A watchable product
You have it. The Nats won again today, taking a second series from a team competing for the playoffs.
Rizzo judged that the Nats could not compete in 2021 once he learned that Strasburg could not pitch. He traded Max, Trea Turner, Daniel Hudson, and Yan Gomes, all for prospects to begin a rebuild. And he made an offer to Turner. When Turner refused, he did not increase the offer.
- Max went to the market and got a two-year contract for $43 million a year.
- Turner went to the market and signed an eleven year contract at $27 million a year. Turner is signed until he is 40
So Rizzo traded them for prospects rather than sign them to team strangling deals. The Mets could only get something for Max after they agreed to pay most of his salary.
- Hudson and Gomes were the extra guys, the good-but-not-star players who helped to win in 2019
- Rizzo also traded Kyle Schwarber, who signed with the Phillies for $20 million a year for three or four years.
- Soto refused a contract extension, and Rizzo got six or seven prospects. Maybe some won't become major league stars, and others might not make it to the majors, but the organization has more hope than it did early last season.
Met fans are disappointed because Steve Cohen will not buy expensive free agents; the GM says they are building through prospects because that its solid. Mets, he says, do not expect to contend until about 2027. Yankee fans are screaming that they should have sold at the deadline, as the Mets did.
Before the new CBA, teams like Baltimore intentionally lost every year. They got rewarded. That will be tougher for any team now.
Rizzo's trades? Those kept the Nats at .500 and above from 2011 until the deadline in 2021. Most of them turned out well, as the trade for Gio, which sent several prospects out for a starting pitcher. Or signing Adam La Roche and then Howie Kendrick. Or getting Roark and then Tanner Rainey for Roark. Trading Giolito for Eaton was a good trade...look at Eaton's WAR by the time of the trade.
Drafting? The Nats lost two first round picks, and Rizzo took chances. Later, he drafted Cavalli, Rutledge, and Henry. Before that, with first rounders like Fedde, or Seth Romero, or Carter Kieboom, there were flops.
But balance that with overseas signings, like Soto, or add up the players the Nats got for Soto.
