Some Signings, Some Guys That Got Away, And Dusty Baker Is Doing Dusty Baker Things As The Winter Meetings Heat Up
While some teams are puling off major franchise-altering moves in the early days of the Baseball Winter Meetings, most teams are still waiting for some dominoes to drop before checking off the targets on their offseason list. The Nationals are certainly in the 2nd category but that isn’t to say that they haven’t done anything.
No matter how you look at it, the bullpen failed when the team needed it most in 2015 and Rizzo and company has already made some moves to address the shortcomings. LHP Oliver Perez signed a few days ago to a 2 year, $7 million deal and, while some of us may remember him as the shitty starter for the New York Mets, Perez has actually put together some really great seasons as a relief pitcher. Olly is money against left-handed hitters and should be viewed as a replacement (and upgrade) on Matt Thornton but as good at Oliver Perez has been against lefties (they have a .242 OBP and a tiny .290 slugging), he has struggled against righties and has allowed them to reach base 41% of the time. If Perez is used against lefties a vast majority of the time, he will have dominant statistics but if Dusty Baker insists on using him against plenty of right-handed batters, his season could turn ugly quickly. Shawn Kelley was also rumored to sign with the team but that deal is apparently not yet complete. Kelley has pitched excellently in pitcher-friendly parks like Petco in San Diego and Safeco in Seattle but he should remain a more-than-capable relief pitcher during his time in DC. Kelley strikes out about 11 batters per 9 innings with a great slider and a low-90s fastball and has been worth 1.8 wins over the past two seasons. He isn’t the difference-maker in the ‘pen that we were hoping for but he is a clear and welcome upgrade that could be worth a win or more to the 2016 squad.
Darren O’Day is ‘the one that got away’ so far in this offseason – he rejected a 3-year Nationals offer worth more in average annual salary to resign with the Baltimore Orioles for four years, 31 million. I’ve said from day one that I still don’t think that either Jon Papelbon nor Drew Storen are dumped this offseason, the returns that teams have gotten for trading their relievers makes me optimistic that if either pitcher is traded, the Nationals will get something good in return.
The Nationals also missed out on the Ben Zobrist sweepstakes. Much like O’Day, Zobrist is an excellent player; his versatility would make him a fit on any of the thirty MLB teams but he was never really a perfect fit for a Nationals team with a relatively strong infield. There is no doubt that Zobrist would’ve made the team better and the deal he ultimately signed (4 years, $56 million) was substantially less than the 4 years 80 million that was previously reported. While missing out on a 34 year old jack of all trades definitely stings, there are plenty of other fre agents that could fit this club in similar or better ways.
The Nationals have also been linked to 30 year old Pirates 2B Neil Walker who does have some pop but I just don’t think that the price they’ll pay to acquire him will make the minor upgrade worth it.
Free Agent pitcher Mike Leake has also been linked to DC and, while Leake will always post solid unspectacular results, his cost will be enormous and I’d prefer for the team to allocate its money elsewhere (while giving Joe Ross and Tanner Roark spots in the rotation).
Meanwhile, Dusty Baker gave a pretty interesting press conference on Tuesday and the main takeaways are that this is the best team that he has inherited, Bryce Harper is Ken Griffey Jr., and that he hasn’t talked to many of his new players yet. I’m definitely a little disappointed that Dusty hasn’t begun dialogue with several of his players and the fact that he has not yet even talked to Papelbon or Harper about last season’s choking incident makes me feel like he doesn’t really give a shit about getting out in front of potential issues. Dusty is going to be better than Matt Williams and I know that I should give him a chance but I just have trouble accepting this old-school veteran manager who was out of the game and who hasn’t yet even connected with his new players as the Nationals’ new skipper.
Dusty Baker also had some interesting and bound-to-be controversial comments about his former player, Aroldis Chapman, and basically said that he straight up does not believe the police report. Baker’s failure to accept facts has been a trend over his managerial career. Hopefully the Dusty Baker experiment works out – and it can’t be worse than Matt Williams’ tenure but I wouldn’t call his first month as manager all that inspiring. Oh, and did I mention this?
Dusty Baker is going to be entertaining and controversial, I just hope he doesn’t get too in the way of winning. (11 of 15 players with 25+ steals were black and/or Latin American so he isn’t wrong).
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And check out my offseason predictions here (for hitting) and here (for pitching)