-offs.
- For the rotation - Corbin will start Opening Day. Fedde has a slight injury scare but seems on target to start as expected. Gray is going to start. Is any of this good news?
- Carter Kieboom still out, not close, for those that care.
- Stras is still rounding into shape. With deGrom and Max hurting, Mike Soroka out and Sixto Sanchez returning from injury the NL East has a dominant championship rotation on the IL.
The not mentioned yet depth chart question marks that have been all but officially answered :
- Cesar Hernandez IS going to start at 2B. Alcides Escobar at SS. Maikel Franco will be 3B
- Anibal Sanchez is the rotation fill-in guy
- Doolittle will be in the pen.
*meaning a guy with a little bit of success Nats fans are thinking "Hmmmm, maybe we got something here" where you almost certainly don't.
What's everyone's theory on not signing a #3/4 type starter for 2 years who can eat innings? Seems like this team desperately needs that to help the rebuild.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm really surprised Rizzo didn't go after a Zach Davies or Chris Archer type pitcher. There's a handful of pitchers who signed with Mexican/Korean teams, maybe Rizzo will wait to see how they do and bring one of them back stateside? I don't know. But with Ross and Stras not pitching any time soon, the depth is completely lacking
ReplyDeleteMaybe Rizzo just has a lot of trust in Cavalli and expects him to be up soon...?
@Cautiously: I have to assume the issue is that a guy like Davies or Archer isn't going to go 6 innings per game (saving the bullpen), and we have enough Fedde, Espino, Rogers, and Adon types hanging around who can give a reliable 5.1 or so to fill out rotation slots if need be. (I mean, heck, last year those guys would leave games with leads only to see the bullpen choke it away as often as not.) The marginal increase between, say, Rogers and Davies isn't worth the money for a team that's almost certainly destined for the cellar as it would be for a team in contention. (And if we're *not* destined for the cellar it's because guys like Rogers and Adon step up to be reliable performers.)
ReplyDelete@Dezo you think our current backend rotation options will provide the same innings as a reasonable FA signing for a veteran innings eater? I'm afraid our bullpen is going to flame out immediately because 3/5 games the starters dont make it through the 5th inning. Then the pitching costs us so many games that it hurts the overall energy of the club and the rebuild in the longterm. I've got to think there are more reliable options out there than Sanchez, Fedde, Ross, etc.
ReplyDeleteHernandez-Escobar-Franco as 3/4ths of the infield. When Bell isn't playing, that would be one of the worst infields I could remember. Two of those guys should be out of baseball entirely. And they are starting for the Nats. Holy cow. How bad must the back up options be. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteGot to hand it to the Nats, when they tank, they really tank.