TODAY: As anticipated, the Nats have placed Turner on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. The club selected the contract of Adrian Sanchez to take his spot on the active roster.
Sanchez, 26, has been playing in the organization for 11 years. He’ll bring plenty of defensive versatility to the table — he has spent significant time at second, third, and short — but not much in the way of hitting ability. Sanchez carries a .259/.312/.384 slash line with 21 steals over 280 plate appearances on the year, mostly of them coming at Triple-A.
To open a 40-man spot, the Nationals moved lefty Sammy Solis to the 60-day DL. That’s just a formality, as he has already been out for that span. It seems reasonably likely that Sanchez will function as a little-used bench piece until there’s a need for his roster spot.
YESTERDAY: Nationals shortstop Trea Turner, who was hit by a pitch in tonight’s game against the Cubs, has been diagnosed with a broken right wrist, reports Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post (on Twitter). There’s no timetable for a return to the roster at this point, she adds.
Suffice it to say, the loss of Turner for any stretch of time is a crushing blow to the Nationals, although the Nats have a large enough lead in the NL East (nine games, at present) to weather an absence for the 23-year-old star. That said, Turner has batted .279/.324/.422 with seven homers and an outrageous 35 stolen bases in 315 plate appearances this season, and he’s turned in roughly average defense at shortstop as well. Subtracting that level of output from any roster is a tough pill to swallow.
In the short term, the Nats can turn to veteran Stephen Drew and rookie Wilmer Difo and entrust that pair with the bulk of the playing time at shortstop. The 34-year-old Drew has somewhat quietly been excellent for the Nationals across the past two seasons, hitting at a combined .286/.347/.515 in an admittedly small sample of 225 plate appearances. Just 19 of those plate appearances have come against left-handed pitching, so Drew would ideally benefit from a platoon partner. The switch-hitting Difo can provide that; while he’s struggled against lefties in a tiny sample of 37 plate appearances, Difo hit left-handed pitching considerably better than right-handed pitching in the minors in 2015-16.
There will, of course, be some options available for the Nationals to pursue on the trade market. Zack Cozart stands out as the most logical candidate, as the 32-year-old has taken his offensive game to a new level in 2017 and paired it with his usual brand of defensive wizardry. Cozart is a free agent at season’s end, and the rebuilding Reds will undoubtedly be open to moving him once he returns from a much more minor DL stint of his own (for a strained quadriceps). Other available options for the Nats include Jed Lowrie of the Athletics and Eduardo Nunez of the Giants. Looking across the division, Asdrubal Cabrera recently expressed frustration with the Mets and suggested that he’d prefer a trade, but he’s since walked those comments back a bit (and it’s not clear if the two division rivals would be able to line up on a trade anyhow).
there goes my top pick
Him and trout were my top 2 picks
Cozart?
Seems to be a good fit!
Lowrie/Madson
Ha ha Nats would be in for it if they put Lowrie at SS. But I’d love for A’s to get something out of him and Madson!
There goes my top fantasy investment
But can he close games? Oh wait, sorry, just used to Nationals stories about their terrible bullpen.
Best comment ever
Wow. Rough year for the Nats.
Dodgers look tough to beat this year, I would pick them right now!
Rough year???????? What are you talking about????
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe something to do with them trading multiple top prospects to get an excellent outfielder and then losing him for the year. And now this…
Losing a pitcher or two during the season happens all the time and can almost be expected these days. Not many teams lose 2 top position players for extended periods of time.
Uhhhhh they’re in first place. And already a lock for a playoff spot. This is not a “rough year” for them.
Uhhhhh because their goals are much bigger than just making the playoffs. They’ve already lost one significant piece for the entire year, and now they’re going to lose another significant piece for an extended period of time. Luckily, they’re in a terrible division.
Zero sympathy. This is not a rough year, end of story.
Good thing nobody is asking for your sympathy.
metseventually is just waiting for you to cry over the Mets’ glass rotation.
Yah, not gonna happen
Just karma
Head
Turner was just turning it up, too bad. Love watching Turner play the game.
What game?
Baseball
Oh yeah, me too.
A’s need a CF like crazy, Taylor, Goodwin or Robles all make sense. Lowrie for SS and then Madson or even Gray all fit in Natstown. OAK-WSN line up nicely for a big boy trade for sure.
Would rather play Drew everyday, than waste time with Lowrie. Madson would be nice, but hardly worth disbanding the starting lineup for. Madson isn’t going to fix the whole bullpen alone.
Lowrie and/or Madson certainly wouldn’t return Robles. He’s nearly untouchable.
Reds are looking to move Zack Cozart (familiar with Dusty Baker) and RHP Drew Storen, a long time National. Seems like a good fit for a package deal…
If Cozart keeps hitting well they can consider using Trea Turner in CF a bit when he returns.
Not sure either Storen or WAS would be stoked about a reunion, though I do agree that Cozart makes sense.
Yeah you could tell how pissed Storen was two years ago when he was having s great season and he got demoted when they traded for Papelbon
CF Andrew Stevenson sound like a Reds prospect – speedy, good makeup, some success in the upper minors. The Reds already have Robert Stephenson, Tyler Stephenson, and Jackson Stephens no their list, so I think they’re trying to corner the market on Steve or Stephe guys.
The Reds have a bunch of corner outfielders in the majors or upper minors (Duvall, Schebler, Winker) but not much outfield depth as far as true CFs behind injury prone Billy Hamilton.
I mean, on a team with Harper, Zimmerman and Rendon I still don’t think adding another bat is the most pressing issue facing the Nats. Before they address anything, they need to strengthen their bullpen. Its not clear yet what they will even have left to trade once they do that.
If I’m the Nat’s I’d try to get Cozart and Wandy Peralta in the same deal. Then try to get Cozart to sign a 3 year deal for 7-8 million a year immediately and enjoy Trea Turner in center with Cozart at short batting at the top of the lineup. Peralta isn’t nearly as good as Felipe Rivero, who the Nats traded away for Melancon, but he is a controllable, hard throwing lefty out of the bullpen.
I feel like the Reds would ask for a lot in return for Peralta because of his control, age, cheap salary, and talent. Hard to imagine the Reds accepting a package for Cozart and Peralta that doesn’t return either Robles as a headliner or both Fedde and Soto, and I find it very unlikely that the Nats go for either of those packages for a rental SS and a relatively unknown reliever.
Perhaps Cozart + Blake Wood (one of the most groundball heavy relievers in MLB) or Storen would be more realistic, and then the Nats would have plenty of prospects left to deal for a bigger name reliever.
There is no way Cozart signs for only 7-8 million a year. The Reds bullpen is rough outside of Iglesias and the overuse by Bryan Price due to the lack of rotation innings is a clear sign to stay away from those bullpen arms.
The Nats need to focus on the bullpen first and not worry about the SS gap at this time. Their pen is atrocious. They should try to acquire Trevor Rosenthal from the Cardinals who has a high k% and a low FIP and can be controlled beyond 2017, and take Siegrist also as a throw in. They also need to start up talks with the White Sox again and go after Robertson. Those trades would solidify the pen, and if necessary at that point, you go out and get a SS.
I don’t think Cozart is going to pull in the haul the Reds were hoping for since it seems most contenders this season already have a solution at SS. The only team that has a real need at SS is the Cardinals, but I don’t consider them to be real contenders where they can be shipping off prospects for a rental.
I wouldn’t call the entire Reds’ bullpen rough outside of Iglesias. Michael Lorenzen, Wandy Peralta, and Ariel Hernandez (although Hernandez is admittedly in a small sample size) have all performed well. The starting rotation is their problem.
Iglesias and Cozart for Robles
I would hesitate to do even Iglesias for Robles straight up. I’d probably still do it, but it would be a tough call. Definitely not those two straight up for Robles though. Would need Robles + another prospect or two in the back half of the Nats’ top-10 at least.
One of few injuries, also Eaton’s, that cannot be attributable to ol’ Dusty Baker. As a baseball fan and LAD fan I hope both are back in time for Sept baseball. Turner is super fun to watch and, selfishly, happy the Padres traded him away.
That doesn’t matter. People will still claim for years to come that Dusty ruined Trea Turner’s arm by letting him accrue too many innings.
As a Cards fan I honestly do think he messed up Prior. It may have happened anyway, but Baker didn’t do him any favors.
Prior was wrecked in College. USC wrecks pitchers.
Baker over uses them
He always has
He always will
The giants staff
The reds Staff
The cubs staff to include Kerry wood
They were issues last year I noticed having Gio throw 130 pitches against the padres and not even win?
You’re a Padres fan, so everything you say should be taken with a grain of salt. While you took all that time to post all that nonsense, you left out how he turned all those teams around and took them to playoffs. NICE try though
On the day after Kerry Wood was drafted, his high school team started him on both ends of a double-header. In June heat. In Texas. He threw 175 pitches that day. To blame Baker for Wood’s woes is to ignore everything that came before.
As I noted above, USC was a notorious arm-shredder back in the ’90s. Like a lot of colleges that have no real incentive to keep their pitchers healthy, they would run out young, fatigued pitchers all the time.
No. Dusty was given extremely talented teams and then mismanaged them out of winning it all.
In SF they went out and got Bonds, Swift, Black and others to add to a team that already had Clark, Williams, Clayton, Thompson, Manwaring, McGee, Righetti, Brantley, Burkett, Wilson, etc… and to put together a super team and he still couldn’t win it all.
In Chicago in 2003, they added Karros, Ramirez, Grudzielanek, Alou and others to a team that already had some incredible young pitching talent in Wood, Prior and Zambrano. Anyone could win with that team.
In Cincinnati, they added Volquez, Cordero, Affeldt, and Hairston to a team that already had Griffey Jr, Votto, Phillips, Encarnacion, Keppinger, Ross, Dunn, Harang, Arroyo, Weathers, Bray, and a rookie Cueto. The over/under was 84 games. They won 74. He had a very good team and couldn’t even get them to a playoff until they went out and added Cabrera, Rolen, Hernandez, Stubbs. Gomes, Chapman, and Rhodes.
He still hasn’t taken the Nationals to the WS even though they have the best roster and pitching staff in baseball. They won’t go this year either.
Through all of the spending sprees that his teams have made and all the incredible talent he has (mis)managed, he only has a single pennant and zero rings.
Baker is not a good manager by any stretch of the imagination and his teams typically underperform the talent level on the roster.
What teams?
Those teams where all ready to explode
Nl west was always a fight until recently
Nl central the cubs were loaded and the reds were loaded
Nl east
The nats were already there
Matt Williams took them there and then struggled the second year
What do you know about baseball? Your team has only existed for 13 years
You have never been to the World Series
You playoff record is far worst than the padres
Outinleftfoeld
Spot on my point exactly and with good references
I really don’t know what you’re talking about, but please show some more maturity in your comments. It is silly to argue that someone’s opinion isn’t valid because of how long the team he/she currently roots for has been in existence. More importantly, your effort to insert a naughty word that eluded our filters is not appreciated.
EDIT to note: My critique applies to any other insults (in this thread or elsewhere) based upon what team a particular person roots for. Really, people, we can do better.
Easy there
He said my point was invalid because of my team
So, I one upped him and let him know my team has done more than his has.
This includes the expos if you want to do the full history
Brad Hawpe wrecked Prior with the CWS homer that he knocked out of the stadium. And with the liner up the middle that broke his arm at Wrigley.
Dusty has had exactly one season to take the Nats to the World Series and you include that to bash him? Hilarious.
“He said my point was invalid because of my team…”
Perhaps part of the point Jeff was making is that we all root for (and against) certain teams. Even if your favorite team wins the WS it is in no way a personal achievement for you. Nor is losing, even perpetual losing, a failure on your part. Are we at this here website to root for our respective favorites or to analyze and discuss?
Let’s not allow our fandom to blind our reason. And maybe have a little sympathy for fans whose teams have underperformed through no fault of its fanbase.
Wow dude. I see you’re racking up the screen names, huh? Must have been banned before. It’s funny how outinleftfield can come up with All of that so-called facts about how Dusty had stacked teams, but for some reason the Giants/Cubs/Reds were perennial losers b4 he got there. Its also funny that it’s Dusty’s fault when they lose, but when his teams win it’s in spite of him. BTW….There are plenty of managers that haven’t won World Series, so that should tell you how hard it is. Also, I’m not even sure how you think you know who my team is from my earlier post. You have NO idea who I root for, but NICE try again.
Prior was fine coming out of college.
Prior’s mechanics were awful and nobody at USC tried to fix them.
In my keeper league I traded Turner and Springer for Bryce Harper yesterday. Hopefully it doesn’t get voted down .
You way overpaid. Springer for Harper straight up still probably favors the guy getting Springer. Especially in a keeper league, I’d hope it did get vetoed if I were you.
This is easily the funniest comment I’ve read all day that man commuted robbery
Look at their stats. Assuming a typical scoring of Avg/R/HR/RBI/SB, here’s stats for those 3 this season:
Springer (27 years old): .286/62/24/52/0
Turner (24): .279/53/7/32/35
Harper (24): .315/59/18/58/2
There’s no way that getting Harper for those two was committing robbery, especially in a keeper league. Springer has the edge in 2 counting stats and isn’t far behind in the other ones, and had a better 2016 than Harper, so you have to at least consider the possibility that Springer could be at least as good as Harper in the future.
Braves are going to creep up…
And down goes Adams…another bad start for Garcia.
How’d he break it…?
HBP. Unintentional
Thanks. Bummer. He shows that ol skool 70 steal run game.
It’s DUSTY’s fault!
How do you know it was unintentional. Look at the video. Looks like a high way inside fast pitch. Can’t say for sure it’s intentional but you also can’t say for sure it was unintentional.
JThor, because it was a 1-run game with 2 men on base. Intentional HBPs are thrown directly at or behind the batter. This pitch was inside, but not thrown at him. Try and use your brain for once.
Wonder how this moves the needle on a Robertson trade.
Or a Quintana acquisition by the Braves.
Guh I have freeman too in fantasy… this year sucks
Halves
Galvis
Oh shoot! He was on my fantasy team 🙁
Turner steals 5 bases against Cubs so they throw at him and break his wrist. Hedges hit’s a home run so Rizzo runs off the base path to hit him and injures him. Stay classy Cubbies.
You’re joking, right?
Hedges didn’t hit a home run
A former cub seizer made an amazing play and rizzo took hedges out
It is what it was
The bs move was no retaliation
Yet, the padres won the season series 4-2 over the chumps
A former Cub, “seizer”, also said Rizzo isn’t that type of person/player and that he didn’t think the play was dirty…
Mlb ruled his slide was illegal
They just don’t have rules to go against it
Like I said
The padres won the series
So it doesn’t matter
Rizzo still cannot hit at petco park
They actually do have rules to go against it. The runner is automatically called out. Rizzo just happened to be out already.
An illegal slide does not necessary make it a dirty play. A play that is considered “dirty” is 100% dictated by the intent of the runner. Rizzo in no way intended to injure the catcher.
Hedges hit a 2 run double and a 2 run HR off the Cubs in the previous series that the Padres swept the Cubs. When Hedges hit the HR off Butler, Rizzo screamed at him as he rounded first base. Torrens played the final game of that series.
In the next series, with Butler starting again, Rizzo goes well out of the base path when he has a clear line to the plate and took out Hedges on purpose. The very first chance he had to show Hedges his ire, he did. It was a chump move.
Like you said, they are the chumps.
I didn’t watch the Nats game live, but Rendon had just hit a HR to take the lead, it was the 2nd straight pitch way inside from Strop that hit Turner and that was after Turner had 7 hits, 6 walks, and 7 stolen bases in the series to that point.
Think what you want, but the Cubs have shown a total lack of class from top to bottom this season and this looks too much like an intentional plunking to not call it out.
Yeah I was at the game when he did that
Rizzos didn’t go “well off of the basepath”. He went over about half a foot at most. And if you think the turner hbp was intentional, you’re clueless. Why on earth would you hit him to load the bases in a close game?
I agree Cubs are not really that classy. And it did look like it could have been intentional on the video – high fast inside pitch. But it’s hard to say for sure. I’m sure Strop won’t say. espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19770374/washington-nation…
Sometimes you don’t think of a situation, only revenge. Why would Strickland plunk Harper three years later in a close game?
I was almost about to come here and say that at least the posters here aren’t blithering morons making idiotic accusations with no clue unlike on ESPN forums, but you sir have made me retract that thought.
How about this decline after a wonderful year and winning it all last year? Bahahahahaha Back to the Cubs team we all know and love