The Nationals are not done in the Free Agent market as Mike Rizzo will sign some additional veteran players to Minor League deals with invitations to Spring Training. Some call it filler, but Rizzo is looking for his next Clint Robinson type of player.
We will go down the list of Top Free Agents and see who Jim Bowden thinks the Nats will be in on. Here is Bowden’s Top 7 list:
- Justin Upton – signed on 1/18/16 with the Tigers
- Yoenis Cespedes
- Dexter Fowler
- Ian Desmond
- Yovani Gallardo
- Howie Kendrick
- Austin Jackson
Bowden lists 3 to 7 teams to fit each player. On Justin Upton, the Tigers weren’t on his list of 6 by the way.
For the Nats, the only player that Bowden sees a small fit for is Ian Desmond. Here are the teams that Bowden thinks Desmond could fit with: Rays, White Sox, Royals, Angels, Athletics, Nationals, Dodgers
Screengrab from ESPN.com
Here is our list of the Top 22 starting pitchers available for which we’ve rated them 1-22 and sorted them in alphabetical order:
· Aaron Harang 9
· Alfredo Simon 2
· Bronson Arroyo 3
· Chad Billingsley 4
· Chris Capuano 13
· Cliff Lee 21
· Cory Luebke 15
· Doug Fister 5
· Eric Stults 18
· Jerome Williams 17
· Joe Blanton 12
· Josh Johnson 22
· Justin Masterson 7
· Kyle Lohse 14
· Mark Buehrle 11
· Mat Latos 6
· Mike Minor 8
· Randy Wolf 19
· Shaun Marcum 20
· Tim Lincecum 10
· Wandy Rodriguez 16
· Yovani Gallardo 1
Some of these pitchers could be candidates to accept a minor league deal with an opt-out. Let’s see if Rizzo is “in” on any of them.
The top pitcher and the top position player available have first names that begin with “Y” and that begs the question Y are so many Free Agents unsigned with less than 30 days to the start of Spring Training. A week ago, there were 2 free agents with the first name “Ian” available, and this week Ian Desmond is still unsigned.
Trivia: There are only 20 active players with MLB experience with 1st names that begin with “Y” and the Nats had 1 last year and 1 this year. Can you name those players?
Who, what, where and when to answer the questions in our title block above.
