Mike Leake is one of the most sought after Free Agents still available on the market. He got his start in 2010 for the Reds while Dusty Baker was his manager. There is no Qualified Offer on Leake and Ken Rosenthal tweeted this:
From Ken Rosenthal: “Sources: #Nationals making push for free-agent RHP Mike Leake. Other clubs also aggressive. Leake played for Dusty Baker with #Reds.”
On the surface, Leake to the Nats would seem like a nice fit with Dusty Baker as his manager, but bad blood boiled back in 2010 when this USA Today story broke with Leake dishing some dirt on Strasburg:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/reds/2010-06-02-mike-leake-cover_N.htm
The full quote isn’t as bad as the excerpts that headlined back in 2010 so we will give you the full piece:
Strasburg was Leake’s teammate from his 11-year-old traveling team, a pitcher whom Leake remembers as a fat kid who cried when coming out of games.
“He was overweight, pouty and used to cry. He did a complete 180,” Leake says of Strasburg, who acknowledged in an April 2009 USA TODAY interview that he was 25 pounds overweight and immature when he entered San Diego State. “It’s amazing how he changed.”
“Too bad,” says Leake, 22. “It would have been pretty cool to face him. It would be a nice little competition. That’s all right. I’m sure we’ll eventually meet up.”
It was Strasburg’s best friend and former San Diego State catcher Erik Castro who called Stras back in 2010 when he read the USA Today story to warn Stras about it and later confirmed that Stras had read it, and clearly was not happy about it.
You can wonder if this could be a domino effect with the acquisition of Leake and a subsequent trade of Strasburg who only has 1 year of team control left before he departs for Free Agency. Probably not as it would be more likely that Strasburg stays and signs an extension down the road.
We are hearing Mike Rizzo is working on solving many of the Nats holes through trades.
At 10:13AM this morning we posted this comment: “Could Rizzo pull off a trade for Carlos Gonzalez? I heard he’s talking to the Rocks and Astros.”
Shortly afterwards, Jerry Crasnick Tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/jcrasnick/status/674626817161101312?s=09
MLB Trade Rumors followed with this: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/12/rockies-receiving-strong-interest-in-carlos-gonzalez.html
Photo © Win McNamee/Getty Images
Updated 12/9/2015 2:15pm:
nats have made mike leake an offer and are pushing for a deal
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 9, 2015
