Their trash - our treasure?

A twitter feed did a little two man draft of the remaining FAs putting them into teams and the question was asked - would these scrap heap teams be better than the Nats? 

We're not looking at depth here (we're only going one SP and RP deep) and the question is NOT which team would you rather have. For all the Nats' faults if these teams are relatively close in talent you'd rather have the Nats given the ages of the players. But would these teams be better? 

 

Corbin / Bundy / Wacha - Corbin is the most durable, but you'd rather have Wacha. Bundy is bad enough and hurt and slipping that you can't obviously choose him over Corbin, as surprising as that is.

Finnegan / Britton/ Moore - Matt Moore, who converted last year and really took to it, would be the choice here.  Finnegan is perfectly fine.  Britton hasn't been healthy since pre-pandemic.

Ruiz / Sanchez / Chirinos - I'd take Ruiz.  He's the best fielder (though Gary might surprise you in that he's not terrible), and he hit the best last year.  Sanchez is not that far behind but there's a difference between saying that for someone on the way up and someone on the way down. You only pick him over Ruiz if you desperately want homers. Chirinos had a good 2021 sandwiched around horrendous 2020 and 2022's.

Smith / Gurriel / Voit - I'd take... Voit?  Smith is the worst bat over the past couple seasons, but Gurriel was terrible in two of the last 3 and can't field. Does Dom's mediocre glove outshine Voit's average O?  That's up to you. I say no at 1B.

Garcai / Odor / Villar  All three weren't impressive last year.  Odor can sort of field, which Villar can't anymore and Garcia never could. But Odor has been bad with the bat for years. Basically you can argue Garcia might have the best year without improving at all, so you take him

Abrams / Iglesias / Andrus - Clear win for Andrus who hit ok last year (unusual for him) and can field.  Iglesias has been glove only forever.  Abrams is a big ?  For being better in 2023 only it's an easy choice.

Candelario / Culberson / Solano - Solano and Culberson are square pegs here as neither are really 3B. Culberson is like a bad Solano so he's out. Solano vs Candelario would normally come down to do you want a chance at good after a bad year or a chance at meh after a less than meh year? For being better in 2023 might say the latter but again, square pegs, Solano is a 2B mostly.  I'd take Candelario

Dickerson / Peralta / Profar -  It comes down to Peralta who might field ok, vs Profar who might hit and given Profar's wild swings from usable to not I'd go with Peralta.  Dickerson, a balloon slowly leaking major league skill, is third. A close third, but third.

Robles / Naquin / JBJ - Amazing Robles wins.  Naquin is just a guy you can stick in CF but he wouldn't be good. Unlike Victor or JBJ he might hit, but he also might not.  JBJ has been worse with the bat than Victor over the past 2 years and hasn't played as much CF. 

Thomas / Gamel / Grossman - Grossman is all about the weird surprise good year. That doesn't fit for my plan here.  Gamel is a butcher in the field and he doesn't hit that much better than Lane. Thomas wins out.

Meneses / Rios / Franmil - Franmil is intriguing. Rios should be a positive. But Meneses hit great last year. Yes, you don't have history of being able to do it, but you don't have history telling you what to expect either. 

I think the takeaway is no, you can't build a better team than the Nats from the scraps of FA. You can improve on Corbin, but we all know he's here at this point because the contract dictates it, not because the Nats want him.  There are better options that Smith and Abrams, but those aren't choices the Nats are making to be the best they can be in 2023. Matt Moore would be a boon to any pen and likely immediately the best arm in this one, but the fact he's still out there means he's probably asking for something teams won't give. If NO team in the MLB is willing to meet whatever bar he set, it's hard to blame the Nats for not doing so. 

The only question that arises from all this is "why Dickerson" as if you poked around the OF you could probably find a half-dozen guys you like better.  Not much better but better. Maybe he was the one that wanted to come here after they kicked some tires? The things we aren't privy to might shed some light, otherwise it's a small miss from the Nats. 

But who cares about small misses for this team?  108 losses instead of 107?  I think the fans will manage that disappointment.