{"id":11890,"date":"2016-01-10T07:07:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T12:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=11890"},"modified":"2016-01-10T07:07:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T12:07:18","slug":"drew-storen-for-ben-revere-a-trade-that-seems-to-work-on-both-sides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=11890","title":{"rendered":"Drew Storen for Ben Revere; a trade that seems to work on both sides"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lets<\/a>

Lets Hope Storen doesn’t have days like this in Toronto. Photo Andrew Harnik\/washingtontimes.com<\/p><\/div>\n

(Editor’s note: sorry for the delay on this post: you might have noticed the site being unavailable for a bit of time yesterday.\u00a0 That’s because the shared server hosting all my various business and personal websites crashed and was down for hours.\u00a0 Hopefully we’re all back up and normal.\u00a0 This post is written and posted as of 1\/10\/16).<\/p>\n

Drew Storen<\/strong> got his wish today<\/a>; a fresh start with another team.\u00a0 And amazingly, Mike Rizzo<\/strong> was able to turn an asset that basically the entire industry knew he was shopping (and knew that the player wanted out) and was able to basically get the *exact* player he was seeking in Ben Revere<\/strong>; a capable hitter who fits precisely into the hole left by the departed Denard Span<\/strong>.\u00a0 Lefty, center fielder, lead-off hitter, good stats.<\/p>\n

Amazing trade, frankly, by Rizzo, given these circumstances.<\/p>\n

The Nats hadn’t consummated a trade with Toronto since 2005 (and that was a two minor leaguers swapping deck chairs kind of a deal in Tyrell Goodwin<\/strong> for Aaron Wideman<\/strong>).\u00a0 Clearly Rizzo has a better working relationship with the new brain trust in Toronto (former Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro<\/strong>) than he did before (Alex Anthopoulos<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

For Storen; he gets out of town and gets a chance at a fresh start for a team that won its division last year and still sports the best offense in the game.\u00a0 He’s gotta be happy.\u00a0 I’m not sure he is the closer in Toronto (Robert Osuna<\/strong> was pretty good: 20 saves, 2.58 ERA, 153 ERA+, sub 1.00 whip but is also just 20); maybe there’s a ST competition, maybe Storen just accepted the deal and the 8th inning to get a fresh start.\u00a0 Can’t blame him.<\/p>\n

For the Nats, they get basically the #1 priority they’ve been seeking all off-season.\u00a0 And they get it without committing to major dollars in the future, without giving up a draft pick, and without trading any of their prospects.\u00a0 In this respect, A+ trade for Rizzo.\u00a0 Revere had a good lead-off hitter slash line last year (.306\/.342\/.377<\/a>), hits lefty to help with lineup balance, and plays a position of need (CF).\u00a0 I’m not sure he’s the super duper awesome CF that the team sought (a good looking uzr\/150 in 2015<\/a> but negative defensive figures the three previous years in Philly), but he’s always been awesome in RF so maybe we’re looking at Harper in CF and Revere in RF as a optimized defensive alignment.\u00a0 (Oh who am I kidding?\u00a0 Do you think Dusty Baker<\/strong> is looking at fangraphs and seeing massive negative DRS figures for Revere and going, ‘gee he should play RF?’)<\/p>\n

The Nats also save some cash (Revere makes a bit less than Storen in terms of projected Arb salaries), AND the Nats get a PTBNL (probably a low-level prospect).\u00a0 We sent some unreported amount of cash to Toronto; probably a few hundred thousand or so to balance out the salary delta.\u00a0 I love it when billion dollar assets send piddling amounts of cash in deals; can you imagine the negotiations?\u00a0 “Hey Mike, I need $100k to make this deal work.”\u00a0 “Oh ok Mark, lemme dig into my car cushion and see what i’ve got here that fell out of my pocket during my last arbitration negotiation … oh!\u00a0 here’s $200k.\u00a0 Sold!”<\/p>\n

New projected opening day 2016 lineup:<\/p>\n