So you advocate trading him?
Yes. He's done here after the 2018 season. It's obvious he hates it here. It's obvious that he's the kind of guy that is hard to like.
It's also becoming obvious that superstar position players can't win you a championship alone. Donaldson needed two other guys hitting 40 homers as well as Tulo and Price. Trout and the Angels have done nothing. Goldschmidt is wallowing in Arizona. Votta has had little to no success in Cincy. McCutchen and Cabrera are the only ones who have had success, and that has a lot to do with having very good/great teams built up around them.
Learners aren't willing to go over the luxury tax. They're already fretting about money and the result is we'll be paying Max Scherzer seven years after he leaves. I find it highly doubtful the Learners will allow Rizzo to spend a lot of money this offseason. And in many ways, Rizzo already screwed the pooch after last offseason, by not addressing the team's needs and instead, signing Max.
You look at the teams making the playoffs and doing well, none of them have a superstar, but instead, they have 5-7 very good players. The Nationals really don't. They ahve two guys who are never healthy. They have Rendon who may turn out to be an injury case. And Harper. That's it. EVeryone else is average at best. So either your pitching has to be amazing, like the Mets, or you have to get more good players. We could be like the Pirates and Cardinals and draft really well, develop really well, and keep your team stocked with young, quality controllable talent. If Rizzo had started that two years ago, we'd be in a lot better shape.
I just think that the contract that Harper will command will cripple the team's payroll. You will basically force the GM to play moneyball with the rest of the roster. And, frankly, one hitter just doesn't do enough, particularly when his "protection" is on the DL. So... trade him. Get everything you can out of him now or after next season. Set the Nationals up for the next five to ten years with a ton of very good, cost controlled talent.
