The Nationals acquired Gregor Blanco from the Royals for a player to be named later, according to the team's Twitter account.
Blanco, 27, is a career .258/.358/.324 hitter who came to the Royals with Tim Collins and Jesse Chavez in the trade that sent Kyle Farnsworth and Rick Ankiel to Atlanta last season. Ironically, Blanco may be an option to challenge Ankiel for playing time in Washington. The Nationals have been looking for center field options after trading Nyjer Morgan to Milwaukee and making Ankiel their everyday center fielder. Ankiel has struggled with just a .221/.302/.288 slash line in 118 PAs.
Blanco's best assets are his ability to draw a walk (career BB% of 12.8%) and his speed. He owns 209 minor league stolen bases to go along with 26 at the Major League level. While he struggled early in his career, his success rate has improved over the past few seasons.
The Nationals trade for Melky and McLouth and they’ll have all 4 players the Braves ran out in CF last year. Goodness, what a black hole CF was……Blanco played better than the other 3.
i don’t get this trade. if they were going to go after a fringe player, why not go for a RH bat to platoon with ankiel?
It was for depth purposes nothing else.
A potentially good deal for the Nats, who need a leadoff hitter in the worst way. Bernadina might be ready for the role this time, but Blanco will give him some needed competition.
I’m still shaking my head and giggling about the Nationals thinking that Rick Ankiel was going to be any kind of solution for them. He’s always hurt; he’s always been inconsistent. Okay to have him around, but to actually count on something from him is problematic.
Hey, at least the Nationals didn’t trade for Ankiel…..
I’m a Royals fan, and I liked Blanco. He’s got a good arm and some speed. I was at The K last year when he went from second to home on a routine double play. I can’t say I’d ever seen that one before.
We needed a leadoff hitter so bad that the player to be named later is Bryce Harper.
I always loved Gregor. He plays hard and can run like the wind.
Rickey Henderson is available and still really wants to play.