Washington Nationals: Thoughts on the Josh Willingham Trade

There has been a lot going on in baseball this winter, so I didn’t get a chance to comment on the Josh Willingham to the Oakland A’s trade. But let me just say this—what on earth are the Washington Nationals doing?

I don’t get this trade at all from their end. The Nationals sign a guy in Jayson Werth, who needs superstars and good players around him to be successful and what do the Nationals do? They trade their third-best offensive player for a couple of fringe prospects.

There’s nothing like paying a guy $126 million and surrounding him with guys like Roger Bernadina and Nyjer Morgan. Terrible. Just terrible.

The only logic I have for the Nationals trading Willingham is that they didn’t want to pay him the $5 million he was probably going to make in arbitration. I mean, that makes sense. Spend $126 million on Werth, who is only worth maybe around $80, but not pay Willingham $5 million.

Why not keep Willingham, hope he has a another solid offensive season and then flip him at the trade deadline when a team might be desperate enough to give them more than what they just got? I just don’t get it.

The Nationals really don’t know which way they want to go. That’s why they will once again finish in last place in the National League East in 2011.

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