Washington Nationals Telegraph Intentions with Deadline Deals

The Major League trading deadline isn’t really an administrative line-in-the-sand that tells the league’s 30 teams when they can—and can’t—reassign the players on their roster. It isn’t a protective barrier that stops the wealthy teams from culling the best talent from the struggling teams whenever they choose.

Rather, the trading deadline is a way the teams communicate with the fans in a manner that leaves no nuance untold, no vision unfulfilled and points directly at management’s self-assessment of how they’re doing now, and what they’ll be doing later.

If a team—say the Pirates—trades two of their starting outfielders, three starting infielders and several members of their pitching staff, well, that might say that the team has no hope of winning now, in the future, perhaps ever.

Memo to fans: We’re not going to try to win, but keep those turnstiles spinning.

If a team—say the Red Sox—acquires a pretty good first baseman only to trade him away after a week because they got an even better one on Friday, well, that says that the team is committed to winning, now, in the future, maybe forever.

Memo to fans: We hear you.

But what about a team like the Washington Nationals, who on Friday traded reliever Joe Beimel to the Colorado Rockies and first baseman Nick Johnson, the last surviving Expo, to the Florida Marlins?

What are they saying to the team’s fans, so hungry to have major league baseball back in Washington yet unwilling to accept a substandard product?

I think they’re saying, “Trust us. We know what we’re doing.”

And I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. At least for now.

Joe Beimel was one of the best left-handed set up men in the National League last year, but was having trouble finding a job this spring. He signed with the Nationals for one reason: he needed a job. There was no doubt that he would never resign with Washington.

He had to go. The Nationals got a couple of iffy prospects for Beimel, but as Mike Rizzo said, if one of them becomes a middle-of-the-rotation guy that the Nationals got for a two-month rental of a relief pitcher, then the team wins.

In return for Nick Johnson, the Florida Marlins sent one kind-of-iffy-but-not-so-bad starting pitcher. Maybe he’ll turn into a major leaguer, but maybe not.

But Nick Johnson, come the last day of the season, would have pulled a “Cinderella” on the Nationals, turning into a pumpkin, never again to play first base in Washington.

So for a combined four months of service, the Nationals got three pitchers.

Now, I’m not going to bother you with the details of the trades, like the names of the prospects.

It doesn’t matter.

Three years ago, the Nationals sent super-reserve Daryle Ward to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Luis Atilano, a youngster who just had shoulder surgery. He currently has a 4.87 ERA for "AA" Harrisburg and isn’t considered a prospect.

On that same day, Marlon Anderson was traded to the Dodgers for pitcher Jhonny Nunez, who has since been traded again and will likely languish in baseball obscurity forever more.

Three days earlier, Mike Stanton was shipped to the Giants for Shairon Martis.

Three trades. Four prospects. One major-leaguer.

It’s not about those three kids the Nationals picked up on Friday. It’s not about who the team traded.

It’s about what they didn’t do.

Acting general manager Mike Rizzo most certainly had several offers for both Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham, deals that would most certainly have brought real prospects with a real chance of becoming quality major leaguers. My guess would be that Dunn would have fetched three prospects and Willingham two.

Five prospects would have really helped the future of this team.

But it would have destroyed the present.

To trade one, or both, would have said to Nationals fans that the team’s future is not just around the corner, but rather in another Galaxy.

Far, far away.

Mike Rizzo said something very interesting as the deadline passed, something I agree with wholeheartedly. He said this team isn’t that far away from being respectable, and he wasn’t about to tear it down.

Things look very gloomy right now, granted. But the gloom is a canard, a prevarication.

It’s a lie.

Six of the Nationals position players are quality major leaguers right now. If they can fix second and short by April, they have an offense with no holes.

Three of their starters are quality major leaguers, as are three of their relievers. I have to believe that Steven Strasburg signs in the next three weeks and is in the rotation by mid 2010. If the team can find one more starter, and three or four relievers, well, who knows?

Wild cards are meant for teams that come from nowhere.

Had Dunn and Willingham been traded, I can’t say for certain that I would have followed the Nationals as closely as I have been. But Mike Rizzo understood that fans like me-maybe like you-weren’t ready to push the team’s credibility point back a few more years for a few more prospects.

To the Lerner family, Stan Kasten and Mike Rizzo: You did good on Friday. Now go kick Scott Boras in the backside and get Strasburg signed.