Nationals Baseball: Monday Quickie - SELL SELL SELL

Monday, August 31, 2020

Monday Quickie - SELL SELL SELL

The Nats lost 2 of 3 this weekend to the moribund Red Sox.  Yesterday was a particularly bad day as once again the Nats 5th (4th?) starter Austin Voth looked like he didn't belong starting at all but the Nats don't have much choice but to keep rolling him out. The offense was a little better but it was still heavily dependent on Turner, possibly the hottest hitter in baseball, and Soto. Most of the rest of the guys aren't hitting and while they should eventually start to here and there, there isn't like 2-3 great hitters that definitely should start raking.  Kendrick? He's old and gets hurt.  Suzuki? He's old and a catcher. It's kind of an old team. 

Who should be traded? 

Suzuki - catchers are always needed and Suzuki has had enough good years to make someone dealing for him think he could have a hot last month.  Gomes is ready to fill-in and not be terrible like last year (I think). Frankly that's the plan anyway so what's a month to you.

Harrison - He's hitting ok and you have Garcia (not to mention Castro). Why waste that set of circumstances? Plus Brock Holt becomes the next Harrison

Eaton - I know this may be tough for some. He's was a key last year and is a "spark plug" but his contract is sort of up next year - certainly in a way the Nats aren't going to pick up. And with his history you might get something not terrible for him

Maybe - 

Howie and Doolittle - both of these guys should be a lot better if healthy so you are selling really low. But their contracts are up after this year.  Sell for pennies on the dollar or keep and take a chance at getting nothing because you also might get a one-year budget deal for 2021? 

Thames - Trade if you can but I mean, who wants a guy who can't hit and field?

Not - 

Asdrubal - A deal that would fetch back something I'm sure, but the Nats kind of need him? He can play three... hell five if we count 1B and DH, positions, still hits above average, if slightly.  If the Nats are going to rotate between bad options at 1B 2B and 3B they are going to need someone ok so it doesn't feel like they are completely giving up.  There is a psychological component to the game and not 100% giving up on 2021 can carry into next year IMO.  Plus have you seen the "hauls" back teams are getting? Might as well keep AsCab if you are getting back an A-ball never was a prospect type. 

Sanchez - With Max in a questionable spot and Stras out the Nats need guys to eat innings to keep their pen arms from being ground to dust.  Sanchez might get you back something for a team looking for a third arm but I think he's more valuable eating up innings here. 


7 comments:

Cautiously Pessimistic said...

I see no point in selling. The returns will be nothing unless you decide to fork over Max which will never happen. I honestly wouldn't be opposed to trading him and giving up on 2021 with aims at 2022 in a soft rebuild, but I don't see it happening.

At this point, despite how bad the team is, the NL East is almost equally bad so the team really isn't out of the playoff picture yet. If you're going to do anything but stand pat, they should really buy a backend, innings-eater type starter. There were rumors about Rizzo's favorite Robbie Ray, but I don't know about that specific guy. That's the only type of move I'd be in favor of. Stand pat, hope you get lucky, if not, it's an asterisk season and you reset for next year.

JW said...

I kind of agree with Cautiously Pessimistic, but more because of the limited returns you are probably looking at. The Nats are full of organizational filler in the minors, that's kind of one of the problems they are having at the moment. I would just stick out for a little bit longer; maybe you get a shot at the playoffs, maybe you quickly get out of the running and can start bringing up guys who are in line for a cup of coffee. Start coming up with a path forward for the rotation in 2021 and start going a little easier on Max and Corbin. See what you have in Will Crowe (looks like not much, but hey). Keep letting Voth and Fedde eat innings.

It's going to be an interesting offseason for the Nats. The bandaids didn't work for the offense. You arguably need a 1B, either a 2B or 3B (depending on whether you think Keiboom and/or Garcia can actually do the job -- Keiboom has kind of failed his audition thus far), and a RF. I'm not sold on Robles, but I'm not sure you can add CF to the list right now. Regardless, it's a limited FA class and the Nats aren't exactly flush with trade pieces. Should be fascinating.

Max David said...

The only player worth selling would've been Scherzer which was NEVER going to happen because:

A) Only the Dodgers and probably the Yankees could even afford to take on his salary, and the Dodgers certainly didn't need to trade for him. I'm surprised the Yankees didn't at least make an offer, and if they did it didn't get leaked. I proposed a Scherzer for Sanchez/Andujar/Torres (pick 2 of 3) swap after the 2018 season I believe, and obviously this year even if the Yankees included all 3 I'd probably say no (Sanchez STILL can't hit and STILL sucks defensively, Andujar's dropped off from 2018 and Torres has struggled with the bat this year). Who else would the Yankees be willing to give up?? Clint Frazier by himself and even with 2 of the 3 above likely wouldn't have been enough and if they included the new kids Garcia and Schmidt the Yankees might as well keep them and just put them in the rotation instead. So that was never getting anywhere. Even if they did agree on something it wasn't going to happen because...
...B) Trading Scherzer would mean waving the white flag, and it's not in Rizzo/Lerner's DNA to surrender. If they didn't surrender in 2018 when they had a larger deficit and likely as big/if not bigger trade piece in that Harper fellow they certainly weren't going to sell this year.
Turner and obviously Soto would've gotten a haul, but you build around them NOT trade them, and outside of maybe Eaton (low value money wise) where there was really no fit on the market anyways for corner outfielder's, nobody else was going to bring back anything big anyways so I'm not that mad.

The SP outside of Corbin and Max stinks (go figure!), the bullpen outside of 1 or 2 guys stinks, the offense outside of Soto & Turner and maybe Howie or Gomes has a good game or 2 once a week stinks! They won last year so how they did this year especially in this truncated season I wasn't going to give 2 $#!ts about, and IF there's a good season to finish last it's this one, but I've reached the point where I just want it to end. It's like watching a TV show for 5, 10, 20, however long it's been on, you've watched since season 1, but after a while one of the season just goes completely off the rails that you just want it to end. I'm at that point now with the Nats. I'll still follow them, I still get the At Bat notifications, but just put me out of my misery already.


1 final thing I will say. I'm certainly happy they did not buy though which was the talk earlier.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else wondering why Turner doesn’t steal bases anymore? Especially when he’s hitting as well as he is?

Sammy Kent said...

A dinger from Soto scores Trea from first same as from second. Why wear out his legs so early in his career just to break the MLB record for getting stranded at second base?

I say just play out the string and let the chips fall where they may. We've got our WS title, and this year is pretty much a throwaway with no Stras, no Zim, and no fifth starter. Pitch Max and Corbin judiciously and pray for a lot of rain. Sit back, enjoy what you can, don't get too emotionally invested.

Nattydread said...

This season sucks pretty much all around. Starlin looked good, for a while there. The loss of him, Strass, lucky charm Zimmerman and Joe Cool --- along with the injuries and poor play --- has turned this into a throwback memory season. This was what it was like just a decade ago.

Enjoy Soto's dingers. Enjoy Turner's streaks. Enjoy the young guys. We'll be out of our misery soon, and, if they do manage to win a few games in a row and turn it around, it'll be entertaining.

Sheriff69 said...

On the bright side they picked a perfect season to stink. Nobody can go to games, a lot less people including me are following closely (I'm keeping an eye on scores that's about it. Too boring for me to watch with no fans). With all that and Strasburg out? Eh chalk it up to another disappointment of 2020. At least we won it all last year!