2021 Trade Discussions/Rumors/Deadline - buy or sell

[UMDNats]

DFA Castro and Mercer and play Garcia and Kieboom every day. If we're gonna suck at least see if we have any juice from Kieboom left.

[Slateman]

you thinking move him out and call up Garcia, or move him out and go with Mercer?

Id see what a package of Hudson and Harrison get you. I mean Jared Kelly would be nice, but I think it ends up being something like Caleb Freeman and Bryan Ramos.

Garcia stays in Rochester and gets as many reps at shortstop. Hopefully Kieboom continues to improve and earns a callup. Otherwise, yea, float Mercer. But Garcia needs to play short as much as possible. Whether its to take over for Turner or increase his trade value.

[blue911]

DFA Castro and Mercer and play Garcia and Kieboom every day. If we're gonna suck at least see if we have any juice from Kieboom left.

Castro is worse than Danny Espinosa

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Castro is worse than Danny Espinosa

Can't grow a beard, lacks a bazooka arm, hitting like he has a bouzouki bat . . .

Actually, his arm isn't that bad and his D was pretty good until this week.  But the complete lack of power this year is the shocker.  I'm assuming it is his wrist healing but he's going to find it hard to stay in the majors if the power doesn't come back next year. 

[UMDNats]

Barry S with another terrible column about how we shouldn't trade Max because we like him and he helped us win a title. Barry is on a heater right now, just bad columns pumping out. Sad.

[imref]

Barry S with another terrible column about how we shouldn't trade Max because we like him and he helped us win a title. Barry is on a heater right now, just bad columns pumping out. Sad.

I read that this morning, he argued Max is our 'compass' and needs to stay, I guess even if the direction is pointing south. Again, I think it's up to Max, we will trade him if he wants to go to a contender, and keep him if he wants to stay here. I expect he'll end up in either the Bronx, or St. Louis.

[UMDNats]

I love that Barry's main argument was that the team stinks so we need to keep Max. Total nonsense. We're his 2nd team, this isn't some homegrown guy like Zimm who has spent 20 years here and only here. I love Max but the reality is we stink and we need to actually accept it for once and sell off anything worth something and actually try to win again. Maybe he goes in with a DC hat, maybe not. Will people just forget he won a World Series here? Why does it matter so much that his ugly statue has a curly W?

The DC media is just so unbelievably soft.

[machpost]

I read that this morning, he argued Max is our 'compass' and needs to stay, I guess even if the direction is pointing south. Again, I think it's up to Max, we will trade him if he wants to go to a contender, and keep him if he wants to stay here. I expect he'll end up in either the Bronx, or St. Louis.

I tend to think that the latter is more likely. The Yankees are not contenders, despite what they or their fans may believe.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Fair enough, but there also needs to be some reason other than $20 Sea Quench to keep going to the ballpark until October

I love that Barry's main argument was that the team stinks so we need to keep Max. Total nonsense. We're his 2nd team, this isn't some homegrown guy like Zimm who has spent 20 years here and only here. I love Max but the reality is we stink and we need to actually accept it for once and sell off anything worth something and actually try to win again. Maybe he goes in with a DC hat, maybe not. Will people just forget he won a World Series here? Why does it matter so much that his ugly statue has a curly W?

The DC media is just so unbelievably soft.

[blue911]

Fair enough, but there also needs to be some reason other than $20 Sea Quench to keep going to the ballpark until October

They could give lawn darts to the folks in the 300s and 400s

[UMDNats]

Fair enough, but there also needs to be some reason other than $20 Sea Quench to keep going to the ballpark until October

elijah dukes bobblehead night

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Reminds me of the time a canned food drive was scheduled for a Caps/Flyers game. 

They could give lawn darts to the folks in the 300s and 400s

[Smithian]

I love that Barry's main argument was that the team stinks so we need to keep Max. Total nonsense. We're his 2nd team, this isn't some homegrown guy like Zimm who has spent 20 years here and only here. I love Max but the reality is we stink and we need to actually accept it for once and sell off anything worth something and actually try to win again. Maybe he goes in with a DC hat, maybe not. Will people just forget he won a World Series here? Why does it matter so much that his ugly statue has a curly W?

The DC media is just so unbelievably soft.

I agree with this completely.

I'm a bit sentimental at times, but Max Scherzer is one of our best assets.

We have a 22-year old hitter likely destined for a Hall of Fame career. He has a limited time under team control. We don't have much in reinforcements in the minors. It would be a cold blooded move to trade Scherzer, but that is one of the few ways where we move closer toward having a legitimate path to rebuilding a winner around Soto.

[imref]

I don't see how trading Max would impact what hat he wears in Cooperstown. He's had the most successful years of his career in DC.  The criteria according to the head of the HoF is where the player "made his most indelible mark", that's easily D.C. (unless we trade him this year and he wins 3 WS and 2 more Cy Youngs, and a couple of WS MVPs elsewhere).

[blue911]

I don't see how trading Max would impact what hat he wears in Cooperstown. He's had the most successful years of his career in DC.  The criteria according to the head of the HoF is where the player "made his most indelible mark", that's easily D.C. (unless we trade him this year and he wins 3 WS and 2 more Cy Youngs, and a couple of WS MVPs elsewhere).

I believe that a player can request no badging on their plaque.

[GburgNatsFan]

elijah dukes bobblehead night

He ain't even freaking around.

[varoadking]

He ain't even freaking around.

What about an FP bobblehead?

Wait...that's redundant...

[imref]

I believe that a player can request no badging on their plaque.

I don't know. IIRC, after the Wade Boggs included putting the TB logo on his hat in his contract, the HoF took away the ability of players to choose their team. I don't know if players can specifically say no team.

Still, why would Scherzer do that? His best years were here.

[rileyn]

Boring. 
Lifeless.
From the product on the field to the MASN production, this team has nothing going on.  It's a dying brand.
Just look at the gameday threads - I don't usually participate but I notice how dramatically the volume has dropped this year.  Less than 2 pages on a night when Max Scherzer gets pulled after 12 pitches. If that didn't happen, it could have been the first ever one page GDT.
Attendance is going to be abysmal throughout the remainder of the year.
I hope ownership sees this as a sign to sell everything not tied down at the deadline. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Well, a little honesty now.  Message boards in general are a dying form of sharing thoughts.  Twitter and Facebook groups let people share thoughts.  That's probably why the MLB boards shut down. Were the Nats an expansion franchise new to DC in 2021, I'm guessing this forum would not have been started.   That said, there's no doubt that people are not as locked in on the Nats as they used to be prior to COVID.  Between getting the WS after 8 years of teasing and then the kind of fog over the game since, yes, there's not much getting anything but the hard core interested, let alone excited.

[rileyn]

Well, a little honesty now.  Message boards in general are a dying form of sharing thoughts.  Twitter and Facebook groups let people share thoughts.  That's probably why the MLB boards shut down. Were the Nats an expansion franchise new to DC in 2021, I'm guessing this forum would not have been started.   That said, there's no doubt that people are not as locked in on the Nats as they used to be prior to COVID.  Between getting the WS after 8 years of teasing and then the kind of fog over the game since, yes, there's not much getting anything but the hard core interested, let alone excited.

Fair points.

[imref]

Fair points.

I checked the GDT on Reddit from. last night, 532 comments. I'm not sure what 'normal' comments are.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I still think the biggest asset this board has is there are multiple topics in threads, especially threads that have history.  I suppose Reddit might have the same thing.  I'm not sure there's anything similar on Twitter.  You could follow all the comments of Blue911, but you'd probably need multiple hash tags or something to find all the comments on third base playing time and performance for the Nats.

[zimm_da_kid]

I wouldn’t be able to cope with the downvotes my trade proposals would get on Reddit

[Smithian]

If the Nats split or take this 4 game series against the Mets, I think we are in an annoying situation where we continue to be stuck in purgatory between whether we should buy or sell.

If we are within 5 games of the NL East, I'm anti-selling. So, let's hope either we take off big time or just crumble.