The Nats Shake Things Up

The Trade Deadline came and passed today with little activity on the Nationals’ part.  There were numerous players that were rumored to be drawing serious interest around the league but in the end, the Nationals were only able to move first baseman Nick Johnson and Joe Beimel to the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies respectively.

The Nick Johnson trade will open up first base and allow Adam Dunn to play there on an everyday basis.  In return we got AA pitcher Aaron Thompson.  Thompson is a former first round pick in 2005 and was named as having the best changeup in the Marlins organization.  He was currently 5-9 with a 4.11 ERA but luckily for him, the Nationals have no need to rush him through the system right now with their surplus of young pitching talent.  Also as a part of this deal, the nationals agreed to send 1.5 million dollars to help cover Nick Johnson’s salary.

The Colorado Rockies shipped RHPs Ryan Mattheus and Robinson Fabian to Washington for LHP Joe Beimel.  I for one am shocked that we were able to move Beimel.  In my opinion, Beimel has not been very effective this year but his history and the Rockies’ need for a lefty in the bullpen made this deal happen.  Mattheus is currently on the disabled list following elbow surgery but he had been solid prior to his injury and Fabian has posted an impressive strikeout to walk ratio in Single A.  As previously mentioned with Thompson, the Nationals have no reason to rush either of these players to the majors and will allow them to develop in the minors until they are 100% ready for the bigs.

Overall I was pleased with the trades because I feel he moved two players that were neccesary to move and received solid value in return.  If I have one complaint, it would be that we did not acquire any young position players.  It’s common knowledge that the Nationals have a ton of young pitching right now but they are incredibly weak in position players in the minors.