Washington Nationals: Recapping the FanSided GM Simulation

A glance at the rest of the league

With the faux Washington Nationals set, let’s have a look and see what other key transaction around the rest of the simulation. There were some particularly interesting contracts and trades that weren’t to be expected.

Yankees get Madison Bumgarner

This probably won’t happen in real life now that James Paxton is Bronx-bound, but the Yankees gave up Justus Sheffield, Estevan Florial, Domingo Acevedo and Ben Heller to get the deal done for Madison Bumgarner. That’s a haul for the Giants, who will be rubbing their hands at that for one year of the left-hander.

James Paxton to the Braves

You’ll remember that we missed out on Paxton before, unfortunately, it was to the Atlanta Braves. The Nats’ NL East rivals forked out Kyle Wright, Max Fried, Kyle Muller and Greyson Janista for the left-hander. It’s a king’s ransom, but they were dealing from their incredible starting pitching depth they have in the minors. Thankfully, Paxton isn’t heading to Georgia in real life.

Jose Abreu to the Rays

The world is a much better place when the Tampa Bay Rays are making huge moves, even if in this case it’s in our simulation. They ended up flipping Nomar Mazara, who was acquired from the Rangers earlier in the sim, and Kyle Bird for the White Sox slugger. A massive move.

Manny settles in the South Side

As we know, Bryce Harper went the Phillies, but where did superstar Manny Machado end up going? He wound up with the Chicago White Sox, who are trying to accelerate their rebuild. A 10-year, $355 million deal isn’t that bad for the infielder who would be a massive help there.

Corbin to the Phillies

Not only did we miss out on Harper to Philadelphia, but they were also able to steal a march on us for left-hander Patrick Corbin. By the time we were considering bidding, they had already topped out at five years and $150 million, which wasn’t worth better. $30 million for Corbin is way too much.

Grandal goes to Atlanta

The bidding on Grandal took a while to get going in the simulation and we could’ve entered the fray for him. The Atlanta Braves wound up with him on a reasonable 3-year, $36 million deal that we just didn’t want to top with some regression potentially in his future and a poor postseason.

Thanks for following along with the whole GM Simulation, it was a lot of fun to be a part of. Hopefully, the Washington Nationals final roster looks a lot like this one come Spring Training in 2019.