The Washington Nationals were headed into a promising future before the 2010 season.
That's when a new GM took the reigns on a club that had pieces to hold onto in their quest to build a playoff contender. Looking back, that's not exactly what happened in Washington. After two abysmal seasons in which the club went 64-98 and a pitiful 48-114 in 2011 the team fired their general manager. The ultimate blunder, rather descent into baseball hell, was when the former GM traded a once in a lifetime talent in Stephen Strasburg (he's enjoying some southern California sun at the moment!). It's no wonder fans who don Nationals jerseys with "Strasburg 37" on the back choose to duct tape out the front side where it says "Nationals" instead of the traditional duct taping of the players side of the jersey. And by the end of 2011, fans were showing up with bags on their heads.
That's all over. The Nationals have hired an experienced GM in Dan Treccia. It's not going to be an easy task or a fast turnover, but it's the best they can do to try and restore this team.
"I'm not going to talk about Stephen Strasburg, or 48 wins, or not making the playoffs in 2012," said Treccia, "I will talk about player movement and the direction I see this club going. If I don't want a player here, he will be packing his bags the day I feel that way about him. If I get a star talent, I'm not going to be jumping out of my skin to trade him because I'm not clinically insane. The fact of the matter is that I am going to put the best possible team on the field at the beginning of every season without compromising our future."
Treccia, for the most part, seems to be practicing patience with his ball club. How could he not? His best prospect is Manuel Varqas, a 16 year old outfielder that is currently playing in single-A (and doing quite well). Don't expect to see Varqas in the majors for at the very least 3 seasons. However; don't expect him to make his rookie debut with anyone but the Nationals.
"Varqas is a special talent," said Treccia, "He's got a chance to come up young and break all kinds of records."
Then there's Brian Colley. Like Varqas (last year's #1 pick), Colley is a top five draft pick (going at #4 in 2010). Colley has dominated rookie ball for the Nationals and will be fast-tracked from A to AA by August of 2013.
"We see Brian coming up around the same time as Varqas," commented Treccia, "He's a future ace of our staff. We've communicated to Brian that we're not planning on trading him either. He has a fastball that touches 97 and four nice pitches. You can't let that kind of talent go."
So how will Treccia mold the Nationals into a better team without trading top prospects?
"I'm going to hold onto everything I deem valueable to this organization," explains Treccia, "It's not easy to wait, but sometimes it's for the best of the club. In the meantime I'm going to cut the payroll before free agency and try adding some crucial pieces to our 2013 club. If I feel I can deal a talented player by the end of free agency, I'll do it. The Washington Nationals are open for business."
Everyone expects the Nationals to be moving a catcher this off-season to gain some depth in other areas. A source had indicated preliminary interest has been shown in catcher Travis d'Arnaud. d'Arnaud has been playing first base as a September call-up, but his true calling is to be a Major League catcher. Brian Peacock stands in his way as the team's best hitter. Peacock has hit .307-17-68 in his rookie season. He's a pretty good defensive catcher too. A tough decision may come this off-season to benefit other areas of the team.
"There's a lot of decisions I'll need to make in a short amount of time this off-season," said the new GM, "I'm just going to make the right ones and move forward with this operation."
Three Released
The first moves of Dan Treccia's career were to release some big contracts. OF Chris Duncan, SP Dustin McGowan, and RP Doug Slaten. The moves allowed the Nationals to shed about $12 million in payroll. The team has at least another $10 million coming off the payroll at the end of the season in Marlon Byrd, Aubrey Huff, and Roger Bernadina.
In the Haren Hunt?
When asked about the possibility of chasing after Dan Haren this off-season:
"I'm not going to name names," said Treccia, "but if we see a player we'd like to add and we have the money to do it we're going to try and get that player."
The team currently has three starting pitchers the organization feels highly about in Jack McGreary, Josh Smoker, and Paul Demny.
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