The Washington Nationals were able to get a couple of Deals done before the Trade Deadline by shipping First Baseman Nick Johnson to the Wild Card hopeful Florida Marlins and sending reliever Joe Beimal to the Colorado Rockies. In return the Nationals received left handed Aaron Thompson, a career minor league pitcher from the Marlins and pitchers Ryan Mattheus and Robinson Fabian from the Rockies. Thompson has the most potential out of the bunch. He was formerly a first round draft pick in 2005 but has yet to live up to expectations. He last pitched in AA Jacksonville carrying a 4.11 ERA. The good news is that he is only 22 years old and could eventually break into the starting rotation as a 4th or 5th starter. The Nationals wanted to use a starting lefty that would keep opposing lineups from getting to comfortable during four game series’. Look for Thompson to quickly transition to AAA Syracuse. Nick Johnson was in the final year of his contract so the Nationals used the trade to try and get at least something in return.
The Nationals may very well make a strong push to sign Johnson once again in the off season. The demand for Nick in 2010 is not deemed to surpass the cost of his previous contract with the Nationals. Not too shabby. One more interesting nugget…Nick Johnson was the final member of the Nationals roster to have played for the Montreal Expos. To “The Last Expo” we say thanks.
Relief pitcher Joe Beimel was in the last year of his contract as well. This was one of those “maybe we’ll get lucky” kinds of trades. Knowing Beimel would be gone the Nats figured they would try and at least get something in return. Mattheus and Fabian are both Single A level prospects. We can’t expect anything out of them. Not only are they both older than Thompson but Mattheus is coming off of Tommy John surgery. Neither has been able to prove themselves at any level in the Minors. In reality, that’s really all the merits to be said so we’ll leave it at that.
Now as usual the Nationals PR team made sure their fans knew that they were trading for the future as they sent mass emails to all registered fans. On an importance ten point scale, the significance of the trades may be 3 at best. The Trades were just enough to keep us die hard fans interested. The impact will be very minimal. With Johnson’s departure the often over hyped Elijah Dukes is back in the outfield. Dukes has nice defensive skills and speed but lacks discipline at the plate to be an effective everyday hitter. Dukes does have some upside though. Look for him to improve at the plate with more At Bats. With Elijah Dukes taking over in right we will see Nyjer Morgan consistently in Center along with Josh Willingham in Left. Adam Dunn will take over most of the duties at first base. The moves will improve the Nationals defense immensely. This will lead to more wins as the Nationals grow and become more legitimate in the second half of the season.
