The Washington Nationals haven’t gone on their usual offseason spending spree this winter, only acquiring Adam Eaton and Derek Norris via trade while dealing away Danny Espinosa and a bucket-load of prospects.
They *did* avoid an ugly arbitration hearing with Bryce Harper, inking him to a one-year, $13.625 million deal to keep him in the fold for his third of four arbitration years. Harper took to Twitter to respond to a tweet by former Washington GM Jim Bowden about the team’s interest in free agent catcher Matt Wieters and reliever Greg Holland, and prodded the team to get busy.
#Nationals still have interest in both Wieters & Holland..but they are way over budget on Spring Training Complex making decision difficult
— Jim Bowden⚾️🏈 (@JimBowdenGM) January 18, 2017
Matt Wieters/Greg Holland > Team Store! #NatsNatsNatswoooooo https://t.co/aXPpp5qZLR
— Bryce Harper (@bryceharper3) January 18, 2017
Heaven help us all.
The Nationals lost their starting catcher, Wilson Ramos, to the Rays and will be replacing him with Norris, a former Nationals farmhand that was traded to the A’s back in 2011 as part of the Gio Gonzalez deal. They also lost their closer, Mark Melancon, to the Giants and will be replacing him with uh…Shawn Kelley? Blake Treinen? Who knows?
Washington’s payroll is up to $144 million for the 2017 season, with that money going to just 15 players. Their payroll will exceed last year’s $145 million, and could approach 2014’s franchise record of $162 million.
Harper will be a free agent after the 2018 season, and will be joined in free agency over the next two offseasons by Gonzalez, Kelley, Daniel Murphy, Norris, and Jayson Werth. Neither Wieters or Holland would likely command a long-term deal at this stage of the offseason, so why not sink even more cash into a team whose window is closing?
Imagine if Harper leaves town after 2018, and all the Nationals have to show for his career with the team is a handful of division titles and zero playoff series wins. Now that would be embarrassing.
