50 million Lernerbucks for Keibert plus 33 million Lernerbucks for Soroka, Lowe, Bell, Sims, Poche, and Jorge Lopez just this year. Mini Me can't be happy about what Rizzo has done here.
Rizzo deserves a lot of credit for the Soto trade. A historic return that has been better than my most optimistic best case scenario. And the farm system has gotten undeniably better past several season, both through trades and the draft.
That doesn't change this offseason free agent and trade hauls look to be a smoking disaster outside of Amed Rosario and waiting out Finnegan. Soroka, Sims, Poche, and Lopez were over $15 million combined. That isn't nothing, and the time for Soroka to turn into a trade asset is basically zero and I doubt the Nats are looking at a long term extension.
I understood Bell signing. If he is binned soon, that isn't as bad as the pitching.
The Lowe trade been worst case scenario. $10 million for a below average 1B is bad. He desperately needs to get white hot for a month or that is money down the drain.
Not going to claim the Nationals are big spenders since it lined up with Corbin money dropping, but bringing in $30+ million in new talent in an offseason should have been enough to push a good young core into playoff contention. Instead, that free agent and trade class is often the problem as our young core turns out to be good.
Rizzo can live off the Soto trade and fixing his own farm system mess for only so long. I was a Rizzo defender and thought he had a smart offseason. But going nearly 0-fer in an offseason challenges my position on him.
