Washington Nationals Mock Signings: Rounding out the final roster
By Blake Finney
As Site Expert Blake Finney’s stint as faux GM of the Washington Nationals came to a close, it was time to put the finishing touches to the roster.
This article is essentially a day three recap of FanSided’s GM Simulation, in which Blake Finney, Site Expert here at District on Deck, took on the challenge of being Washington Nationals GM.
We’ve already made our bigger moves so far with the acquisitions of Dallas Keuchel, Zach Britton and Ian Happ. While we tried to add some more impact players, and we’ll touch on the moves we failed to make in our next piece, it was time to round out the rest of the roster.
Our roster so far had a total payroll of $159.8 million, which is a fair way under our budget, meaning we had a lot of room to work with. If you add on Cots’ projections of $2.3 million for 40-man roster salaries and $14.5 million estimated player benefits, we had $29.5 million worth of breathing room.
With this in mind, here are some of the openings we were looking to fill as the simulation came to an end:
- Starting pitcher
- Starting catcher
- Left-handed hitting first baseman
- Backup middle infielder
Luckily, we were able to acquire all of the above, and we’ll go into the details of each deal in this article. First up was the highest priority in netting a number four starter to replace Tanner Roark.