Nationals, Keibert Ruiz Agree To Eight-Year Extension

The Nationals are in agreement with young backstop Keibert Ruiz on an eight-year contract extension that guarantees $50MM, as first reported by Wow Deportes (Twitter link). Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post (Twitter link) reports that the contract also contains two club options. The deal buys out three would-be free agent seasons and could extend the team’s window of control two more years if the options are triggered.

It’s a long-term commitment from the rebuilding club to a player they obviously consider their franchise catcher. Washington acquired the switch-hitting Ruiz at the 2021 trade deadline as part of the blockbuster that sent Trea Turner and Max Scherzer to the Dodgers. Ruiz and starter Josiah Gray headlined a four-player return. Both were upper level prospects and Ruiz would get a look as Washington’s primary backstop by the end of the ’21 campaign.

After playing in 23 games down the stretch, Ruiz got the nod as the Opening Day catcher last season. He played in 112 games and tallied 433 plate appearances, though his season was cut short when he had to be hospitalized after he was hit in the groin area by a foul ball. Before that unfortunate conclusion, Ruiz hit .251/.313/.360 in his first full season at the big league level. That offense was a little better than that of the league average catcher, with the league receiving a .228/.295/.368 line from the position.

Washington Nationals owner Ted Lerner dies at 97

Ted Lerner, the billionaire real estate developer whose family bought the Washington Nationals in 2006, has died, the team announced Monday. He was 97.

A Nationals spokesperson said Lerner died Sunday of complications from pneumonia at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Lerner’s group purchased the Nationals from Major League Baseball in 2006 for $450 million after the team was moved to the U.S. capital from Montreal. He was managing principal owner until ceding that role to son Mark in 2018.

Under the Lerners’ ownership, the Nationals went from one of baseball’s worst teams in their first several seasons in Washington to World Series champions in 2019. The Lerners also are credited with revitalizing the city’s Navy Yard area since Nationals Park opened in 2008.

OF Corey Dickerson, Nationals agree to one-year deal

Corey Dickerson hopes to show he can still hit for power and make an impact in the majors in his 30s. Signing with the Washington Nationals should give the well-traveled outfielder the chance to show that.

Dickerson finalized a $2.25 million, one-year deal with the Nationals on Tuesday. After combining for just 19 home runs over the past three seasons, he joins a young team in Washington that’s coming off three consecutive last-place finishes in the NL East and seems to match his mentality.

Nationals To Sign Dominic Smith To One-Year Deal

The Nationals and first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith are in agreement on a one-year deal, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. The deal is pending a physical and Nightengale also adds that Smith will be playing first base (Twitter links). Smith will make a $2MM salary with a further $2MM available in performance bonuses.

Smith, 28 in June, is a former first round pick, having been selected by the Mets 11th overall in 2013. He went on to earn high praise from prospect evaluators, with Baseball America ranking him one of the top 100 prospects in the game in 2014, 2016 and 2017. He struggled in his first tastes of the majors in 2017 and 2018 but seemed to finally click in 2019. He hit 11 home runs in 89 games and produced a batting line of .282/.355/.525. That production was 34 percent better than league average, as evidenced by his 134 wRC+.

Trevor Williams: Heading to Washington

Williams agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract with the Nationals on Friday, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.

The 30-year-old worked as a swingman over the past two years and should fill a similar role going forward, though he could see more chances to start for Washington, especially if Stephen Strasburg (ribs) remains sidelined to open 2023. Williams started in nine of his 30 appearance last season for the Mets and had a 3.21 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 84:23 K:BB across 89.2 innings.

Sources: Nationals, Jeimer Candelario reach one-year deal

Former Detroit Tigers third baseman Jeimer Candelario has reached an agreement with the Washington Nationals on a contract for the 2023 season, sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.

The deal is for $5 million with an opportunity to earn $1 million more in performance bonuses, a source told ESPN.

Candelario, 29, was non-tendered by Detroit earlier this month, making him a free agent after he compiled a career-low .633 OPS in 2022. He’ll have a chance to rebuild his value in Washington, where the Nationals are in the early portion of a rebuilding phase.

Nationals Release Seth Romero After DWI Charge - MLB Trade Rumors

Makeup and character matter.

Romero is a former first-round pick. Despite being twice suspended and eventually dismissed from the University of Houston baseball team during the spring of his draft year, the southpaw landed in Washington with the 25th overall pick in the 2017 draft. Baseball America’s scouting report at the time noted Romero could’ve gone in the top 10 if not for questions about his maturity level, as he boasted a mid-90s fastball with an excellent slider.

Soto, Shmoto: Joey Meneses Is Washington’s Pleasant Surprise

No, the Nats haven’t found another phenom to succeed Soto, but instead, they went with journeyman minor league outfielder Joey Meneses. He isn’t a prospect of any type, or even a young player; he’s older than not only Soto but also Harper. But what Meneses has done in defying expectations is impressive, with his 158 wRC+ in more than 200 plate appearances actually besting Soto’s pre-trade wRC+ of 152. I’m not going to suggest that Meneses is actually able to replace Soto, but it is extremely cool to see a minor leaguer be able to capitalize on such a rare opportunity.

For the background on Meneses, I urge you to check out the piece written by our friend Ben Lindbergh over at the Ringer earlier this month, for which I supplied a ZiPS minor league translation for Meneses’ 2022 season, which came out as a useful but un-enthralling .260/.303/.430 line and a 110 OPS+. Yet the supposedly imminent Cinderella-esque pumpkinification has yet to happen, and Meneses has continued to hit in September, with a .324/.364/.560 line and six homers. After a couple hundred visits to the plate, it becomes harder to dismiss performances like this, so I thought I’d jump in and take a more detailed look at the future of Meneses.

Beasley: Bryce Harper “can handle” starting season with Nationals

Beasley: Bryceslist: Killer job.

New Triple-A Syracuse manager Tony Beasley believes Harper could use some more seasoning but has also demonstrated hints of the complete package
.
“I would hate to see him come all the way through the system quickly, skip levels and then get the major league level and really skid,” Beasley said. “The thing he has that is special, and I have talked to him about it, is his mindset - the way he believes and the level of confidence he has and his ability to play the game of baseball. I don’t think you want to shake that, especially at this age. I don’t think you want to take the chance of shaking that.”

...But all you can go on is what you have seen and Beasley believes in what Harper has produced in one season. He believes it is a very positive sign for what lies ahead for the Nationals and their top prospect.

“I think so far he has done outstanding. That is the tough call for general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Johnson (to make). All we can do as a minor league field staff is to prepare him as best we can for on and off field situations. I think so far he is way, way ahead of his years and he gets it. I think (Harper) really understands it,” Beasley said.

So, is Harper ready?

“If he gets the call out of spring training this year,” Beasley said, “I have a feeling that he can handle it.”

Kilgore: The Nationals look like Prince Fielder favorites

Prince busters…going one step beyond?

And if the Rangers aren’t going to sign Fielder, the Nationals have to be considered the frontrunner now. Who else is there? Any team planning to make a stealth run at him probably would not have risked waiting until late January to make its move. The Brewers and Mariners have been on the periphery, but not as involved as the Nationals. You never know, but it looks like the Fielder sweepstakes is the Nationals’ to lose.

The process has been fascinating, and it looks for now as if the Nationals have played it perfectly. They held firm at their price for Fielder, and with the apparent (and stunning) relative lack of interest in one of baseball’s great sluggers, the market has come to them. They let agent Scott Boras dictate the terms of the Jayson Werth negotiations last winter. The Lerners struck back this time. Or at least that’s the appearance right now.

In the background of their discussions with Fielder lies the Nationals’ under-construction television deal with MASN. Like the Rangers, the Nationals could soon be expecting more cash from their rights fees. The details are few, but the stakes are explained in the story from today’s paper, with help from Chuck Greenberg, an architect of the Rangers’ massive TV deal.

The Nationals, experts say, can expect enough new revenue from their renegotiated rights fees to pay for Fielder’s potential contract – and then some. Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor and sports business expert, said signing Fielder could enhance the Nationals’ argument for higher rights fees from MASN.

“I think it would,” Zimbalist said. “Somebody like Fielder offers the possibility of not only the team being more competitive, but generating excitement in his own right.”

MLB Trade Rumors: Bartolo Colon Agrees to Sign With Unknown Team

Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.

Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.

Bob Carpenter to return to MASN as voice of Nats

and Face Palm Santangelo to return as the facepalm of Nats.

Late last year, it appeared Carpenter would not return to the booth after the Nats didn’t pick up his option last August, but both sides managed to come to terms recently. Calls to Carpenter were not returned.

It will mark Carpenter’s seventh season in the broadcast booth for MASN. He is known for the catch phrase, “See you later,” whenever a Nationals player hits a home run.

F.P. Santangelo will continue to be Carpenter’s broadcast partner. Santangelo is the fifth TV partner for Carpenter, who has worked with Tom Paciorek, Don Sutton, Rob Dibble and Ray Knight.

Former Major Leaguer Howie Koplitz passes away at 73

What is there to say…

WTOP.com | Nationals signs Mark DeRosa to a 1-year contract

The Washington Nationals have signed free-agent utility player Mark DeRosa to a one-year contact.

Mark DeRosa

Report: Gio Gonzalez traded to the Nats for four top prospects

here were multiple reports in the past hour or so that the Athletics were moving close to trading Gio Gonzalez, with most suggesting the Nationals as the most likely destination and some random Red Sox speculation.  Now Keith Law reports that a deal has been struck:  Gonzalez to the Nationals for four prospects: A.J. Cole, Brad Peacock, Derek Norris, and Tom Milone.

This is a huge haul for Gonzalez, it seems to me. According to John Sickels, these guys rank as the Nationals’ third, fourth, sixth and ninth best prospects.  And given how good the Nationals’ number one and number two prospects are — Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon — you could easily move all of those numbers up if they had come from other organizations.

Thanks to Chet.

Grantland (Rany J): The MLB Prospect Bubble

In 21st-century baseball, when teams do overpay in prospects, it’s usually for stars. Most famously, in 2007 the Braves gave up Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who started to find himself this season after a trade to Boston) — but at least they traded for Mark Teixeira, an acknowledged superstar.

The blowback from the Teixeira trade seems to have made teams even more conservative about trading prospects, even for elite major league talent. As a result, for perhaps the first time in baseball history, minor league prospects seem to be overvalued by MLB front offices. ...

To put this in terms that Billy Beane can understand: We’ve reached a point where trading away prospects is the new market inefficiency. ...

For that reason, an ambitious team with a deep farm system — the Royals, for instance, or the Nationals — should take advantage of MLB general managers’ prospect fetish to cash in some of their lottery tickets for established players who might help them win in 2012.

Rany makes some excellent points here. Prospects can serve two purposes for an organization - building blocks on the parent club or trade chits for the pieces that will get you over the hump - and teams seem to be more inclined these days to use them for the first purpose without giving enough thought to using them for the second purpose.

Steinberg: Jim Riggleman intends to manage in the big leagues again

Illusions in a twisted mind to save from self-destruction…hmm, it’s the Riggle room. (Hey Porter)

But Riggleman would not agree. In fact, he told Jim Bowden and Casey Stern of SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio that his explicit goal is another crack at an MLB job.

...“I don’t look at it as I HAVE to go back there, I look at it as it’s a pleasure to go back there. You know, you don’t want to get stagnant, you don’t want to say this is where I’m at, this is where I’m gonna be. I have every intention of managing in the big leagues again, and if general managers are afraid of me, then they have to look at that list of people who have also resigned. And I’m not gonna name names, but there are some pretty good Major League managers — a couple of them are going to go to the Hall of Fame — who have resigned during their time in baseball.”

Of course, most of the interview was focused on that decision Riggleman made to resign, and he seemed willing to admit that probably it wasn’t the most career-savvy thing to do.

“The way I’ve explained it to people, I think I did the right thing, probably not the smart thing,” Riggleman said. “You know, sometimes there is a difference. And I think for my own situation I did do the right thing, but certainly it’s not a smart thing to do to give up a Major League managing job….

“Because people are not gonna have all the information. And I certainly am moving on and am not really gonna disclose information, because I have great respect for the Nationals and what they have achieved and what they will continue to achieve. But when all the information isn’t out there, there’s gonna be a lot of people who think how dare you do that! And believe me, I would probably be one of those people who would be thinking that way.”

Rosenthal: Nats working hard to land Gio Gonzalez

Ibanez GIO! Oh, wait…that’s Philly.

The Nationals, continuing their quest to add a left-handed starting pitcher, are pushing hard to land the Athletics’ Gio Gonzalez, according to major-league sources.

...To acquire Gonzalez, who is under club control for four more years, the Nats likely would need to part with at least one of their young starting pitchers, perhaps right-hander Brad Peacock or lefty Ross Detwiler. The team also is deep at catcher.

The Athletics earlier this month traded right-hander Trevor Cahill and lefty reliever Craig Breslow for three young players — right-hander Jarrod Parker, outfielder Colin Cowgill and reliever Ryan Cook.

The team is entertaining offers for closer Andrew Bailey as well as Bailey, trying to collect as much young talent as possible as it prepares for a possible move to a new ballpark in San Jose.

Boston Red Sox - Red Sox have more competition than ever - The Boston Globe

This week’s Boston Globe Sunday baseball column.

Nationals do not bid on Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish

The identity of the team that won the right to negotiate with Yu Darvish has yet to be revealed, but it was not the Nationals. Washington did not submit a posting bid, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation, opting to stay on the sideline of a sweepstakes that will cost whomever lands the Japanese superstar upward of $100?million.

Damn it.

By the way, there’s another wonderful WaPo headline for Andy. Time to go back to grammar school.

Nationals Insider: Nats still rely on pro scouts

The Altria Group, Inc. gets needed stock bump!

That’s in stark contrast to what’s going on right now in Baltimore, where new Orioles GM Dan Duquette revealed Friday he’s dismantling nearly his entire pro scouting unit and relying almost exclusively on video and stats to evaluate players from other major-league and minor-league organizations.

The anti-scout movement has become a bit of a trend in baseball in recent years, but the Nationals continue to operate the old-fashioned way ... for the most part. The club did eliminate its advance scouting position last year, choosing to prepare for upcoming opponents off video scouting rather than having a human scout filing reports from the road the entire season.

But that’s the only area in which Rizzo has gone with video over human eyes. He still employs several pro scouts, led by director Bill Singer and bolstered by a group of special assistants to the GM that includes time-tested scouts like Kasey McKeon, Bob Schaefer, Jay Robertson and Ron Rizzi.

Hey, when you spent most of your adult life scouting ballplayers in person, you’ve gotta continue to believe in the old-fashioned method of player evaluation.

Yahoo Sports: Passan: Darvish bidding process is a cloak and dagger affair

The deadline for bids on Darvish is today at 5 pm (eastern time).  Passan makes the whole process sound like executives have spent several years in Australia bulding up an immunity to iocane powder just for this moment.

The Texas Rangers, for example, have told rivals they’re cash-poor this offseason. A TV deal that will net them $80 million annually doesn’t kick in until 2015. The purchase price of the team for the ownership group – jacked up in an auction by Mark Cuban – wound up tens of millions of dollars higher than expected and sucked up the $90 million signing bonus Fox Sports delivered. And the TV contract itself wasn’t nearly as lucrative as Chuck Greenberg, the club’s deposed CEO, purported it to be.

To which one GM said: “Yeah, right.”

And another executive said: “They’re sandbagging.”

CSNwashington: Vinny Castilla admits entry into HOF will be ‘difficult’

Former National Vinny Castilla is one of 27 players on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, but in a recent interview, the Mexican third baseman admitted it is unlikely he’ll earn a permanent spot in Cooperstown.

“It will be very difficult [for me] to get elected,” Castilla said in a Spanish-language interview earlier this month.  “But it is an honor just to be noticed, to be on the ballot.  I am very proud of being an option for those who vote, that is an accomplishment for me.”

But then CSNwashington follows up with…“Hall of an argument”.

No, we’re not going to argue that Vinny Castilla should be a Hall of Famer. But the previous post does bring to mind how baseball stats can be deceiving.

Castilla’s career batting numbers of .276 average, 320 homers and 1,105 RBIs aren’t that different from those of newly elected Hall of Famer Ron Santo: .277, 342, 1,331. And Santo achieved his totals in about 400 more games.

Again, we’re not arguing for Castilla to get into the Hall. Different eras, different kinds of players.

Just sayin’.

Interpreting Scott Boras’ Comments On Prince Fielder: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

The big concern for anyone signing Prince is that he will age like his father.

There has been some talk of Boras trying to get Fielder signed to a three or four year contract, so that Prince gets another bite at the free agency apple. That strategy, I would think, would work best for teams and Prince’s long-term earnings. Of course, who knows what silly offer could already be on the table? I am just glad the Red Sox already have Adrian Gonzalez.

Tigers, Nationals swap hard-throwing relievers [Perry for Balester]

A trade between three unelected and frankly unaccountable teams.

the Tigers and Nationals pulled off an exchange of right-handed relievers Ryan Perry and Collin Balester on Friday….

Perry… ended the year with a 5.35 ERA and a 24/21 K/BB ratio in 37 innings. Overall, he has a 4.07 ERA and a 129/82 K/BB ratio in 161 1/3 innings as a major leaguer.

Balester is viewed more of a flop than Perry, but he also has the better raw stuff; while both tend to throw in the 93-95 mph range, Balester’s curveball is a superior offering to Perry’s slider. It shows in the strikeout numbers, as Balester has fanned 62 in 56 2/3 innings of relief over the last two years.

Balester, though, has more of a wild streak than Perry. He’s also out of options, whereas Perry still has an option year left.