A trio of Nationals players have cleared revocable trade waivers and are now eligible to be traded to any club, according to Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post (Twitter link). Left-hander Gio Gonzalez, catcher Matt Wieters and first baseman Ryan Zimmerman all went unclaimed by rival teams.
Of the trio, Gonzalez would be the likeliest to hold appeal to a contending team. While his numbers are down somewhat in 2018, Gonzalez is still averaging 8.0 K/9 and just 0.94 HR/9 with a 47.1 percent ground-ball rate. He’s averaged 4.5 walks per nine innings and is sitting on a 4.51 ERA through 133 2/3 innings, though his 4.26 FIP and 4.38 xFIP are slightly more encouraging than his ERA. Gonzalez’s average fastball velocity (89.7 mph) is nearly identical to his 2017 mark, and he’s actually had a modest improvement in his swinging-strike rate (from 8.7 percent to 9.2 percent).
[Related: How August Trades Work]
Gonzalez, 33 next month, is a free agent at season’s end and is earning $12MM in his final season of club control. There’s still about $2.5MM of that sum yet to be paid out on his contract, so it’s not a big surprise to see him pass through waivers unclaimed. However, now that he’s done so, the Nationals can negotiate with any club and agree to include some cash to help offset the remainder of that salary in exchange for what would likely be some modest prospect value.
While the Nationals aren’t embarking on a full-scale rebuild, they’ve signaled a willingness to move impending free agents who are unlikely or ineligible to receive qualifying offers (as was the case with Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams). Given his inconsistent season, Gonzalez likely falls into that same bucket, so it’ll be interesting to see if trade talk surrounding the veteran lefty picks up between now and the Aug. 31 deadline for postseason eligibility. Gonzalez recently checked in at No. 8 on MLBTR’s ranking of the top 20 remaining August trade candidates. A source confirmed to MLBTR that Gonzalez won’t reach 10 years of MLB service this season and therefore does not have 10-and-5 rights allowing him to veto a trade.
Like Gonzalez, Wieters is a free agent at season’s end, but he’s in the midst of a second disappointing campaign with the Nats. The switch-hitter has managed just a .240/.325/.365 batting line in 192 plate appearances during an injury-shortened second season in D.C. He’s owed about $2.19MM through the end of the season, making it unlikely that any team would pursue a trade to acquire the final month or so of his services (at least, without some significant financial help from the Nats).
Zimmerman, 34 in September, is still owed $3.57MM of this season’s $18MM salary in addition to an identical $18MM salary next season and a $2MM buyout on an $18MM option for the 2020 season. That remaining $23.57MM made him a no-brainer to clear waivers, but the veteran has remained productive into the late stages of his contract. He’s hitting .260/.332/.526 this season, though Zimmerman’s full 10-and-5 rights would mean he’d have to approve any trade. Ultimately, his clearing is more or less a formality, because there’s almost no realistic scenario in which he’s traded this year.
Caps are still Stanley cup champs
Hockey is still around, is it?
NHL season opens Oct 3rd, Capitals first home game is against the Bruins, plenty of good seats available…NHL.com for tickets
It is hockey….there is always plenty of good seats available LOL
Not in Chicago
Seems to be plenty of excellent seats available for Braves games.
That’d be a snappy comeback except for the fact the Braves are 13th in Attendance
Bruh, that’s nothing to be proud of.
I mean, if you all want to get technical with it, we can.
The Braves drew 2.505 million last year, averaging 30.9k per game.
The Washington hockey team drew 770k for an average of 18.8k per
Even the best drawing Hockey team, the one in Chi, averaged just 21.6k – or not all that much better than the Miami Marlins (20.3k per average) – while the NY Islanders drew just 12k per (or roughly what a good AAA baseball club would draw)
Most minor league stadiums don’t even hold 12k fans. let’s not go that far. No minor league team even averaged 10k fans a game. And the hapless marlins are only drawing slightly over 10k a game this season in a stadium that holds over 4x that….with 65 games in the books it’s probably safe to say they won’t be topping the islanders number.
Hershey Bears
AAA clubs, which is what I said, generally hold around that. AAA clubs on the weekends or good days will also get about that number, despite playing every day of the week every other week on average – compared to just 1 or 2 games a week on average for the NHL
And whether or not the Marlins top that number this year is besides the point completely – they nearly did last year despite being one of the laughingstocks of baseball attendance for years. And again, thats said laughingstock nearly averaging as many fans per game as the best in attendance NHL club, not the worst
In Vegas its 150$ for the cheapest tix, so no.
Probably time to retire this account Marely lol, you’re just not funny.
You don’t think it’s a problem that the marlins halved their attendance? I’m not surprised the team is a laughing stock but they’re currently drawing less than the lowest NHL team. They went from topping almost every NHL team to being Behind every single one. NHL stadiums are all >70% filled on average. Baseball stadiums are built for twice the capacity. I’m not arguing the NHL is more popular but baseball attendances are declining. The lowest in 15 years. Building stadiums that hold 40k and drawing 15 is a complete joke.
If you’re the rays and you’re going to be building another stadium, how can you justify to use public funds to build one that holds anymore than 30k? Even at that, that would be doubling their average attendance. Build them smaller if that’s the new trend.
You mean chumps.
I’m mildly surprised Gio cleared. Thought the A’s might shoot a waiver claim and just pay the 2.5 mm if it came to it.
That would make me happy. Just to see the band back together
Back in the bay area, however Balco is now closed
Agreed it’d be cool to see them all in the same rotation again. Just need to get Dallas Braden out of retirement. And vin mazzaro and you’ve got the whole team. But, in all seriousness Brett Anderson is made of glass and Trevor Cahill isn’t an Ironman himself. Edwin Jackson is due for a blowup any day now. Maybe they end up working something out because I’d be real cautious thinking those guys are all going to make it.
Which Nat gets traded next
My money’s on Gio (I was surprised he cleared)
Gio to Milwaukee?
Does he play SS?
In a pinch, I’m sure.
Gio also has 10-and-5 rights
He does not. I just checked with a source on that and updated the post to make sure that’s reflected. He’ll fall just slightly shy of reaching 10 years of service this season.
Gotcha. I was misinformed on Twitter by WashPost writers. Oh well.
WaPo is Fake News!
No he doesn’t. Service time isn’t just based off of years. If that was the case he certainly would have 10 and 5 rights. He mostly doesn’t have 10 and 5 yet due to his first 2 years in OAK. He won’t hit 10 and 5 since the Nats are unlikely to resign him simply due to that fact….but if they did resign him he would get 10 and 5 maybe 3/4 of the way through next season.
If they were to re-sign him — and I agree that doesn’t seem all that likely — he’d get 10-and-5 rights just 10 days into the season.
He’ll finish the season with nine years, 162 days of MLB service — just barely shy of the full 172 days he’d need to push to 10 full seasons.
As you said, if he signs elsewhere, it’s moot. Same even if he’s traded for a month and then signs back in DC, obviously.
This is cool stuff, Steve.
Automatic Blanket No trade if he re-signs with the Nats, (in 10 days) but fresh start with another team. He and his agent could always ask for NTC, yet Somehow, I don’t think he will have that leverage, to request that NTC with another team. (even partial NTC..)
“This is cool stuff, Steve” you definitely need to get out more.
Why do you comment to be insulting?
Steve pointed something out that I bet few people knew (me included) I’m letting him know I appreciate that. I find that interesting, full-NTC is a huge perk.
Some pple comment just to comment I guess
That last line was a self-deprecating joke, Chinwood (you have good comments) but this one was still unnecessary from you Lol
wow, just should’ve said how cut and dry it is.
Xab, there are jerks everywhere. MLBTR is no exception.
I wasn’t trying to be.
*I, our, we, kinda all the same.
Forgot the ‘Bruh’ again. Just trying to be helpful lol
A lot of reasons to trade Gio Gonzalez now even if the Nats want to bring him back.
Nobody wants any of them
Let the shopping spree begin!
I’ve always liked Gio Gonzalez. While it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Arizona to trade for him at this point, I’d like to see them go after him in the offseason, which could help replace Corbin who’s probably leaving
We could use Gio in Oakland but we are happy with the likes of Friers, Manea, Anderson, Cahil and Jackson in the rotation, not to mention a strong relief corps plus September’s calls up! Sorry, pal…
The Nationals have butchered this year if Harper doesn’t resign.
How do you figure? They had a lot of guys whose contracts expired after this year. Why not go for it this year? If he doesn’t re-sign, then they go into next year with an OF of Eaton, Robles, and Soto, plus an extra $35M or so to spend elsewhere. Very solid OF, not to mention you still have Scherzer, Strasburg, Rendon, and Turner with some guys in the minors as well.
They underperformed, yes. But they didn’t butcher anything.
1. They have 2 starting pitchers, and a questionable bullpen.
2. How do they have $35MM to spend (letting Harper go) when players they retain on the roster get raises (Strasburg’s base salary is supposed to go from $15 MM to $35MM in 2019. They are over budget in 2018 as it is.
3. Even with Harper they are behind the Braves and Phils this year. Those 2 teams are only starting to reap the benefits of their rebuilds. They are loaded, young and getting better.
4. What if Scherzer wakes up with a sore right arm in 2019?
“They underperformed, yes. But they didn’t butcher anything.”
They have all season. Harper is not a CF. The SS makes fundamental mistakes (he gave the Phils 2 extra outs last night – 1 of which they scored on).
They need a manager and pitching coach.
1. Yes, and those two pitchers are two of the best in baseball. Probably the best 1-2 in baseball.
2. I was factoring in Harper getting a 10 year, $350 contract. I don’t think he’ll get $400, but he’ll beat Stanton. Yes, others are due raises. My point is simply that replacing Harper with Soto at a tiny fraction of the cost helps a lot.
3. Yes, they were behind them both, but the Nats are better on paper. The Braves are good but Markakis is old, they don’t have an ace, and Swanson hasn’t lived up to his hype. They have plenty of issues too.
4. What if anyone wakes up with a sore arm in 2019? I’ll take my chances on Scherzer lasting longer than anyone on the Braves staff. They might not even have one guy that makes 200 IP.
I don’t know what point you’re trying to make with the last one. Yes, Harper isn’t a CF, which is why Robles would play there next year with Soto in right and Eaton in left. And Turner making a mistake… he’s still really good. He made a mistake when they are pretty much eliminated from the playoffs. Oh well. He was clutch a lot of times this year.
Gio Gonzalez: Lifetime postseason stats: BB/9: 6.5. HR/9: 1. Those two stat lines have disaster written all over them when thought of during the course of a single playoff start.
Six starts ranging from 2012 – 2017 is hardly a valid sample size…
They’re trying like heck to pay Scherzer, Harper, and Strasburg next year (Strasburg’s salary is a bubble year to $34MM). They’ll want to keep Rendon, would be better to trade him for cheap youngsters. Eaton is a butcher in the field in addition to being injury prone – doubt they can off him unless they pay part of his remaining salary.
Nats will have to play a bunch of cheap youngsters in 2019, along with what they can keep of the Big 3. They are already behind the Braves & Phils, with those teams young and improving. At some point they have to give HOF’er Scherzer a chance of winning a WS by sending him to a contender (they can get 3 very good youngsters for him).
The Nationals best shot is to let Harper go FA, and trade / let go all the veterans. The payroll is already over budget and they’re still a 3rd place team in 2019 if they half-azz it.
The Nats aren’t in that bad a way yet. I think they’ll have about 35 million to spend too – just a catcher, bench, and pitching if they maintain the payroll at the current level and don’t spend it on Harper. People keep forgetting they’ll have Kendrick to play some 2B next year. The biggest issue is Rendon and whether he’ll sign an extension. If not, next year is pivotal again, they’ll need a lot more guys unless ZIm plays like 2017. Eaton/Turner/Soto/Rendon/Zim/Kendrick/Robles/Catcher/Pitcher will be a decent offense. They’ll need a LH 1B, but they could even go defense-first at catcher. The money should go to a starting pitcher first, a solid setup guy to keep them from relying on Glover, and some fungible guys for depth. They can reload pretty easily if they work it right., Just guessing on Rendon and Roark in arbitration, if I’m wrong maybe it’s 32 millon.
1S Scherzer 42.1
2S Strasburg 38.3
1B Zim 18.0
RF Eaton 8.4
CL Doolittle 6.0
2B Kendrick 4.0
3B Rendon 18.0
3S Roark 12.0
LF Soto .6
CF Robles .6
SS Turner .6
5S Ross/Fedde .6
4OF Taylor 3.5
LR Grace .6
UT Difo .6
RR Glover .6
LR Collins .8
BC Kieboom/Read .6
5OF Stevenson .6
Apx 147
Needs
C
CI/LPH
4S
SU
SU
RR
APX 35-40 mil
In other words the Nats should rebuild. I agree. And with some very young talent already in place it would not be a long one
and to think, an old simpsons episode predicted the nats season
june 30th, nats fans: “its just a little dirty, its still good, its still good”
july 31th, nats fans: “its just a little slimy, its still good, its still good”
august 20th, nats fans: “its just a little airborne, its still good, its still good”
mike rizzo: “its gone”
nats fans: “i know”
A number of years ago when Friedman was still with the Rays, he talked about older teams desperate for a miracle to happen that kept trading prospects for veterans, and overpaying free agents to join them. He compared it to a train where the engineer was shoveling in more and more coal – but the train kept going slower and slower. In recent years we’ve seen that with the Tigers, Phils, and White Sox…..among others.
4 -5 years ago I was on here writing that the Sox and Phils had some veterans they could get decent prospects for, and they should commence with a rebuild. They waited a year or two and got less back. The Nationals are there today. The owners letter to Nats fans saying they would not be doing a rebuild in 2019 adds at least 2 years onto when they can contend again. And by the way – the Cubs will follow within the next year or two.
Why would the Cubs be following? They have their core locked up through 2021