The latest on the Nationals…
- The Nationals prefer not to give players no-trade clauses, but GM Mike Rizzo admitted today that after giving one to Jayson Werth last year he'd do it again for the right player. Rizzo also said he met with two teams and two agents today and he's not close on anything.
- Ryan Zimmerman's camp at CAA says their attempts at securing an extension with the Nationals have been rebuffed, reports ESPN's Jim Bowden. The Nationals, however, maintain that taking care of Zimmerman is an offseason priority. For more on Zimmerman, check out this November post.
- Mark Buehrle is the Nationals' primary starting pitching target, confirms Mark Zuckerman of CSNWashington.com. Roy Oswalt is probably their second choice, and C.J. Wilson is a distant third.
- Free agent reliever Todd Coffey told MLB.com's Bill Ladson, "In my heart of hearts, if it's the right contract, I would look to definitely come back to the Nationals." Ladson hears at least five teams have expressed interest in Coffey so far.
- Nationals catcher Jesus Flores is now represented by Barry Praver, Scott Shapiro, and Bart Hernandez, tweets Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post. You can track representation for most MLB players in MLBTR's agency database.
I wouldn’t trust a Bowden report on the Nationals. Any other team, he tends to be decent, but whenever he talks about the Nats he tends to think Rizzo will do exactly what Bowden would do. That said, the Zimmerman report suggests to me that the extension talks are just being put off until the Hot Stove cools a bit.
A Zimmerman extension would be huge this off-season, but not entirely necessary considering the time left on his contract. It’s going to take Tulo money, but the Nationals need to get it done. I don’t care what people say, Strasburg isn’t the face of this franchise, and neither is Harper, Zimmerman’s been here through all the crap years and will be here when the team is competing for a World Series. Get it done, Rizzo.
If the Nationals decide to sign Buehrle over Wilson I think it’s key that they also get one of the sought after offensive targets (Fielder, Cespedes, Bourjos) for this to be considered a successful off-season.
In my heart of hearts I could care less if Coffey comes back, the Nationals don’t need him. Storen, Clippard, Rodriguez, Burnett, Mattheus are all much better middle relief options over him.
If Werth was the “right player” to give a no trade clause to, then Rizzo is willing to cast a wide net over that definition.