The Bronson Arroyo signing doesn’t qualify as 1 more big deal. Mike Rizzo hasn’t made his annual shocker trade/signing this off-season…..yet. There’s still time for Rizzo to surprise us, and most likely it would have to be a trade to catch us by surprise. Maybe Rizzo is done since last off-season he made 3 shocking moves by acquiring Yunel Escobar for Tyler Clippard, the Joe Ross/PTNBL (Trea Turner) trade for Souza, and then the January free agent signing of Max Scherzer.
Daniel Murphy was a mini-shocker as the news leaked out days beforehand. The inside sources have been on top of most deals this off-season except for trading Yunel Escobar for Trevor Gott. Most Nats fans expected Escobar to be traded but nobody had Gott’s name as a target.
Even though it’s not getting much attention, the Rockies are still looking to trade an outfielder, and it’s entirely possible to see the Yankees trade Andrew Miller from their back of the bullpen trio of Miller, Bentances and Aroldis Chapman. The Rays quietly have discussed trading a starter, and the Nats have been rumored to have dangled Gio Gonzalez out there.
From the chatter on our site, commentors seem to be most concerned about the back of the Nats bullpen as Papelbon just was not good statistically to finish his season with the Nats, and that is an issue besides his people skills.
Rizzo was asked after acquiring Murphy and before trading for Ben Revere if he was done with his roster: “…we like our depth and we like our talent level. I like the roster. I think we’ve achieved a lot of our goals going into it. We’ve balanced our lineup, we’ve acquired high skill sets, and I think the roster as constructed today is something that we really like.”
Since Rizzo made that comment he acquired Ben Revere and then pursued Yoenis Cespedes. This is always part of Rizzo’s thought pattern,“If there’s a value out there that can help the ballclub, then we would certainly look into it.” Yoenis Cespedes probably looked like a “value” until the negotiations started going. All the Nats did was cost the Mets millions more as they seemed to succumb to the public pressure, and signed Cespedes to a $75 million deal.
Should the Nats consider bringing back Ian Desmond as a possible shocker? He could be looking for a 1 year ‘pillow deal‘. Todd Hollandsworth said this morning on MLB Network Radio “Will Ian Desmond have taken 3 and 30, 3 months ago. I don’t think he would have.” Steve Phillips replied, “No probably not. Would he take it now?” Hollandsworth emphatically said, “I think he absolutely would, yes.”
Who do you see as a possibility for a shocker trade/signing?
