The Nationals have acquired infielder Brandon Laird from the Royals, Bill Ladson of MLB.com tweets. The Royals will receive a player to be named later or cash.
The younger brother of Braves catcher Gerald Laird, the 26-year-old has seen sporadic big league time over the last three seasons with the Yankees and Astros. The right-hander slugged five home runs in just 76 plate apperances last year with Houston, but hit just .169 over the same span. In 138 total big league plate appearances, Laird has a .197/.255/.370 line.
The minor leagues have been much kinder to Laird, as he's hit .272/.323/.454 over parts of seven seasons there. While he's split his time almost evenly between first and third base in the majors, Laird has primarily been a third baseman in the minors.
This is good, but I guess my only question is “why?”.
Depth.
was going to type the same thing, I guess as insurance for Ryan Zimmerman? I thought they had a whole bunch of minor league guys at the corner already…*shrug*
Nats have decent minor league depth at every position but 1B. The Nats will have pitchers, outfielders, and middle-infield guys ready- but if Matt Skole happens to be a bust then the Nats would be in trouble fast. A little insurance seems prudent, though I still wonder who is on the PTBNL list.
hostage so Gerald can throw his games against Nationals?