The Washington Nationals did a modified fire sale yesterday. There’s a lot to glean from how all of that went down, and some of it impacts the Braves.
Tuesday came and went with the Atlanta Braves still having 2 available slots on their 40-man roster. While we may never know for sure, it is reasonably likely that Alex Anthopoulos made a pitch to get one or more of waived Washingtonians to help out his club down the stretch.
He was unsuccessful.
In the end, this is what happened on Tuesday:
- Daniel Murphy was traded to the Cubs for a non-prospect and a player to be named later.
- Matt Adams was reunited with the Cardinals in a cash deal.
- Bryce Harper was claimed by the Dodgers – but they and the Nationals were unable to come to terms on a deal (word is: LA didn’t even try) and he remains with his club. More on this later.
The Deals
Let’s start with Daniel Murphy. Because the Cubs won the waiver claim, we know that every other National League club passed on the opportunity to get him.
In their position, then, the Cubs would only have been claiming him for 2 possible reasons:
- Blocking Murphy from the American League (unlikely, for that would only matter to them upon reaching the World Series); or
- They actually wanted him
While the latter reason is most likely, it does beg that question about how they might use Murphy.
One thing for sure, though: since July started, he’s been hitting: .347 in July, .324 in August. So for whoever gets Chicago in the playoffs, they will have Murphy as another weapon – no matter how they use him.
For the Nationals’ side: they save something just short of $4 million (minus some amount of cash sent to the Cubs).
Murphy has previously been tagged with a Qualifying Offer, so he is ineligible to receive another from the Nats this season… and thus the Nats are ineligible to receive draft-pick compensation for losing him to free agency this upcoming off season.
As a result, they truly didn’t have any reason to hang onto him now that the decision has been made to wave their own white flag – conceding the playoff race to others.
Bryce Harper
This is kind of interesting. First, here’s the late word (via MLBTR) about what the Dodgers were doing in making this claim:
"8:10pm: Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets that the Dodgers did indeed claim Harper, but they did so purely as a means of blocking other contenders from landing him. Los Angeles had “no expectation” of completing a trade when it claimed Harper, per Plunkett."
Okay. That’s their right. But recognize that it was also the right of the Nationals to have simply dumped Harper onto the Dodgers’ payroll… something that LA would have recoiled about – yet had no choice about, either.
Harper is making $21.6 million this season – leaving close to $5 million still on the books for the remaining 6 weeks of the year.
So why keep him? 3 possible reasons:
- Keep the Nats fans coming in? You could argue that they still have players that ‘draw’ for ticket selling purposes, but Harper is the #1 motivator. Honestly though: his presence or absence probably would not be a big difference-maker at this time of the year.
- Because they will try to re-sign him. Many are thinking that the team that might be willing to offer him the most for a long-term deal is, in fact, his current club. Keeping him sends the message that this in their intention (to at least try keeping him).
- Because draft-pick compensation (combined with the above reasons) could be theirs should this re-sign plan backfire. Harper will get a Qualifying Offer contract once the season ends, thus allowing the Nats to receive a beginning-of-3rd-round extra draft pick if they lose Harper. Trading him now would eliminate that compensation path.
So the Nats effectively chose to pay him $5 million more this year, betting that he will be willing to come back for the long haul… and annoy the Braves in the process.
Matt Adams
As a lefty power bat, I strongly believe that Atlanta tried to get Adams back. Unfortunately, being in first place (and holding the 2nd-best overall Nationals League record) does have some down side.
In particular, it meant that St. Louis got ‘dibs’ on Adams before the Braves’ claim was even considered.
The Nationals simply sent him to St. Louis for nothing: the Cardinals will assume the responsibility for the rest of his $4 million salary.
More from Tomahawk Take
- Braves News: Atlanta makes a pair of trades, prospect debuts, more
- Atlanta Braves History: How the Red Stockings became the Braves
- Braves News: Atlanta Braves acquire Eli White from the Texas Rangers
- Atlanta Braves Swing Trade with the New York Yankees for Lucas Luetge
- Atlanta Braves 2012 Top Prospects Review: Zeke Spruill
Ramifications and Nuances
- The Cardinals got better, and the Braves were left out in the cold…at least for this round.
- The Braves will still have to play St. Louis in September (3 games at home). This was the best LH bench bat candidate available. Advantage Cardinals.
- The Cubs got a bit better, too… I guess. How will Murphy be used? No idea. Wonder if he can pitch.
- The Nationals got a bit worse. Adams was losing playing time, so it’s his bench bat that they will miss. Murphy, though, was a a key element to lengthening their lineup.
- The Braves still have 3 more games vs. Washington, but the Phillies have eight more (they beat the Nats last night). Advantage Philadelphia, it would seem.
The Nationals seem to be positioning themselves for 2019 – a reloading rather than a rebuilding. They still have the major pieces, and thus making their own run at Harper makes sense… at least that’s true if this is the end of their sale.
They will have some team-building work to do in general (as in: “getting the personalities to work together”), but in terms of talent… it doesn’t appear that they will be too much behind 2018.
Meanwhile, the Braves will have to look in other directions for late help – while their rivals and potential playoff opponents get better.