Holiday Shopping – Part Deux

December 21, 2008

By AllStarsPlus

More information has surfaced on the Cabrera deal reported by Bill Ladson who writes that the 1 year deal is reportedly worth $2.6 million. This isn’t the Odalis Perez type of bargain who made $7.75 million with the Royals and then came to the Nats for only $850,000. Cabrera made $2.875 mill last year so only took a small shave after a lackluster season.

The other observation is that there isn’t a starting pitcher in the Nats stable born in any decade other than the 80’s. The significance of that is leadership and mentoring that comes from “age” which the starters had last year in Tim Redding who was born in 1978 and was inside and outside the clubhouse the pitching leader.

Speaking of Tim Redding, I am now scratching my head. If Bill Ladson is correct on the $2.6 figure to Cabrera, why didn’t JimBo just re-sign Tim Redding who was headed to arbitration and could have been signed prior to the deadline. Keep in mind that Tim was making $1 million in 2008 for the Nats.

This week I spoke to Tim Redding just to tell him we were thinking of him, and he was doing his off-season fatherly duties that afternoon picking up the kids at school. I told Tim that we all hoped he could be re-signed by the Nats, but now we know after the Cabrera signing that is no longer in the cards.

Here is who will compete for the starting rotation:

John Lannan, Scott Olsen, Shawn Hill, Collin Balester, Jordan Zimmermann, Shairon Martis, Daniel Cabrera, and Jason Bergmann. So you have 8 pitchers competing for 5 spots.

More updates to follow…….

Posted in MLB, Players, Washington Nationals