Washington Nationals Editorial: 2015 Naughty Or Nice List

Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Nice List: Yunel Escobar

Back in January, Nationals fans were not sure if acquiring Escobar was a good thing, especially when they had to give up Tyler Clippard in the process. However, Escobar turned out to be a huge help for the Nats with all the injuries he had offensively. In 139 games, Escobar had a slash line of .314/.375/.415 with nine home runs, 56 RBI’s, and had 75 runs scored. His 1.9 WAR was third on the team behind Harper and Ian Desmond.

Escobar’s .314 average was the second highest batting average he has had in a single season (.326 with the Atlanta Braves in 2007). However, what adds Escobar on the nice list this season was that he was able to help the Nats out at third base. With Anthony Rendon hurting his knee in spring training, Escobar moved to third base after he was originally acquired to play second base.

Last week, the Nats dealt Escobar to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and added another reliever to their new-look bullpen in right-hander Trevor Gott. While he is now in Los Angeles, he still deserves some presents from the Baseball Santa this year for being one of the Nats’ best contributors on offense as he has had two five-hit games in the month of May and he was a team player as he played any role that the organization asked him to do in order for the team to win.

Even though the bullpen was a weak point in 2015 without Clippard, who knows where the offense would have been if they didn’t have Escobar to step up once most of the key players were out of the lineup?

Next: Naughty List #1