It's time to trade Adam Dunn, not Josh Willingham

There have been numerous reports recently that the Nationals may be looking to move Josh Willingham within the next several weeks. While Willingham likely can bring in a player of solid value, he is under the Nationals control for the next two seasons and is relatively cheap for his level of output.

However, Adam Dunn, 30, is in the final year of his contract, and is likely at the peak of his career. While Dunn has been an incredibly productive player for the Nationals, he likely wont be able to sustain his success much further into the future, and it will cost them a pretty penny to extend his contract (if they even can). Dunn can help the Nationals franchise the most by being traded for quality parts to be used for building the team of tomorrow.

Adam Dunn is a conundrum in many ways, while his bat may be his most valuable asset, going into the future the biggest variable in his overall value may be his horrific lack of defense.  Fangraphs rated his offensive value as 35.5 Runs Above Average last season, where his defensive value was 36.3 Runs BELOW Average. This resulted in the slugger only being worth 1.2 Wins last season. However, if you remove his defensive liabilities he is clearly more valuable.  This is why the Nationals need to trade him to the American League.

A look around the American League at the starting DH's shows its pretty slim pickings and that if he were traded he would almost instantly be the best DH in baseball.

Name   / OPS

Baltimore: Luke Scott .828
Toronto: Randy Ruiz .682
Tampa Bay: Pat Burrell .682
Boston: David Ortiz .794
New York: Nick Johnson .831

Minnesota: Jason Kubel .907
Detroit: Jeff Larish .730
Chicago: Andruw Jones .782
Kansas City: Alex Gordon .703
Cleveland: Travis Hafner .826

LA Angels: Hideki Matsui .876
Texas: Vladimir Guerrero .794
Seattle: Ken Griffey Jr./Milton Bradley .735/.775
Oakland: Jack Cust .773

Adam Dunn .928

What do you think? Should the Nationals trade him before the season or at all?