Washington National Say Adios To Elijah Dukes

I will put this next post into the “I didn’t see this one coming” category.

In a very surprising move, the Washington Nationals have released outfielder Elijah Dukes. Dukes was supposed to be the Nationals’ starting right fielder in 2010.

What was the reason for the release?

Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman called the release purely a “baseball related” decision. There are a lot of things I am buying in this world and this isn’t one of them.

There has to be more to this story. I find it hard to believe that the Nationals, who are rebuilding, would cut a 25-year-old who is only making $440,000 this year.

Last year, Dukes hit .250 with eight home runs, 20 doubles, and had a .729 OPS. One odd stat from Dukes’ hitting line is that he stole three bases, but was caught stealing 10 times. I don’t have the official stat in front of me, but that might be the worst stealing percentage I have ever seen.

While Dukes didn’t have the greatest year in 2009, he still has more potential that any of the guys the Nationals will replace him with. Now that Dukes is gone, Justin Maxwell, Roger Bernadina, Willie Harris, Kevin Mench, Wily Taveras, and Chris Duncan are candidates to replace him in right field.

None of those guys would start on the little league team I coached a couple of years ago. That’s why I believe there is something more to this story.

Remember, this is a Nationals’ team that unloaded Lastings Milledge because they were tired of him giving the organization headaches. I think they want to rid themselves of any potential headaches in the organization.

Since Dukes is only 25-years-old, look for him to catch on with a team relatively quickly.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg