The Former Nationals Watch (2024)

[JCA-CrystalCity]

tommy Romero signs a minor league deal with the Giants.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/giants-sign-tommy-romero-to-minor-league-deal.html

Curious what an organization known for improving pitcher performance does with him.

[welch]

From the file of "the worst person you know just made an excellent point."

I don't even disagree with Rendon's main point, but holy crap - what a clown he's turned out to be.  Just glad he's Anaheim's problem now.

He should have taken the Nats' offer to stay in Washington. The organization understood him and fans loved him. Instead, he made a fortune and committed career-suicide.

[Natsinpwc]

He should have taken the Nats' offer to stay in Washington. The organization understood him and fans loved him. Instead, he made a fortune and committed career-suicide.

He’s made more money and he doesn’t care what you or anyone else thinks. It’s a 9-5 job for him. 

[Senatorswin]

The one thing that bugged me about Rendon was his press conference when he signed with the Angels. Prior to signing with the Angels he visited the Dodgers. During his press conference with the Angels he said he didn't sign with the Dodgers is because LA wasn't the type of city he wanted to raise his family in. It's not like that visit to the Dodgers was his first visit to LA. He knew what that city was about. If you want to use the Dodgers to increase your price that's fine, but then don't go out of your way to trash the city when you sign with the Angels.

[welch]

He’s made more money and he doesn’t care what you or anyone else thinks. It’s a 9-5 job for him. 

And most ballgames are played at night...

[Natsinpwc]

And most ballgames are played at night...

3-11 shift for Tony Two Bags. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

He’s made more money and he doesn’t care what you or anyone else thinks. It’s a 9-5 job for him. 

which explains why he misses so many night games.

[imref]

Padres hire Craig Stammen as a player development assistant.

[Natsinpwc]

Lots of Nats in the game tonight. Wilson Ramos and Alcides Escobar for Venezuela.  Emilio Bonifacio and Yadiel Hernandez for DR.  Yasiel Puig on the Venezuela team apps and Robinson Cano on the DR team. 

[JCA-CrystalCity]

white sox are supposedly talking to Dom Smith.

Nice recap of his lousy season:

He stayed healthy enough to take 586 plate appearances over 153 games last year but had limited impact at the plate. His 15.5% strikeout rate was about seven percentage points lower than most of his previous career work, but he hit just 15 home runs for the year. He finished the season with a .254/.326/.366 line and wRC+ of 90. That’s not disastrous output but less than ideal for a first baseman, where a potent bat is generally the expectation.

Defensively, the move back to first was a success, as Smith earned five Defensive Runs Saved, one Out Above Average and a grade of 5.1 from Ultimate Zone Rating. But the Nats decided to move on nonetheless. They could have retained Smith via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a modest salary of $4.3MM, but Smith was non-tendered and sent back to the open market.

Perhaps he traded too much power for contact. As mentioned, his strikeout rate was abnormally low in 2023 compared to his previous work. Striking out less isn’t a bad thing, but his 86.3 mph average exit velocity was at least two miles below every other season of his career. Getting back to focusing on doing damage would perhaps lead to more punchouts but also more homers. So far this offseason, his market has been fairly quiet. He had reported interest from the Pirates, but that was before they signed Rowdy Tellez.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/white-sox-interested-in-dominic-smith.html

Traded too  much power for contact when he chopped his K rate. You don't say

[Senatorswin]

Dom Smith was great at first base but he killed so many rallies.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

former nats exec counts.

The Miami Marlins are hiring Sam Mondry-Cohen to the role of Vice President, Player Personnel (per @CraigMish). Previously an assistant GM with the Washington Nationals and an analytics coordinator with the Chicago White Sox, Mondry-Cohen was featured here at FanGraphs in January 2020.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-notes-pittsburgh-proud-david-bednar-steps-on-the-gas-and-attacks/

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Yup, which is a pretty important part of that portfolio. 

Dom Smith was great at first base but he killed so many rallies.

[welch]

Austin Voth to Seattle on a one-year $1.25 million deal.

That one slipped right past me. I then wondered what had happened to Austin Voth...

SEATTLE -- The Mariners added another Pacific Northwest presence to their roster on Wednesday when signing right-hander Austin Voth to a one-year Major League contract. The deal is worth $1.25 million, according to a source, and Voth’s addition brings Seattle’s 40-man roster to capacity.

Voth, 31, represents a depth piece to a pitching staff that appears to be nearly rounded out, with exactly four weeks until it reports to Spring Training, on Feb. 14.

He’ll be stretched out in camp as a starter, to be available for length if needed, then shortened back into a relief role before the regular season, if all goes according to plan with the health of their other arms. The Mariners did this last year with Chris Flexen and wound up needing the veteran in the rotation almost immediately after Opening Day when Robbie Ray suffered a season-ending injury, though Flexen himself struggled his way out of the rotation.

Voth is out of Minor League options, meaning he’ll need to remain on the big league roster all season or be removed from the 40-man entirely.

A three-year pitcher at the University of Washington (2011-13), Voth also attended Kentwood High School in Covington, Wash., where he helped the 2010 squad to the Class 4A Washington state championship. Born in Redmond, Wash., Voth will become the 30th Washington-born player to appear in a game with the Mariners.

Voth spent last season with Baltimore, where he dealt with a right elbow injury that sidelined him more than two months, and when healthy, he saw mixed results exclusively in a relief role. The Orioles designated him for assignment in September, ahead of their playoff run, and he elected free agency at season’s end. For the year, he made 25 relief appearances, with a 5.19 ERA, 15 walks and 34 strikeouts.

Voth came up though the Nationals’ organization, where he was a fifth-round pick in 2013, debuted in 2018 and then was claimed off waivers by the Orioles in 2022. The right-hander has appeared in 139 games (39 starts) across six Major League seasons with the Washington Nationals (2018-22) and Baltimore (2022-23), going 15–14 with a 4.90 ERA with 111 walks and 282 strikeouts.

Though he doesn’t have a clear path to starting in Seattle, Voth represents the latest safety net to the rotation should injury or other attrition arise, perhaps next in line after Anthony DeSclafani, who was acquired from the Giants along with Mitch Haniger in exchange for Robbie Ray and cash considerations earlier this month.

With their least-limited starters (Ray and Marco Gonzales) out with season-ending injuries early last year -- and gone via offseason trades this winter -- the need for innings-eating reinforcements such as Voth and DeSclafani has been clear.

I never thought of Voth as an "innings-eater", but...

https://www.mlb.com/news/austin-voth-mariners-deal

[JCA-CrystalCity]

That one slipped right past me. I then wondered what had happened to Austin Voth...

I never thought of Voth as an "innings-eater", but...

https://www.mlb.com/news/austin-voth-mariners-deal

subsequent to this article, DeScalfini was traded to the Twins as part of the package that brought Jorge Polanco to Seattle, so Voth's role will be similar to what he had here - 6th starter / long man.

[Natsinpwc]

The Buffalo went 2-4 last night.  Hitting over .500 in the series.  His team in the championship game.  I watched Escobar crush a homer to dead center the other night in Marlins Park.  Unbelievable.  Drug test needed. 

[Senatorswin]

mlb.com projects Reynaldo Lopez as the fifth starter in the Braves rotation.

[welch]

Jim Hannan and Brant Alyea have died. Hannan was a young hopeful for the expansion Senators. He was a solid starter for the Nats until Bob Short traded him, Joe Coleman, Aurelio Rodriguez, and Eddie Brinkman for Denny McLain.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/10-year-mlb-veteran-pitcher-dies-at-85/ar-BB1i3XWV?ocid=weather-verthp-feeds

Brant Alyea was a slugger that we hoped would grow into the RF to match Frank Howard in left. He was pretty good, but never quite became a regular Nat.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/brant-alyea-passes-away.html

[welch]

Sean Grogan writes, on Washington DC Baseball Facebook:

I'm sorry to learn that, in the past week, we've lost two of the Expansion Senators, Brant Alyea and Jim Hannan.
 
1965 was my first year as a fan, and by September I had absorbed so much about the game. Also in September, Brant Alyea was sent up as a pinch-hitter for his first Major League at-bat. He wasted no time, hitting a very young Rudy May's first pitch into the left field bullpen. I still remember my brother describing it to me.
 
My Jim Hannan memory is a little different. I remember sitting in the box seats down the right field line, and seeing Hannan in the passenger seat of the Lustine Chevrolet Corvette as he was being driven in for a relief appearance.

I actually got to meet Hannan in 2018 at an event before the All Star Game. He was a very nice guy.
 
Jim and Brant, thanks for providing us with wonderful memories, and just the memories of baseball in Washington.

[Five Banners]

Sean Grogan writes, on Washington DC Baseball Facebook:

Nice detail on the Lustine Chevrolet Corvette pitcher’s cart. If you’re gonna tear up the turf, might as well be a Corvette.

[Senatorswin]

Jim Hannan was a very nice guy. I sat next to him at a Notre Dame football rally.

[Five Banners]

Jim Hannan was a very nice guy. I sat next to him at a Notre Dame football rally.

I think he was one of the former players who was at Washington baseball historical society events

[JCA-CrystalCity]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/mets-luke-voit-reportedly-nearing-minor-league-deal.html

[imref]

I agree with Grant Paulson's take on this: Fine when you are hitting, not fine when you have been a black hole in the lineup and are making a ton of money:

Anthony Rendon:

[Natsinpwc]

The Angels are a joke anyway.  They should pay him extra for defecting attention away from the incompetent folks running the team.