The 2011 season marked a step in the right direction for the Washington Nationals. Young players like Danny Espinosa, Drew Storen, Wilson Ramos and Jordan Zimmermann gave Nationals fans a glimpse of what the team can be in the future. With the offseason now upon us, here are some improvements the Nationals can make to develop the team for 2012 and beyond.
Don’t sign a center fielder to a multi-year deal
By now, it’s clear to Nationals fans that the team’s main priority is to sign a center fielder that can also serve as the team’s leadoff man. The only center fielder on the list of free agents that fits the bill is 32-year-old Coco Crisp, and even he has his flaws.
Yes, he can steal bases, as he had 49 steals for the Oakland Athletics in 2011. But the leadoff guy’s job is to get on base, and Crisp’s on-base percentage in 2011 was a below league average .314. His career on-base percentage is just about league average at .330.
It’s possible that his on-base rebounds to his career average in 2012, but Crisp may be starting to decline. There’s a chance that the .314 on-base was just a sign of things to come. However, seeing as the Nationals had Rick Ankiel leading off towards the end of 2011, I think they’ll take .314.
Instead, though, the Nationals should wait another year to get their guy. Next year, both B.J. Upton and Matt Kemp are set to become free agents. Kemp could sign an extension and never hit the open market, but Upton almost definitely will.
When he hits free agency, Upton will be 28. That means that, unlike with Crisp, whomever signs Upton will be paying for his peak years. For his career, Upton gets on base and slugs at a higher clip than Crisp as well.
In an ideal scenario, the Nationals would sign Crisp to a one-year deal and go after the younger and better center fielder next year.
Sign Jonathan Broxton
The Nationals had one of the best eighth and ninth inning bullpen tandems in baseball last year with Tyler Clippard and Storen, but the middle relief left something to be desired.
From a pure stuff standpoint, there are few who can compete with Henry Rodriguez, who hit 99 mph on the gun routinely in 2011. However, a lack of consistency and control problems led to a 3.56 ERA. Not terrible, but far from great.
Reliever Todd Coffey, who had a similar 3.62 ERA in 2011, is a free agent and may not be back with Washington next season. If that’s the case, Nationals fans will miss him. Listed at 6-foot-4 and “240” pounds, Coffey sprinted to the pitcher’s mound with regularity as the scoreboard kept record of his time.
Now, back to Broxton. Three seasons ago, Broxton was arguably the best reliever in baseball before things started going downhill in mid-2010.
Things got even worse for Broxton in 2011, as he went down with an elbow injury in May and was shut down for the year.
So why would the Nationals want him? Unlike other relievers on the market, Broxton would not cost the Nationals a draft pick if they were to sign him.
Because of the uncertainty surrounding Broxton’s elbow, teams are being scared away. This brings the possibility of signing him to a low-risk, incentive-laden deal that could bring huge returns.
If the Nationals could somehow sign him and he returns to his 2009 form, they could easily have the best bullpen in baseball in 2012.
There are plenty of other moves I would talk about if I had the time, such as not signing either of the high-profile free agent first basemen, one overweight and the other soon to decline. As we learned last offseason, you never know what kind of moves general manager Mike Rizzo will make. One of these times, he’ll get one right.
