After the Nationals named Ian Desmond their starting shortstop at the beginning of this week, Cristian Guzman's role with Washington became a little less clear. Guzman will make more money ($8MM) in 2010 than any National not named Adam Dunn, and is without a starting job. If Desmond holds his own as an everyday starter, the club will be paying $8MM to a utility player.
It's not an ideal situation for the Nationals, but it would be a challenge to move Guzman. In addition to his price tag, the 32-year-old also possesses ten and five rights, meaning he would have to approve any trade the team worked out.
Guzman has said he won't request a trade, and GM Mike Rizzo has insisted that Washington is not attempting to deal him. However, the switch-hitter could provide some value to a contending team as a utility man. In 1359 plate appearances for the Nats since 2007, he has hit .305/.334/.423, and while Fangraphs rates his shortstop defense as consistently slightly below average during his time in Washington, his positional flexibility could come in handy. Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post writes today that the Nationals are trying Guzman in right field in hopes of getting him a few more at-bats.
We've already seen questions this spring regarding the health of star infielders such as Jose Reyes and Brian Roberts, and the Rangers reportedly looked into acquiring Guzman during their search for infield help. It's not hard to imagine depth or injury concerns inspiring a team to make a move for Guzman this season, despite his hefty contract. Do you see it happening? Which club could you imagine pulling off a trade? And what might the cost be, in terms of both money and talent?
It would have to be a bad contract swap in my opinion. Maybe when Brett Wallace is ready an Overbay/Guzman swap? What else can I think of…
If he struggles, Bonderman/Guzman
Eric Chavez/Guzman
Jose Guillen/Guzman
Montanez/Guzman (Nats eat part of his salary)
Bonderman makes more than Guzman and is more of a risk factor. They would have to move either Everett or Santiago also, I don’t know seems like more trouble than its worth
Well if Adam Everett isn’t hitting, the Tigers are in contention, and if they are having trouble scoring runs, I don’t think they will hesitate to acquire a bigger bat. I’m not saying that Guzman is a bigger bat but he’s a better offensive shortstop than Everett even if Everett is one of the best defensive shortstop’s in the game.
I don’t think I’d like it but i could see the Redsox giving him a look as a back up middle infielder. Since Lowrie has mono and Tug is currently their best option. I just don’t know how they’d want to eat all that cash until they do something about Lowell.
What about swapping Lowell for Guzman just a striaght swap and have Lowell at first with either dunn in right and willingham in the left or vice versa
nope.
well there is still about 6million accounted for there that I don’t think the Nats would like to pay. i’d have to assume that the Nats would prefer a young player or to just dump that contract entirely.
makes no sense dunn is a wayy better defensive 1st basemen than he is an out fielder(not saying much!) Like at 1st in terms of defense he is probably the bottom 5% and in terms of corner out fielders he is the in the bottom 1%…granted it does give them more offense but still not worth the errors all over the out field
Just as your comment makes no sense as a reply to mine.
it makes sense i was saying that dunn is a better 1st basemen than he is an out fielder, its not saying much because he is just bad defensively
How about Guzman for Jose Guillen + 4M to make it an even money deal. Royals need a real shortstop and the Nats need a right fielder. Neither are great players but would be upgrades to their respective teams.
The Royals could then just call up Kila Ka’aihue to 1B/DH with Bulter. I’m not too sure the Nats would do this deal as Guillen’s defense is pretty bad but he would be a sure offensive upgrade (thats kinda sad) over some of the youngsters they might throw out there.
As long as the Nats take Betancourt I’m all for that idea. Of course they Royals would have to thrown in some more money…
im pretty sure the nats dont want jose guillen back
this^^
I could see the SF Giants being interested. Freddy Sanchez is going to start the season on the DL and be out for all of April and maybe longer. This means the Giants backup 2B/3B/SS Juan Uribe is now the starting 2B with their infield depth now coming from Mark DeRosa (the starting LFer) and Eugenio Velez (a backup OFer who really has no business playing IF ever again). Neither of these are viable alternatives to backup Edgar Renteria at SS.
Since the Giants are looking to trade Fred Lewis maybe Guzman and cash to the Giants for Lewis would work out.
this one actually makes some sense
Let’s play Pass The Contract!
Washington acquires: Cory Hart
Kansas City acquires: Jeff Supan and Christian Guzman $3mil from WAS
Milwaukee acquires: Jose Guillen and Yuniesky Betancourt and
Change of scenery for Hart and upside for Washington, Guillen might put his head on straight playing for a decent team and Betancourt becomes a backup for Weeks and Escobar, Kansas City gets a veteran starter and solid SS. All contracts expire at seasons end except Hart.
That’s a decent scenario, especially if it saves us from spending on…Washburn….
Sorry Betancourt has until 2012
id agree to it. lets make it happen hehe
i think this would be great for the nats and KC.
i can’t see any reason milwaukee would do this. i doubt they’re going to give up on hart yet, and not just to get rid of suppan’s contract only to end up with guillen and betancourt. if i was a milwaukee fan, i’d be pissed if that happened.
why would the brew crew give up on hart to get jose guillen and betancourt..who are both just bad at what they do
Betancourt and Guillen are two of the most worthless players around.
Doug Melvin “can’t comment” on reports that Milwaukee is going to trade Corey Hart to Washington. link to jsonline.com
Why did the Nats sign Adam Kennedy again?
They weren’t convinced that Ian Desmond was ready to take over for Guzman at SS. They planned to play Guzman at SS and Kennedy at 2B. When Desmond picked in spring training from where he had left over in September, he mooted their calculations.
Also, they were rather thin in middle infield. Without Kennedy, if either Guzman or Desmond go down, they’d have to play Alberto Gonzalez or Willie Harris at second or short (or bring Pete Orr back from AAA once again).
The question is, who needs an overpaid, solid hitting, poor fielding utility man? Or rather, who needs Felipe Lopez who didn’t bother to sign Felipe Lopez?
I don’t think Guzman gets dealt til midseason, if at all. The Nats are looking to dump salary, not trade bad contracts.
the nats *shouldn’t* be dumping salary. their payroll isn’t that high and their revenues aren’t that low. they should eat all but the league minimum if they can get anything of real value for guzman (and he’ll accept the trade, he does have 5/10 rights). that $8m is a sunk cost. nobody else is going to pay it. so they’re going to eat that money whether he stays on the team or gets traded. so if the opportunity to trade him for anything useful comes up, they should take that opportunity.
Cristian Guzman for Mike Lowell and $4mill…
Mike Fontenot, Blake Parker and Chris Carpenter for Guzman. Have our line-up like
C- Soto
1B- Lee
2B- Theriot
3B- Ramirez
SS- Guzman
RF- Fukudome
CF- Byrd
LF- Soriano
Guzman
Fukudome
Lee
Ramirez
Byrd
Soriano
Soto
Theriot
When Starlin Castro gets a call up we could trade Guzman or use him as a speedy bench guy.
If Furcal keeps up his awfulness, the Dodgers may be interested…
not that this would happen, but I’d like to see Detroit grab Guzman to platoon with everett. Would the Nats take Santiago in return? Sure it would be trading down but he is a cheaper backup infielder.