The Washington Nationals are in the midst of a makeover after their disappointing season last year— one punctuated with Jonathan Papelbon choking Bryce Harper in the dugout late in the season.
In their latest move, the Nats have unloaded the guy that Papelbon replaced—closer Drew Storen is heading north of the border to Toronto in return for outfielder Ben Revere.
Revere adds another lefty bat in the lineup (in addition to 2B Daniel Murphy who the Nats added this week) and plugs a hole in the outfield left by Denard Span. Span was signed by San Francisco as a free agent on Thursday.
Storen performed well with 29 saves and a 1.73 ERA until the Nats got Papelbon. Storen was asked to take over eighth inning reliever role and didn’t get another save for the rest of the season—which ended in September after slamming his dumb in his locker. I don’t see his role changing since the Jays have Roberto Osuna as their main closer, but a fresh start and new locker room for Storen may help him get back to his performance level.
This trade should also give some indication to the looming question for Nats fans on whether the team would keep Papelbon as their closer.
GM Mike Rizzo repeatedly told reporters that he would keep both Papelbon and Storen in the bullpen unless a real baseball offer was made. With this trade of Storen, it’s likely that Papelbon will remain in D.C. unless Rizzo can get another quality arm for unloaded Papelbon.
--Alexis Garcia, BYB's "Eye on MLB" Columnist &
Los Angeles Dodger fan
Twitter: @heylexyg
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