Expectations weren’t all that lofty when Mike Rizzo took over D.C. baseball operations back in 2009. It’s safe to say he has exceeded them. His first roster matched the ’08 outfit with a brutal 59-win effort. That ramped to 69-93 and then 80-81 in the ensuing two seasons. The Nats broke out in 2012 and haven’t had a losing campaign since. There has been quite a lot of drama over the years, but the D.C. organization finally broke through a postseason curse with a stunning run to a title in 2019.
Rizzo’s history on the trade market includes some duds, but also quite a few slam dunks. He’s still not under contract beyond the 2020 season, though the expectation remains that he’ll end up working out another extension to remain at the helm.
2009 Season
- Acquired RHP Logan Kensing from the Marlins for RHP Kyle Gunderson
- Acquired 1B/OF Mike Morse from the Mariners for OF Ryan Langerhans
- Acquired LHP Sean Burnett and OF Nyjer Morgan from the Pirates for OF Lastings Milledge and RHP Joel Hanrahan
- Acquired LHP Aaron Johnson from the Marlins for 1B Nick Johnson
- Acquired RHPs Ryan Mattheus and Robinson Fabian from the Rockies for LHP Joe Beimel
- Acquired OFs Daryle Ward and Norris Hopper from the White Sox for cash
- Acquired RHP Luis Garcia and a PTBNL (LHP Victor Garante) from the Dodgers for INF Ronnie Belliard
- Acquired C Jamie Burke from the Mariners for cash
2009-10 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Brian Bruney from the Yankees in exchange for Rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffman
2010 Season
- Acquired C Wilson Ramos and LHP Joe Testa from the Twins for RHP Matt Capps
- Acquired RHPs Tanner Roark & Ryan Tatusko from the Rangers for INF Cristian Guzman
- Acquired SS Brian Bixler from the Pirates for cash
2010-11 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Henry Rodriguez and OF Corey Brown from the Athletics for OF Josh Willingham
- Acquired LHP Tom Gorzelanny from the Cubs for RHP A.J. Morris, LHP Graham Hicks and OF Michael Burgess
- Acquired RHP Adam Olbrychowski from the Yankees for OF Justin Maxwell
- Acquired INF/OF Cutter Dykstra and cash from the Brewers for OF Nyjer Morgan
- Acquired RHP Erik Davis and cash from the Padres in exchange for INF Alberto Gonzalez
2011 Season
- Acquired OF Gregor Blanco from the Royals for cash
- Acquired OF Jonny Gomes and cash from the Reds for OF Bill Rhinehart and LHP Chris Manno
- Acquired SS Zach Walters from the Diamondbacks for RHP Jason Marquis
- Acquired OF Erik Komatsu from the Brewers for INF/OF Jerry Hairston Jr.
2011-12 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Ryan Perry from the Tigers for RHP Collin Balester
- Acquired LHP Gio Gonzalez and RHP Robert Gilliam from the Athletics for RHPs A.J. Cole and Brad Peacock, C Derek Norris and LHP Tommy Milone
2012 Season
- Acquired C Kurt Suzuki and cash from the Athletics for C David Freitas
2012-13 Offseason
- Acquired OF Denard Span from the Twins for RHP Alex Meyer
- Acquired RHPs A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen and LHP Ian Krol from the Athletics in a three-team deal that sent 1B/OF Mike Morse from the Nats to the Mariners and C John Jaso from the Mariners to the Athletics
2013 Season
- Acquired RHP Ian Dickson from the Cubs for RHP Henry Rodriguez
- Acquired OF Scott Hairston from the Cubs for RHP Ivan Pineyro
- Acquired OF David DeJesus from the Cubs for cash
- Acquired LHP Matthew Spann from the Rays for OF David DeJesus
- Acquired RHP Dakota Bacus from the Athletics for C Kurt Suzuki
2013-14 Offseason
- Acquired OF John Wooten from the Athletics for LHP Fernando Abad
- Acquired RHP Doug Fister from the Tigers for LHP Robbie Ray, INF Steve Lombardozzi and LHP Ian Krol
- Acquired LHP Jerry Blevins from the Athletics for OF Billy Burns
- Acquired C Jose Lobaton, LHP Felipe Vazquez and OF Drew Vettleson from the Rays for RHP Nate Karns
- Acquired INF Brandon Laird from the Royals for cash
2014 Season
- Acquired 2B/SS Asdrubal Cabrera from the Indians for SS Zach Walters
- Acquired LHP Matt Thornton from Yankees for cash
2014-15 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Abel De Los Santos and INF Chris Bostick from the Rangers for LHP Ross Detwiler
- Acquired SS Trea Turner (as a PTBNL) and RHP Joe Ross from the Padres in three-team deal that sent OF Steven Souza Jr. and LHP Travis Ott to the Rays
- Acquired INF Yunel Escobar from the Athletics for RHP Tyler Clippard
- Acquired C Dan Butler from the Red Sox for LHP Daniel Rosenbaum
- Acquired OF Matt den Dekker from the Mets for LHP Jerry Blevins
2015 Season
- Acquired OF Darin Mastroianni from the Phillies for cash
- Acquired RHP David Carpenter from the Yankees for INF Tony Renda
- Acquired RHP Jonathan Papelbon from the Phillies for RHP Nick Pivetta
2015-16 Offseason
- Acquired RHPs Trevor Gott and Michael Brady from the Angels for INF Yunel Escobar and cash
- Acquired OF Ben Revere from the Blue Jays for RHP Drew Storen
2016 Season
- Acquired LHP Marc Rzepczynski from the Athletics for INF Max Shrock
- Acquired C Taylor Gushue from the Pirates for SS Chris Bostick
- Acquired RHP Mark Melancon from the Pirates for LHPs Felipe Vazquez and Taylor Hearn
2016-17 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Jimmy Cordero from the Phillies for a PTBNL (RHP Mario Sanchez)
- Acquired C Derek Norris from the Padres for RHP Pedro Avila
- Acquired OF Adam Eaton from the White Sox for RHPs Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning
- Acquired RHPs Austin L. Adams and Kyle McGowin from the Angels for 2B/SS Danny Espinosa
- Acquired LHP Enny Romero from the Rays for RHP Jeffrey Rosa
- Acquired OF Ryan Raburn from the White Sox for cash
2017 Season
- Acquired LHP Sean Doolittle and RHP Ryan Madson from the Athletics for RHP Blake Treinen, LHP Jesus Luzardo and 2B Sheldon Neuse
- Acquired INF Howie Kendrick and cash from the Phillies for LHP McKenzie Mills and international bonus pool space
- Acquired RHP Brandon Kintzler from the Twins in exchange for LHP Tyler Watson and $500K of international bonus pool space
2017-18 Offseason
- Acquired INF Matt Reynolds from the Mets for cash
2018 Season
- Acquired RHP Kelvin Herrera from the Royals for 3B Kelvin Gutierrez, OF Blake Perkins and RHP Yohanse Morel
- Acquired RHP Jacob Condra-Bogan from the Royals for OF Brian Goodwin
- Acquired RHP Jhon Romero from the Cubs for RHP Brandon Kintzler
- Acquired INF Andruw Monasterio from the Cubs for 2B Daniel Murphy and cash
- Acquired RHP Andrew Istler from the Dodgers for Ryan Madson
- Acquired C/1B KJ Harrison and INF Gilbert Lara from the Brewers in exchange for LHP Gio Gonzalez and $250K of international bonus pool space
2018-19 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Kyle Barraclough from the Marlins for $1MM of international bonus pool space
- Acquired C Yan Gomes from the Indians for RHP Jefry Rodriguez, OF Daniel Johnson and a PTBNL (INF Andruw Monasterio)
- Acquired RHP Tanner Rainey from the Reds for RHP Tanner Roark
2019 Season
- Acquired LHP Nick Wells from the Mariners for RHP Austin L. Adams
- Acquired RHP Daniel Hudson from the Blue Jays for RHP Kyle Johnston
- Acquired LHP Roenis Elias from the Mariners for LHP Taylor Guilbeau and RHP Elvis Alvarado
- Acquired RHP Hunter Strickland from the Mariners for LHP Aaron Fletcher
2019-20 Offseason
- Acquired RHP Ryne Harper from the Twins in exchange for RHP Hunter McMahon
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With that exhausting exercise out of the way — it’s time for MLBTR readers to weigh in! What grade does the president of baseball operations of the reigning World Champs get for his trading efforts? (Link to poll for Trade Rumors mobile app users.)
Grade Mike Rizzo's trades as Nationals GM:
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B 50% (1,605)
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A 27% (887)
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C 18% (585)
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D 3% (99)
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F 2% (62)
Total votes: 3,238
Curious to look back on additional GMs and their trade histories?
We’ve already polled on Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen, recently fired Astros president Jeff Luhnow, Brewers president of baseball ops David Stearns, Angels GM Billy Eppler, Rockies GM Jeff Bridich, Tigers GM Al Avila, Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, Phillies GM Matt Klentak, Padres GM A.J. Preller, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, Rays GM Erik Neander, ex-Red Sox front office leader Dave Dombrowski, Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen, Reds GM Dick Williams, Orioles GM Mike Elias, former Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart, and Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.
At least someone from my High School made it big
That’s what she said
I no longer consider him an average GM now that he has a ring, but his trades don’t really look that great. I feel like the bad deals (Eaton, most of all) outweigh the good ones (Turner is his best).
He’s traded away some great pitching prospects over the years, luckily he fell into Strasburg and could through tons of cash at Scherzer.
Could through??? Do you mean could throw?
You know very well what he meant. Who cares. Misused word in a comment section…
Well in fairness it wasn’t a typo it was a clear misuse of the wrong word, although this could have been auto correct.
Don’t be that guy. You won’t be invited to any parties when you get to high school kid.
Looking through his history its clear Rizzo doesnt shy away from trading high ceiling pitchers. But, two of those trades directly led to key players in a world series title in Doolittle and Eaton. Obviously the nats would love to have the current versions of Giolito and Luzardo but no one would want a do over in light of the title.
Im biased, ill admit, but his history looks incredible to me. The only players he has ever given up that are worth anything are several of those pitching prospects. His homeruns far outweigh the duds.
The outlier is for sure the Papelbon trade. Its the biggest black mark in the record for sure.
I agree. Biased as well. But the two biggest names he gave up that we think will produce are Giolito (just had a breakout) and Luzardo (who still has to prove he can stay healthy). But yeah you take that every decade for one ring.
The first Gio Gonzalez trade was good too. They gave up a lot of name value for Gio but in terms of on field production, Gio Gonzalez provided more value for the Nats then Cole, Peacock, Norris, and Milone did for the A’s.
The Eaton deal was literally done to win in world series ASAP. it worked.
The Jury is still out on the Eaton Trade. Essentially the Pale hose Got Giolito and maybe Lopez as functional to good pieces of their rotation. Dunning has yet to establish himself
The real dud in hindsight was the Papelbon trade. It should have been a lot better than it was . Normally Rizzo is good at maintaining chemistry but that trade blew up the stretch run.
Regardless whether Giolito is going to be the 3.41 ERA guy (2019) or the 6.13 ERA guy (2018) the Eaton trade was a big win for the Nats. Rizzo was just about to complete the McCutchen trade when it fell through and in my opinion panicked and overpaid for Eaton. The Nats won the World Series and Eaton was a big part of that team so you can’t say it wasn’t worth it. Any Nats fan knows how up and down Giolito can be and they also know that Lopez is very hittable. Lopez is a middle reliever at best. The big key for the Sox besides which Giolito shows up is Dunning. Regardless it was clearly a Win-Win trade for both teams. The Nats wouldn’t trade their WS Rings for Giolito and the Sox certainly wouldn’t trade Giolito for Eaton.
Giolito seemed like a good kid and I hope he turns into a huge star.
Tanner Roark for Christian Guzman in 2010
I’ll be curious when you guys do Brian cashman or billy beane. They have the longest list for the amount of years they be in the seat.
Dayton Moore has been in charge since 2006
Brain Cashman since 1998
Jon Daniels since 2005
John Mozeliak has been there since 2007
Beane has been around since 1997
Going to be very long write ups for sure.
Interesting, Nats trade for Blake Treinen in 2012 from Oakland and then trade him back to Oakland in 2017. Did the same with Kurt Suzuki
(Cal State Fullerton Titans)!
and Derek Norris
Are you guys missing the Mark Melancon trade?
Definitely. Traded for that child molester.
Yes – for Felipe Rivero (now Vasquez) who had 86 saves and 15 wins for the Pirates his arrest.
…..Before his arrest.
Yeah,Mark pitched well for the Nats in the brief time he was in town so his acquisition should be noted but I guess since the pitcher who shall be nameless was involved, it was left off.
Winning a World Series with Doolittle, Eaton and Turner make it all a win !!!!!!
AJ Cole was traded from the Nationals to the Athletics back to the Nationals
Blake Treinen and Kurt Suzuki were traded from the Athletics to the Nationals back to the Athletics
I wonder how many other players were traded from team A to team b and then back to team A (no stops in between).
This was a nice trip down memory name for some of the names on the list.
There’s a trade with the Pirates from 2016 season missing.
I’ll never understand how the Nats got involved in that 3 way deal to get Turner (who wasn’t even trade eligible) at the time and Ross for what they gave up. It seemed silly then and looks ridiculous now they were able to get those guys back with giving up so very little.
Joe Ross was not a premium prospect at that point. He was a first rounder but had not lived up to that billing results-wise prior to the trade and finished the 2014 season on the disabled list. Turner, yeah, no way Steven Souza was worth him.
I hope Stanley Tucci plays Rizzo in the movie
Willie Garson will play Brian Cashman.
Tanking works! Nats did it well and without attracting negative attention to build up their talent base.
Whatever happened to Andrew Istler? I thought he was going to turn into a high end reliever when he was with the Dodgers.
Trades were ok but what really worked well were his FA signings, especially scherzer and Murphy. Corbin signing looks good too so far but too early to tell of course albeit even if he flames out they always will have that ring.
Really the nats had a good runs so far averaging over 90 wins the last 8 years which is not easy to do. The window looked to be over several times but they somehow kept it going finding guys like Turner or Soto so they could replace loss (harper) or decline (Murphy) of key performers.
Now the farm is quite thin though so this won’t last forever but it still could be almost a 10 year run of being competitive in the end which is rare these days.
One of the things that stands out to me in all of these rundowns is how few trades are actually meaningful.
WIth the talent that is at the big league and AAA level their is about a 2-3 year window to infuse more youth. Rizzo’s penchant for integrating scouting with analytics is why his success has lasted this long. I gave Rizzo an A- based on the larger universe of GM and their success rate. You also have to view many of those trades that didn’t work out as salary:talent management. There is no question that the lower levels of the minors need a talent infusion. But I look tot he next two drafts for that.
As far as the grade I gave Rizzo an A- because I was viewing it through the lense of all GMs and his success rate is near the top of that list of 30
From a mets fan, I admire Rizzo he does well in trades and gets his free agent target. Glad to see the nats win it all now we need the mariners, the rangers. Padres. Rockies and the Ray’s to win one title it’s not only good for their respective fan base but it’s good for the sport.
Rizzo is an awesome dude. Got to speak with him on several occasions (he lived in the same area I did in the DMV) very low key, likes Coors Light! Lol. In fact I wasn’t even really paying attention and the bartender was like hey you know who that is don’t you? And I was like holy moly! Was a very small crowd at that place most of the time. So I went and spoke to him. Guy was phenomenal took time to talk some baseball. The several other times I ran into him he would always say hello and sit down and chat. Class act!
Mike Rizzo has dumped a lot more pitchers right before they tanked than the 1-2 he let go that turned into stars. In Rizzo we trust.