Adam Dunn Decides to Waste Two Years in Washington

Let’s throw it out there right off the bat—the Washington Nationals can do no right. We’ve been over this organization’s hilariously poor management over and over again, sometimes with even more hilarious results.

In today’s edition of “Trash On This Hapless Organization,” let’s review today’s reported signing of corner man Adam Dunn.

If there is one thing that the Nationals have no shortage of, it is middling corner fielders who can hit. Between Elijah Dukes, Ryan Zimmerman, Josh Willingham, Wily Mo Pena, Justin Maxwell, Kory Casto, and the ghost of Nick Johnson, the corners in Washington could have offered a reasonable offensive output for about half of what Dunn will make in 2009.

Additionally, the Nationals are no closer to making the playoffs than they are to say, winning a Nobel Prize. Adding a big bat right now means nothing more than maybe winning 70 games, instead of 68.

The truly inexcusable part of this signing on behalf of the Nationals is the resulting loss of a draft pick. This is an organization that needs to be stockpiling as many young, cheap players as it can. Hemorrhaging first-round draft picks in exchange for veteran players in their primes is a horrible business model.

On the other side of the equation, was there really no market for a first baseman/corner outfielder who is all but guaranteed to hit [often exactly] 40 home runs with a .900 OPS for the next several seasons?

The underrated nature of Adam Dunn is another oft-discussed issue, and it seems as though it may be the case that I’ve somehow underestimated just how severe it is.

I have to imagine that if another team—any other team—offered Dunn a contract similar to the perfectly reasonable one the Nats did (two years, $20 million), Dunn would have signed with them, rather than wasting his time with the moribund Nationals.