The Nationals are exploring their options on the infield market, as MLB Network’s Jon Paul Morosi reports (Twitter links) that Washington has interest in free agent second baseman DJ LeMahieu and Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant. While it can be assumed that the Nats are looking at both big names and smaller names, the fact that they’re open to adding higher-salaried players such as LeMahieu and Bryant gives us some hints about the team’s spending capability this offseason.
LeMahieu would be the more expensive of the two, of course, as he is projected to land a lucrative multi-year deal in free agency (MLBTR has him projected for four years and $68MM). The Nats would also have to give up a second-round draft pick and $500K in international bonus pool money to sign LeMahieu, since he rejected the Yankees’ qualifying offer.
This all being said, the Nationals haven’t shied away from making big additions in free agency in the past, and Morosi notes that the Nats also had interest in LeMahieu the last time he was a free agent back in the 2018-19 offseason. (Washington instead signed Brian Dozier to a one-year, $9MM deal to handle second base, a deal the Nats probably don’t regret considering they won the 2019 World Series.) Though players like Juan Soto and Trea Turner will continue to get expensive through arbitration, the Nationals have quite a bit of money coming off the books after 2021, so LeMahieu wouldn’t put much of an extra burden on the payroll.
Bryant would be a shorter-term add, since he is only under contract through the 2021 season before hitting free agency himself. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Bryant to earn $18.6MM in his final year of arbitration, so while the former NL MVP isn’t inexpensive, some of that salary could be covered by whatever the Nationals would send back to the Cubs in a trade. For what it’s worth, Bryant is represented by Scott Boras, whose solid working relationship with the Lerner family is well-documented; on the current Nationals roster alone, Soto, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Seth Romero are all Boras clients.
Chicago is reportedly open to moving just about any of its higher-priced veterans, though Bryant is something of a tricky trade candidate considering he hit only .206/.293/.351 in 147 plate appearances during an injury-plagued 2020 season. That down year will surely factor into what the Nationals or any other team would be willing to give up in a trade, yet the Cubs obviously also don’t want to sell low on a former All-Star (unless forced into such a move due to payroll constraints). Signing LeMahieu is more expensive but also carries fewer question marks, plus Washington wouldn’t have to give up any young talent in a trade to land LeMahieu.
Looking at the Nats’ roster, either LeMahieu or Bryant would help an infield that is pretty unsettled beyond Turner at shortstop. First base is wide open, Starlin Castro will play every day at either second base or third base, Carter Kieboom will look to break out after a tough rookie season, plus Luis Garcia and the re-signed Josh Harrison provide depth. LeMahieu would slot right into an everyday role, probably at second base, but Washington could move him around to see action at both first and third base depending on situations or how players like Kieboom or Garcia develop. Bryant has some similar versatility, as he would likely play mostly at third base, but could also be shifted to first base or a corner outfield spot.
LeMahieu’s value to any team is that he’s multi positional. He’s a plus defender at second, but also at least league average at first or third. Over the course of a season, having a player like that you can plug in is valuable. He still seems likely to return to the Yankees. That’s his stated preference as is the Yankees. When both sides want the same thing, a deal usually happens. That said, the Yankees seem intent on reducing payroll, so the door is open.
He isn’t going to be the same player in that lineup. He needs the short porch to be an elite player.
DJ is still a good player for every team. He just won’t have the luxury of facing AAA pitching staffs (minus rays) and having a fence that fits his swing the most. So he won’t be this elite player this Yankees have seen.
AAA pitching staffs? give me a break. DJ also had to play against the good NL East pitching staffs last year and was doing fine against good pitching in 2019.
Orioles Bluejays redsoxs tigers royals twins angels Mariners rangers…. all have bad pitch staffs give me a break. The first 3 gave arguably the wrist of the group and he faces them 57 times…
Dark…don’t even humor this idiot and his comments…..doubt that he even watches any baseball to make the kind of comments he makes…..
Ya he really beat up on the Tigers and Mariners pitching staffs last year! Even if they did play, it’s 6 games a season lmao.
Bro I’m just naming the AL as a whole… it’s a bad league for pitching. Obviously Ik he doesn’t face them as much…What about the orioles, bluejays, and redsoxs is who he faces 57 times in hitters park??
The Braves and Mets had horrible rotations. The Phillies has the worst bullpen I have ever seen and no 3-5 pitchers. The Nats staff was hurt just like Braves and Mets. Only marlins had a good staff.
MetsFan22 disses the entire AL, and the NL East (except his beloved Mets). That’s like 2/3 of baseball. He glorifies the Mets as a cast of demi-Gods and makes laughable excuses for their every flaw in 2020. He’s the biggest, most insulting homer on this site.
I just said the Mets were part of a horrible rotations he faced ………
So he’s saying that the Mets players with good averages actually aren’t good hitters because the pitchers they face suck (NL East pitching sucks, right?)
They both are bad but one has to face AAA staffs. And I’m 2019 it was night and day
RedSoxs? Thats a first, congratulations.. No , after each team mentioned? The “wrist” of the group? lol OMG. Do you even read what you wrote before hitting send?
Lol learn to have common sense. Everyone knows what I meant
@rocky7 I was just gonna say that. DJL hits to all fields. If he even bothered to look at his spray charts, he knows he’s dead wrong.
Short porch is in RF. He’s a right handed hitter.
That’s why I said a fence that is perfect for his swing…..
Yes… I see you don’t.. if you don’t understand how DJ Beni fits greatly from his situation…. you’re telling me if you switch McNeil and DJ situation DJ stats would still be better. The answer is no. I’m glad I could help you
He looks at a mirror with the TV behind him when watching the games at his PC.. Then when het sits and watches the games facing the TV all the hitters are switch hitters. He hasn’t figured it out yet.
He only hits the ball to right. Have you never watched him?
Why don’t you stop with this “shot porch” stuff to define his elite status already….Mr Mets fan…..his value is gap power to all fields as he hits the pitch where it’s made not just going the other way constantly as a right handed bat….try watching a few games before commenting!
2 time batting champ…chump!
He’s a perfect player for that stadium. He’s a great hitter but has been blessed to play at Coors and YS
Thanks for common sense. His oppo approach is perfect for that stadium
Obviously he could pull the ball. I’m saying that him being able to hit flyouts to RF bc he takes it the other way only to be a HR makes his stats better than they really are. He always went the other way more than most hitters.
While we don’t know, outside of his actual experience playing at Coors and Yankee stadium, given his approach and capabilities, I doubt that there would be any stadium that he wouldn’t be an excellent hitter playing in…you guys talk as if the short porch helps him hitting doubles and base hits….he is not a home run hitter hence why all the talk about the “short porch” helping his swing? You sound like the other _____ commenting about this
So you don’t see how it helps after his slg ops and HRs skyrocketed ????
No he doesn’t.
You’re being ridiculous. He sprays hits all over the field. While homers are certainly easier in Yankee Stadium, doubles are without a doubt harder in smaller stadiums. He’ll be fine wherever he goes.
Omg Ik he does. I’m not denying that. But his “Flyouts” to right…. they they are HRs now. I hoped that helped…
I think this is a golden opportunity to remember MetsFan22’s comments about LeMahieu and see if it changes, if the Mets sign him…something that I think we all know is a long shot, which is why he’s comfortable knocking his performance.
You are so far removed from reality it’s hilarious.
Ill admit this straight from the jump that im a mets fan and really like DJ even before the yanks.
If you look up DJs spray chart he definitely likes to hit it to the opposite field. Whether you want to argue short porch long porch under ground porch who cares. It is shown in his charts. where probably 40-50% of the balls are hit in that rf gap to rf line (i would say about 25-30 to the where a nonshifted rf will line up)
The way i have seen him play he can go all fields with regularity but you are faulting him for trying to hit the ball where he has the highest rate of success? He is an all fields hitter which shows why they very rarely if ever put the shift on him. I expect a hitter to do what would be an outcome best for the team ala Carlos Delgado bunts to 3rd with the shift on when you need a base runner on. I would say he is opportunistic hitter to where if you give him an open space he will try for that spot hence gaps with doubles. So yes he does benefit from short porches in yankee stadium as that was designed for their lefties way before dj was on the team and as i said he takes advantage of opportunities with that short porch.
Would i want him on the mets? heck yeah but the only thing that gives me pause is the logjam we have all over the infield.
I was looking at an article on the Yankee web site… they talked about how he has benefitted from playing at Yankee Stadium. They compared his Coors Field hits to his Yankee Stadium hits. They are very similar… on the ground to the left side… in the air to right and right center. DJ got more distance as a Yankee to right in addition to the short porch… was he trying to hit homers to right? Did it just happen? Did he learn something about his swing? Not sure, but you cannot deny the data.
Stacast and sabermatics supplied the data. It was an article titled “DJ Lemahieu and the Yankees are a perfect match.”
I have always liked Ron Darling on the national broadcasts. I can’t say I have ever heard him locally.
Yes, on the national broadcast, he’s great. When he’s not promoting the Mets on MLB Network, he shows his baseball knowledge.
His SNY work is unbearable along with Keith Hernandez’s work there. In their work there, if the 27 Yankees were playing the 62 Mets, they’d make the 62 Mets sound better than the 27 Yankees…and when the 27 Yankees won 35 to 1, that 1 run would be greater than the 35 that the Yankees scored. And they’d make sure to let everyone know that the 86 Mets are the greatest team in MLB history. And that’s before they make sure that you question if Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were as good as Gil Hodges and Gus Bell.
@bobgibsonfan
Don’t try to argue science and facts with the thoughts and feelings crowd. It only makes them yell louder and call people names.
Exactly, you cant fault him for smacking the cover off the ball in Yankee stadium. If it were that easy, everybody who played there would do it. I just dont understand why people get so defensive and upset when someone says that the ballpark aids him. It clearly does, there’s no two ways around it. His swing is perfect for the ballpark, and that why he has so much more success there than he does on the road.
He only hit 10 home runs in the 50 games he played. How many do you think he hit to right field in Yankee Stadium? You are getting quite wound up over something as minor as DJ L hitting home runs to right field in Yankee Stadium imo.
If you could get your Christmas tree to look anything like DJ’s 2020 spray chart, you should be hired to decorate the Rockefeller Xmas tree this year. It’s really a thing of beauty in any stadium.
That Christmas tree would have a huge bald spot in left field and around first base.
I havee not heard that the Yankees are “intent” on reducing payroll… I think nearly everyone would like to lower payroll, to one degree or another, with the sole exception of the Mets.
But several teams– the Yankees included– are open to maintaining or increasing payroll if it means improving their team and increasing their odds at a title.
End of the day, if DJL is willing to take a slightly reduced market rate to return to the Yankees, as has been reported, I think he re-signs. If a team like the Nationals blows him away with an ABOVE market offer, I could see him signing elsewhere.
The Yankees are on record as wanting to duck the luxury tax line. Whether they tow that line or just use it as a guideline remains to be seen, but I would bet they will significantly reduce their $250+MM payroll.
I have not read and such statement that they want to get under the luxury tax, and after hearing two interviews with Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner, neither expressed any such intent.
Both of them said, in essence, that they’d like to watch where they spend and spend wisely, but they are– as always– open to any free agent deal that improves the club,
Both said there was no specific mandate to lower payroll.
That’s probably about right.
His value to any team is that he’s multi positional and can flat out hit. Aaron Boone said its like he bats with a paddle. He can and will beat the shift, very smart baseball player with ability
Bryant is very overrated. He has regressed every year since 2016
Definitely a guy who needs a change of scenery to see if his regression is for real or just rooted as a Cub.
“Very overrated”—-depends on the definition of overrated…and very. He did regress all the way to 7th in MVP voting in 2017 and all the way down to all star in 2019.
Overrated if comparing to Trout, Betts and other elite players absolutely.
Overrated if comparing to all star potential and multi tool players, absolutely not.
I’m sure all GMs and “real” baseball guys have him rated exactly as he should be.
To your statement of he has regressed every year—-it’s absolutely false—-in many aspects he was equal or better in 2017 than 2016 and was surely better in 2019 than 2018 (the year he missed 60 games due to injury). 2020 was admittedly a statistical disaster—I wouldn’t argue that.
The only thing that is truly overrated about Bryant is the perception that he stinks now.
It would probably be more accurate to say he hasn’t lived up to expectations, which were very high. He’s not awful by any means, but most people seemed to think he would be elite at or near the level of guys like Trout or Betts. I do agree that getting out of Chicago could benefit him.
Well said, 22Leo——and expectations that are set by fans, not necessarily those in the inner baseball circles.
Expectations are set by DELUSIONAL baseball fans.
Bryant was really good in 2017. He didn’t have as many home runs, but his OBP went from .385 to .409 despite his batting average barely going up. 2020 was his first truly bad year and we’re talking about 147 plate appearances. I’m sure every GM would take him if he’s healthy because when he is, he’s a guarenteed .280/.380/.500, 30 home run guy who can play every corner position.
Bryant just wears down every season. His body is spent by the time the pennant race and playoffs are going full throttle. He does have a big frame. There is a reason the baseball HOF isn’t loaded with players 6’5” to 6’8”. Different sports favor different body types so buyer beware of counting on Bryant for October.
I’m not sure where you are getting the “Bryant just wears down” reasoning. The stats certainly do not support the argument:
Sept/Oct
2019- .283/.405/.955
2018- came off injury .259/.354/.765
2017-.304/.405/.938
2016-.221/.296/.671 but he was dominate in the post season and in August
2015-.316/.380/.901
And the reason there are not a lot of 6’5 plus players in the Hall Of Fame is because there are not a lot of 6’5 plus humans, let alone baseball players who are position players.
The height thing is probably more towards the fact that tall elite athletes gravitate towards other sports and not baseball, whether that is hockey, football or basketball. Baseball is a tough sport for tall elite athletes.
I know Bryant’s playoff BA is ..229 and that includes 2016. It just seems like every late season game when he comes up with RISP his bat looks slow and he has poor at bats but thanks for posting the numbers D36.
Not quite. His 2017 season was arguably as good or better than his 2016 season (minus the MVP award). His 2018 was still very good, his 2019 season was better than that. Only his short 2020 season stands out as having been truly awful. He’s not really overrated at all anymore because most lists I’ve seen barely rank him in the Top 5-10 3B anymore.
He’s a pure low ball hitter. That swing really can’t accomodate anything hard at the top of the zone. And unfortunately for him that’s where baseball is going, more and more each year.
That is 100% accurate. Bryant has been defiant about adjusting his swing and/or approach to handle pitches up in the zone as well.
If I were the Cubs, or any team interested in trading for Kris Bryant, I would firmly plant him behind a base stealing threat to keep pitchers from being able to bury breaking pitches in the dirt or run the slider too far off the plate which are his other weaknesses.
IMO, you put Bryant second in the Nationals line up behind Turner and he will be back to preforming to his MVP levels. Add the fact KB historically gets on base at a high clip and runs the bases extremely well, it would be win/win for Soto as well.
I am jealous if the Nationals can sign DJL
The Orioles really could use him!
To be fair, the Orioles need to improve at almost every position, so you could say that about pretty much every top free agent.
If true than the Nats aren’t high on Kieboom anymore.
how so? they can just play him elsewhere but where they want to play DJ. both are versitile
i dont see anyone outbidding NYY for DJ. he’s good enough to pay up for but they need him back. they need a middle INF and he’s the best option there.
I agree with you. Especially since he’s openly said he’s willing to take less money to go to the Yankees.
I think it’s 80/20 DJ stays in NY; if nothing else, he’s become a folk hero, and that’s important for an image-concerned team like the Spanks (especially with a new sheriff in town across the bridge). Until Judge starts playing every day, Yankee Stadium is the house that DJ built.
(Reference to the GREAT Ned Martin, who once labeled the Stadium as the “House Horace Clarke built”).
And oh, BTW, DJ’s a pretty good player. Exceptional, really. Top notch in every area. Can’t see the Yanks letting him walk.
As much as like Judge, he’s not exactly on a HOF trajectory due to his late start unless he has a Bonds-like career twilight. YS2 will always be the House that Jeter built.
Y’all swear I think DJ is bad lol. I don’t great player. But yankee stadium turn him from McNeils tier to false mvp numbers. That’s all I was saying. I do think McNeil hits 330 with 30+ homers in that stadium….
you cant act like that stadium is the moon or something. its a hitters park, but he hits for average above else and the park being smaller doesnt do anything to help that. maybe he doesnt hit for as much power elsewhere but he’s not simply a slap hitter and the slap he provides is arguably unparalleled in this era of the game. (save by maybe McNeil himself)
Dark, I got no dog in the fight, but wasn’t DJl average 2020 HR distance like 370 feet… so outs in the majority of parks? His CAREER OPS+ rose more than 20 points in TWO SEASONS
If you can’t admit DJ is helped by playing the the ALE and specifically Yankee stadium, you’re not really giving a fair assessment
This is the first time that someone has played in NYC and Colorado, but someone is saying that his numbers in NYC is where his numbers were inflated.
Odd.
Good point.
His avg was definitely inflated at coors. But yankee stadium inflates his avg and power
People really do not understand “Coors” effect. Coors does a couple things to help a hitter, the first and foremost thing is it takes some movement out of pitches. Pitches simply do not break as hard.
The second thing it does is it adds distance, but not as much as people think. Coors adds roughly 10 feet to fly balls but people fail to consider that Coors is an extremely large ball park and it’s especially large gap to gap.
Now when you look at a guy like DJ, Coors didn’t help him much because he is a line drive hitter who hits gap to gap where it does help a guy like Trevor Story who is more of a fly ball hitter and hits more down the line where the poles are not as deep. Story’s fly balls get more carry than DJ’s line drives.
Flip things around and look at LeMahieu’s spray chart, the majority of his home runs are opposite field home runs in the “power alley”, if you put a park overlay on Coors, those home runs in New York are not home runs in Coors.
So in other words, Coors does help the majority of all hitters but it doesn’t help out each hitter equally. Some players fit ballparks and Cashman should get a lot of credit for getting LeMahieu and understanding how well he would fit not only the ballpark but the AL East in general.
No it’s not
One was a giant field he could drop singles in
One is a joke of a bandbox where the majority of his divisional rivals had horrible pitching. I mean, you can not like MF22, but let’s be honest with ourselves here. The East in 2020 wasn’t the East in 2001. Chill
Chill I like chill? How much they charging for it nowadays?
We might not agree on everything but at least we have common sense
Bryant and LeMahieu would definitely add some welcome thump to their lineup. I would love to see them get both.
Any one off the top of their heads know what the pitching pipeline looks like for the Nationals? I think everyone can agree that Max Scherzer has been an incredible signing and one of the rare players to outperform their seven year contract.
Would the Nationals have the money for Max if they signed LeMahieu and traded for Bryant come 2022?
They have some good prospects on the lower levels, like Jackson Rutledge, but they are years away. Other than Seth Romero (who has been a headcase), they don’t have much in the way of guys ready to make contributions on the major league roster. Cate and Crowe are more back of the rotation guys.
Appreciate the response and good to know. Thanks!
Refreshing to see some rumors on what’s become a transaction report site.
Wait weren’t you at Busch stadium acting as fredbird this year? Yeah I think it was you!
For the Nats, Bryant a real possibility while DJ is not.
is this supposed to be a haiku?
Can we capitalize our sentences please?
May I use the bathroom?
no
Uhhhhhh Beavis?
If the Yankees could get DJ back at 4/68-70 I think everyone in Yankees nation would take that in a heartbeat.
I’d rather see the Nats sign LeMahieu as he’d solidify the INF for 3 or 4 years, but he seems set on returning to NY, so I’m not gonna hold my breath. Bryant is a bit of a gamble, but I don’t think the return would be daunting. Regardless of the kind of year he has, offer him the QO, and let him walk. The pressure really is on Bryant to realize his potential in ‘21 – he won’t be looking at a multi-year, nine figure deal if he has another pedestrian campaign punctuated by 2 or 3 random injuries.
Bryant is a big gamble. Granted, last year was an unusual year, but his stats weren’t much better than Kieboom’s(both were bad). I am not saying that Bryant isn’t better, but the cost to acquire him for one year may be prohibitive, and no real certainty, aside from power, that he is markedly better than what is already on hand. The Cubs best opportunity to get a good return was to trade him last winter.
A lot of top tier guys had “down” years last season. Yelich, among others never got it going. I think Bryant is a change of scenery success story waiting to happen.
I would not count the Nationals out on DJL. Everyone thought Patrick Corbin was going to the Yankees and where did he sign?
Excellent point.
DJ is a very good Baseball player. I’d love to have him@ second for my team, whom he was originally with. To some of the comments about home/road splits. There is some in the hr department for sure. I think that a high percentage of his yankee stadium homers are not leaving the park at other stadiums. Which also states how good he controls the bat and he’s still a stud hitter and just an all around excellent player. As for KB, put him at third and leave him be. I like him in of but he keeps gettin injured there. He’ll be fine if healthy his numbers will be top 20 in game once again Imo
If they’re interested in Bryant, why not Arenado? Much better player imo. Also longer term contract (which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view), and also more expensive, but that just means you have to send less back.
Bryant is the most overrated player in baseball.
Ridiculous.
I really do not see the Cubs pulling the trigger and selling low on Bryant. I just cannot see another GM being willing to give up a enough in trade to get the Cubs to deal.
IF the Cubs have a hard cap of 215 million for the 2021 season, it makes more sense to me for them to sign Pham for second and LaStella for third, trade Schwarber and put KB in LF.
Pham and LaStella would address two big needs for the Cubs, which is contact skills. Bryant would be an in-house solution to the Cubs need for a right handed outfielder who can hit lefties well while improving their outfield defense.
If I’m wrong please somebody refresh me but didn’t they just let an awesome third baseman walk ? I’d rather have Rendon than Bryant any day
Yeah right now but Rendon is going to be making 38.5 million when he is 36-37 years old.
Rendon was worth every penny with Soto in the lineup. Now with Trout, it’s money well spent.
I like Rendon a lot! As a Cub fan I argued that they should have traded Bryant and tried to sign Rendon because his skill set is rare in baseball and is a huge need for the Cubs (put the ball in play, do not strike out).
However, when someone makes an argument that they would “rather have Rendon over Bryant any day” one has to look at the total picture, The argument isn’t “I’d rather have Rendon over Bryant” the argument is more on par with “would you rather have Strasburg and Bryant while being able to have the option to extend Turner/Soto or Rendon” because the Nationals couldn’t really afford to pay Strasburg and Rendon and hope to extend Juan Soto or Trea Turner where if they traded for Bryant and his salary comes off the books next season they could while also providing a 17 million dollar surplus to make other improvements.
When people say I’d rather have X over Y in that context it shows that they are not familiar with managing a budget or prioritizing goals. IMO.
No reason to trade anything of value for Bryant and still pay him $19MM. He’s got to put up damn good numbers to justify the $19MM plus that much more to offset the players traded for him. That’s a real long shot. It’s a break even at best unless he’s a top MVP candidate in 2021. The slight payoff is the player you get back if he turns down the QO. You’re not getting anywhere near good odds to take that bet.
According to Fangraphs, Bryant’s value has been the following:
48.8 million
62.8 million
53.8 million
18.7 million (102 games injury shortened)
38.4 million
3.7 million (awful year but value only based on 1/3 of a season)
so to justify 19 million and then some, he really just has to play to his menial average.
I don’t think the Cubs trade Bryant unless their scouting department know something is going on with him. I just cannot see Rizzo offering up enough to get the Cubs to bite. Schwarber is my pick to be traded and Anthony Rizzo is my dark horse candidate.
If the Nats were to acquire Bryant i would imagine they would want to sign him to an extension at time of trade or the Cubs are not going to get much in return. If the sign LeMahieu i imagine Castro would be shifted to 3B
I’m hoping we get both
Given his problems with injuries, I wouldn’t pay Bryant $19 million, much less trade a viable prospect(s) for the pleasure of doing so. There are other corner men available, albeit without sexy names, who could produce a fair percentage of what Bryant produces but at a fraction of the cost.
As for DJ, always liked the guy. Both at Coors and with the Yankees. Ballpark is no biggie with him. You don’t win a batting title without hitting well in away ballparks.
Prediction: 1. Cubs trade Bryant to the Dodgers for young pitching.
2. DJ signs for five years at $15 million per with Milwaukee.
Nats should look to fix the infield with a blockbuster trade with the Yankees. Gary S, Miguel A, G. Torres are three young guys the Nats would be wise to target. Yankees would love to boost the pitching staff and the guy they should target is Scherzer. Nats should offer Scherzer and Turner to the Yankees for Gary S, M. Andjuar, G. Torres, C. Frazier and 2-3 top prospects. Nats would get younger and save a pile of money. The money saved could be used to add to the overall depth of the team.
Gary S and M Andujar have essentially no value, at this point.
Nats should try dealing for 1st baseman A. Rizzo. Nats could really use his power in the lineup. He would fill a huge hole!! Cubs are rumoured to be willing to deal anyone.