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The Nationals have acquired utility player Curtis Mead from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for catching prospect Boston Smith. To make room on the 40-man roster, left-handed pitcher Jake Eder was designated for assignment.
Here's a trivia question: Anyone know the last Australian Nats player? born in Australia?
current franchise or any dC franchise?
played on the major league team
Mead is apparently out of options. They might be able to buy some time with Abrams out.
Talknats says mead is joining the team and he’s out of options?
Mead is a righty utility infielder, so you can suppose one of Tena or Vivas will be DFA'd
Toboni and his assistant GM for acquisitions are absolutely frenetic now because there are just so many ways to acquire marginally better talent than on the roster.
Are we sure that Mead is marginally better? At least Tena has shown some aptitude at the plate
I looked it up.
Chris Snelling, who was brought in from the Mariners in the Jose Vidro trade. Snelling would then be traded for Ryan Langerhans, who was later traded for Morse, who was traded for Treinen, who was then traded for Sean Doolittle.
Mead is an interesting pickup as a former Top 100 prospect in all of baseball who peaked as high as being just outside the Top 30 overall in 2023. He did not find success at the big league level with the Rays from 2023-2025, before he ended up getting an opportunity with the White Sox last season.He didn't make the White Sox' Opening Day roster this season, and now he finds himself reunited with Blake Butera, who previously managed Mead when he was rising through Tampa's system. Given that previous connection and the fact that Mead is a right-handed hitter and that he can play a bunch of different spots defensively should give him a pretty quick runway to playing time on the Nationals' big league roster.
I think Mead played 1st some last year. Looks like a versatile piece who will get time that went to Chappy.
Scouting grades: Hit: 60 | Power: 50 | Run: 30 | Arm: 40 | Field: 45 | Overall: 55Mead stood out in the Australian Baseball League at a young age and signed with the Phillies for $200,000 in May 2018. He was flipped to the Rays for reliever Cristopher Sánchez 18 months later after two season of complex ball and then broke out with a .321 average and .911 OPS over 104 games across three levels in 2021. He was productive -- though limited by a right elbow strain -- at Double-A and Triple-A in 2022, and broke through to the Majors last season while slashing .294/.385/.515 in 61 games back in Durham. The Adelaide native was Tampa Bay’s second-base starter during Games 1 and 2 of its Wild Card Series loss to the Rangers.Batting out of a simple, upright stance, Mead sees the ball well out of opposing pitchers’ hands and has the hand-eye coordination to put bat on ball with relative ease. The Rays have prioritized Mead hunting for pitches on which to do damage as he’s gotten closer to the bigs, but that hasn’t made him a free swinger either. There’s the potential for decent power if he can turn some of his doubles into dingers, but he still profiles closer to average pop for now.Because his bat is so advanced, the 23-year-old himself has emphasized his glovework to get it Major League-ready. Below-average arm strength has caused him to add reps at second base over his natural position of third, and while his range has improved since the early days of his career, he still isn’t likely to add much defensive value. Luckily, Mead’s pure hitting ability should make him a piece of Tampa Bay’s puzzle in 2024 and beyond.
