We found out on Thursday that Jayson Werth needed surgery on his right shoulder and is expected to take two to three months to recover. This really shouldn't be a big deal because it's January which means according to the timetable we were given, Werth should be ready to play by March at the latest. Werth is now 35 years old though, so it's entirely possible that his recovery takes longer than three months. If Werth's recovery ends up taking longer than expected, the Nationals have a few options to fill in for Werth.
One option is to go with a combination of players currently on the roster to fill in for Werth. This seems like the most logical and realistic option. Nate McLouth would end up benefiting most from this scenario. McLouth season ended at the beginning of August last year when he too required surgery on his shoulder. He had a rocky first season with the Nats, but some of that can probably be attributed to his injured shoulder. He is set to earn $5 million this season as the fourth outfielder, so this is exactly why he was brought on board last season. If Matt Williams wants to play match-ups, he could use McLouth against right handed pitchers and a combination of Kevin Frandsen and Tyler Moore against left handed pitchers. Frandsen over his career has his .291 against left handed pitchers, so this may be the Nationals best option. Giving Tyler Moore a few starts would be beneficial as well as we've seen before, Moore plays better off the bench if he is given the occasional spot start. Moore is out of minor league options, so barring a trade, I see Moore winning the final bench spot. Moore also provides the team with some insurance in the case that Ryan Zimmerman gets injured or needs a day or two off.
The second option is to bring someone up from the minors to fill in. That someone would be Michael Taylor. Taylor will most likely be the Nationals starting center fielder going into the 2016 season after Denard Span departs. I don't know that Taylor is ready for a starting role going into this season though. In 17 games last year, Taylor hit .205 with 17 strikeouts. He probably needs another year of seasoning in the minor leagues so that he can work on cutting down on strikeouts. However, if he's on fire in Spring Training and McLouth struggles, he may force the Nationals hand.
The last option would be to go out and sign somebody. There aren't a ton of options available and this option makes the least sense anyways. As I said, McLouth is already signed for $5 million and there are 3 or 4 other players already on the roster who could fill in for a month or two if Werth misses time. There's no point in spending money on a fifth outfielder when that money could be used on a contract extension, on the bullpen, or on second base.
Speaking of second base, Ben Zobrist was traded today to the Oakland Athletics. One thing Billy Beane can always do is keep you on your toes. He traded Jeff Samardzija, Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss, and Derek Norris among others to make everyone think the Athletics are rebuilding on the fly. Billy quickly let everybody know that's not the case though by trading for Zobrist and Yunel Escobar who will play second and short for the A's respectively. The A's gave up their top prospect in the trade in Daniel Robertson, their versatile catcher/DH/outfielder in John Jaso, and outfield prospect Boog Powell. Part of the reason I wanted to list the players that the Athletics gave up is because I wanted to include a guy named Boog Powell in my post. The other reason is because Robertson was the A's top prospect and Powell was the A's 11th ranked prospect according to MLB.com. Part of that has to do with the fact that the A's got not only Zobrist but Escobar too. Zobrist was the real prize though and he's the reason the A's had to give up so much. Seeing that the asking price for Zobrist ended up being so high, I can understand why Rizzo didn't end up giving up the farm to get Zobrist, who is essentially a rental player. The Rays probably would have required A.J. Cole and another mid-level prospect, and it just isn't worth giving up all that for one year of Zobrist.
This leaves us with the strong possibility that Danny Espinosa and Dan Uggla/Ian Stewart will form a platoon at second base going into the season. The trade market is extremely limited and for the most part, the big names that were available have already been dealt this offseason. Rizzo usually has a few tricks up his sleeve at this point in the offseason, but his options are starting to dwindle. It's entirely possible that he pulls off a surprising trade to acquire a second baseman for next season, but its even more likely that he goes in with Espinosa, Uggla, and possibly a few others battling it out for the starting job in Spring Training.
No comments:
Post a Comment