Nats fans were on Wieters watch as he took his physical yesterday afternoon, but as we wrote yesterday don’t expect the signing to be official until Thursday morning. Also we are being told by a source that while Mike Rizzo is fielding calls for potential trades, he probably will not have a trade completed Thursday morning which will cause the Nationals to make a roster move to make room on the 40-man roster via a player to be designated-for-assignment (DFA).
There is certainly a list of names of players who could be a DFA including players who are now long-shots to make the roster like Clint Robinson, Matt Skole, Rafael Martin, Matt Grace, and the list could include a surprise move. A 60-day DL move is allowed at this time of year under the new CBA to make room on the roster, but who has an injury?
Matt Wieters is taking his physical today. If all goes well, he'll get $21MM + an opt-out from the #Nats. Details: https://t.co/OEYg2HeibA pic.twitter.com/RGAMuimC8H
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) February 22, 2017
Which player will get to wear #32 to start the season for the Washington Nationals? That jersey number is currently being occupied by Koda Glover. Someone will need to make a number change.
Jim Bowden predicts Koda Glover becomes Washington Nationals closer by June https://t.co/8yz8LMsSVA pic.twitter.com/RbcloIO6uf
— Outside Pitch MLB (@OPSN_MLB) February 19, 2017
The catchers took live BP yesterday, and Derek Norris took the first strike he saw and hit it over the left field fence for a BP home run. Rumors are swirling that it will be Derek Norris who will be traded based on comments from Dusty Baker and maybe it will be, but maybe it won’t be.
FanGraphs has already updated their projections as lollygagger pointed out yesterday and Wieters is projected for about 95 starts and Norris for about 55 starts.
When looking at the catchers, you can see FanGraphs made some major revisions to their 1st base projections with Ryan Zimmerman. FanGraphs is now showing Zimmerman will make about 105 starts and Lind will make 45 starts.
Based on FanGraphs believing that the Nationals will platoon Wieters and Norris, they have also upgraded the Nationals to 91 wins in the NL East.
Wieters is projected to +1.4 WAR, and Norris was downgraded to +0.6 based on less playing time only. The catching tandem combined +2.0 (wins above replacement) still won’t replace the 2016 +3.5 fWAR from Wilson Ramos in the projections, but many believe that in reality a Wieters/Norris platoon could get close to that Ramos production as a platoon would keep each player fresh and accentuate the best of Norris who has punished left-handed pitchers in his career.
Stay tuned and we will update here.
