The Nationals will have to directly protect their NL East lead right out of the gate after the All-Star Break, as Washington's first 14 games of the second are all against division rivals. Here are some items from around the NL East…
- The Nationals may be relatively quiet at the trade deadline, as Mark Zuckerman of Nats Insider write that the team is relying more on injured players (Drew Storen and Jayson Werth) returning to fill holes in the roster.
- If the Phillies dealt Hunter Pence, they could use the salary earmarked his possible long-term extension and spend it on re-signing Shane Victorino at a discount and signing another outfielder, writes Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Using Andre Ethier's $85MM extension with the Dodgers as a model for a future Pence contract, Gelb argues that if the Phils don't want to pay Pence that much, they should move him now to create salary relief and add prospects. Pence has one more arbitration year before being eligible for free agency following the 2013 season.
- Chris Young's minor league contract with the Mets can pay him as much as $4.85MM if he reaches all his incentive clauses, reports Adam Rubin of ESPN New York. Young's one-year deal pays him a base salary of $1.1MM.
I’d hope we’d use the money to sign a better outfielder than Victorino. His approach is terrible.
… then again, so is Pence’s.
I’m not sure we’re going to trade Victorino though. I don’t think we’re going to get the equivalent of a 1st round draft pick for him the way he’s been playing this year.
Unless the are trading for prospects and those prospects+ traded for Upton, I want them to resign him.
If he took a discount maybe. I’m not sure he’s worth $15 million and he hasn’t really showed he’s a guy worth building around this year.
I wouldn’t give Pence much more than 4 years $50 million.
Victorino is one year off of being probably the most underrated outfielder in baseball. At least Victorino plays plus defense at a hard position to find. Pence is probably the most overrated player in the game right now.
Pence is great at getting outfield assists. Doesn’t deserve that much money though
… a position he’s more than likely going to be moved off midway through his next contract.
I don’t know about the most underrated outfielder… he was an All Star and was ranked among the top 3-5 center fielders.
I don’t see them bringing him back. The writing’s on the wall… and he knows it… which explains his frustrations lately.
The name of the game is buy low sell high, not the other way around. He went from career best to career worst. He will not continue like this forever and now we could get him for less than he is worth. Pence, however, we will likely have to overpay. Sign Vic trade Pence. We wont get much for vic anyway but pence on the other hand…
I don’t know how much less than he’s worth. 3 years $33 million is what I figured he’d get regardless of how he played.
Which is fair but I’d rather sign a guy like Michael Bourn.
I think everyone would rather have Bourn, but he’s a Boras client having arguably the best season of his career. He’s gonna be expensive.
“I don’t think we’re going to get the equivalent of a 1st round draft pick for him the way he’s been playing this year.”
I assume you mentioned that because of compensation. Are you really comfortable making him a qualified offer? That’s what, about $13-14MM? I think that’s a pretty dangerous move. Not only is it a substantial raise on its own, but the Phillies already have luxury tax issues and he might accept because of the comparably bad year he’s having.
anyone who gives Pence that much money is in for a massive disappointment.
I rather keep Pence than Victorino. It’s obvious Victorino has been hanging around Rollins too much because he basically developed a home run swing instead of being a base hitter that he is.
Victorino’s better than Rollins but… yeah, they’re essentially the same player now approach wise.
What if the Dodgers went after Pence then Victorino? Now that would be something. You guys can keep your flying hawaiian. I think a fair trade would be this:
Dodgers get:
OF Hunter Pence
Phillies get:
OF Joc Pederson
RHP Garret Gould
RHP Steve Ames
How’s that?
doubt that gets it done. Phillies gave up Singleton for Pence, theyll be asking for Lee.
I doubt MLB teams would be willing to throw in much more, not their fault the Phils overpaid for Pence.
The Nationals need to acquire a starting pitcher because Rizzo said Strasburg is only pitching 160 innings which could be around September 1st when that happens.If they don’t get a starting pitcher like Dempster that will leave a major hole in that rotation and that may cost them the playoffs or may cost them geting far in the playoffs.Atlanta and the Mets haven’t been finished off yet. They could easily coe back into the division and pry on the fact that the Nationals don’t have Strasburg for September.
Another starter would be ideal but they don’t “need” to acquire another starter. Morse and Zimmerman are starting to hit and they get 3 things most contenders look for in trades (LH bench bat, OF bat, quality reliever) coming off the DL all in the next month.
Granted I just eyeballed it, but with moving Strasburg to 3rd in the rotation and assuming he pitches 6 innings a start his last start will be August 30th/31st. And that’s assuming they don’t find a “blister” on his hand that puts him on the DL for 2 weeks.
They’ll mix and match starts with Lannan, Maya, and maybe even the shell of Wang in September, as long as the other four hold up they’ll have 4 starters for October.
Just curious what Boras client other than Werth the Nats have overpaid for? Maybe my brain is missing a few…