Nationals Baseball: Today is the day (Maybe)

Monday, July 31, 2023

Today is the day (Maybe)

The trade deadline will come tomorrow. That means most deals should happen today or tomorrow. Everyone is still here and looking at what's been dealt are there any conflicts with the Nats goods?  Not really. There's been a lot of deals for bad relievers with promise and some for good relievers. The Nats don't really have either. They have a hurt reliever with promise and some ok relievers. It might be that teams either want to spend for something better (Graverman, Robertson, Hicks) or spend nothing on a mid-season lotto ticket (all the other trash). If so Harvey and Finnegan don't look good for deals. 

No 3B has been dealt yet and the SSs moved are underwhelming that you hope they aren't someone's 3B solution. That bodes well for a Candelario deal. 

Grichuk moving makes Thomas to the Angels unlikely but plenty of other teams could still use an OF bat and he's the only one to move so far. Shame Dickerson did absolutely nothing here.

A couple middling first basemen have gone in Cron and Santana, suggesting that the market there is looking for a little bit of pop more than anything. Unsurprising but that dings Meneses and buries Dom Smith. 

Overall the two biggest chips - Thomas and Candelario  - are in the same place they've always been.  It's hard to read relief because pens are so deep arms are always needed, but early returns suggest a strange willingness by teams to grab a live arm and hope, rather than a decent piece like Finnegan. We'll see if that holds.  If you were hoping for something for Meneses or Smith that didn't seem likely Friday and seems less likely now.  

Updates here today if anything happens.


Candelario is gone! To the Cubs for two guys 10-20 in their system. A toolsy SS and a live arm starter likely to be a reliever. 

8 comments:

ocw5000 said...

I could see Riley Adams getting traded to a team desperate for C depth like a certain major market franchise that just lost their guy to a torn wrist ligament

Harper said...

I mean he's not a good catcher. It would make sense if the Heim replacement was a glove first guy and they wanted to gamble on Adams' power at least sticking around. But his replacement is going to be Garver who is Adams with more experience you can rely on

ocw5000 said...

I meant Trevino (LOL) and I agree that Adams is not good but his OPS is over .900 and it only takes one!

G Cracka X said...

Nice trade for Rizzo. Candelarip brought back two 40+ FV prospects:

https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board?org=wsn

G Cracka X said...

Meant to say Candelario

Anonymous said...

I like the two prospects fine, but it falls short of the "sellers' market" that I was hoping for.

No real objection, but I was hoping for someone who would slot in around 10th in our system. Not two around 20th. But the difference in value there isn't that much, and it makes sense that teams won't pay much for a rental. I believe that Rizzo found the best deal available and this is obviously better than a QO comp pick etc.

I'll also say I would rather have all the value in a single better prospect, but given that you need two front offices to align on all the evals, I have no reason to believe that deal existed.

Steven Grossman said...

I was going to write earlier in the day about the claim this was a seller's market. It sounded good, but was based on the Rockies, White Sox and Nats being the primary sellers. It didn't account for the Cardinals and Mets trading away a lot of talent. Nor did it anticipate that some of the highly competitive teams would both buy and sell.

Anonymous said...

That's a good point about teams both buying and and selling, but the pitching deals have been very seller friendly. Giolito is a rental 2/3 and he got an FV50 plus a piece. A single FV45+ for Candy doesn't seem at all out of balance with that.

Pitchers, especially starters, have their own market and this deal for Jeimer is a good reminder of that.

And off topic but I don't care if we trade him for nothing or DFA him, but Dickerson needs to be gone by Wednesday. Rutherford, and if he fails Hill again, need PAs now before the outfield pipeline gets very very crowded.