Scherzer Injury Spotlights The Nationals Achilles Heel
By TC Zencka
Washington Nationals: Who’s the guy?
First thing I’ll say is: woof. This was a lot harder than I expected. Apologies to Mike Rizzo. Apologies to Dave Martinez. Apologies around.
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The teams that are no doubt sellers are few: Royals, Tigers, Orioles, Blue Jays, Mariners, Marlins. Let’s add the White Sox as should be sellers. The Reds should be sellers too, but they seem inordinately obstinate this year. The Mets should be sellers, but they aren’t likely to sell to their rival, and the Nats don’t need an Adam Banks situation.
From our seven sellers, there’s a whole host of starters that either shouldn’t set foot anywhere near a playoff race or are too expensive to move: Jordan Zimmerman, Danny Duffy, Glenn Sparkman, Dan Straily, David Hess, Ivan Nova, Reynaldo Lopez, Yusei Kikuchi, Aaron Sanchez, Dylan Covey, and for old time’s sake, Felix Hernandez.
Add to them the guys that aren’t on the block, usually because they’re too young, too good, or too costly: Lucas Giolito, Brad Keller, John Means, Trent Thornton, Marco Gonzales, Mike Montgomery, Dylan Cease, Caleb Smith, Raul Alcantara, Zac Gallen, Jordan Yamamoto.
There are guys you might consider – if they weren’t hurt: Carlos Rodon, Tyson Ross, Matt Moore, Dylan Bundy, Matt Shoemaker, Clay Buchholz, Clayton Richard, Michael Fulmer.
Then there are the guys who are on the block but will cost top prospects to get: Matthew Boyd, Marcus Stroman. These guys are looking more and more like they might be worth it.
That leaves this uninspired list of potential targets: Tommy Milone, Wade LeBlanc, Mike Leake, Daniel Norris, Jakob Junis. Maybe the Tigers would move Spencer Turnbull or the Marlins Trevor Richards, but both are controllable and therefore probably more costly (prospects-wise) than their worth (talent-wise).
That lands us in an unhappy place: 1500 words to pitch the Nationals on trading for Wade LeBlanc. I’m so sorry.
Tommy Milone‘s already been a Nat twice so that’s played out. Norris boasts some nice FIPs but the ERAs don’t match. LeBlanc is LeFine if he’s the last name on the list. Junis gets the runner-up award for effort here, but he’s not someone you want to up anything of value for.
Next. Do the Yanks need Bumgarner?. dark
Here’s the case for Mike Leake: He’s perennially fine, he’s got fun hair, and he almost threw a no-hitter yesterday. The problem is that he’s still owed $15MM next season with an $18MM mutual option for 2021. See if Trader Jerry is motivated enough to eat most of that money, and if he’s not, the Nats probably have a few Milone jerseys in storage somewhere.