No sooner did I hit "post" on my previous entry did news from Bill Ladson pop up that Jesus Flores has been, in Ladson's words, "shut down from doing any baseball activities until February..."

Now, let me preface my following comments with this:  I like Jesus Flores and Wil Nieves, both as people and as baseball players.  They are two of the kindest athletes I've had the good fortune of meeting since I started my little blog, and I wish nothing but health and success for the both of them.  It's difficult for me to write completely objectively when they are concerned.

Whether or not Flores has been performing baseball related activities (i.e., hitting and throwing) is undetermined in the article, but Flores' quotes in the piece seem to indicate that he is building up strength but the team is being cautious in his return.

"I'm doing great," Flores said. "After surgery, I'm feeling much better. My strength is coming along. I'm moving my arm lot better. I'm going to be ready for the season. I'm completely shutdown [for Winter Ball]. I guess I will start to throw a baseball in February."

Flores is rehabbing from a stress fracture, labrum surgery AND elbow surgery to remove bone spurs in his throwing arm. 

This news seems to be at least incongruous to the report we got from GM Mike Rizzo last week at the Ivan Rodriguez press conference that Flores should be ready for spring training. 

“I can only go by what the medical people tell me. They say he should be 100 percent and ready to participate in spring training. Now, we take them at their word, but we all know that specifically shoulders are very difficult to predict.

News from the player himself that "I guess I will start to throw... in February," is somewhat disconcerting.

I'm not a doctor, but I know a little about rehabbing a throwing shoulder, and it certainly seems that if he's not even going to start throwing until February, that will not leave him, according to Rizzo on Friday, "100 percent" ready to participate in spring training.

It could take him months to get into throwing shape if he doesn't start until February.  It's not like he's a pitcher, with all the stress of throwing off a mound, but he had labrum and elbow surgery since we last saw him.

When questioned about the major league depth at catcher, Rizzo responded,

“We have three capable catchers on the Major League level. We have (Jaime) Burke on the AAA level and we have (Derek) Norris—who is an up and coming and potential significant contributor for us in the future."

Perhaps the part of that quote that got glossed over at that point was "three capable catchers".  We can only assume now that Rizzo meant Rodriguez, Flores and Nieves, with Burke re-signed for Triple-A Syracuse.

So maybe we shouldn't have been surprised that Nieves was offered arbitration after all.  Rizzo apparently told us as much on Friday.

I'm sure this revelation in Ladson's story will get some glossing over, organizationally speaking, in the next day or so.  "Shutting down" until February will turn into "part of the doctor's plans all along" and that they expect Flores to be ready, etc.

But expecting in the media and planning for the worst-case scenario are often two different things.  And right now, it looks like the Nats are stocking up at catcher.  Hopefully it's just out of an abundance of caution, but it seems, from today's news, that the caution is at least warranted.

• Non-tendered RHRP Mike MacDougal and LHSP Scott Olsen.
• Offered arbitration to C Jesus Flores, OF Josh Willingham, C Wil Nieves, RHRP Jason Bergmann, RHRP Brian Bruney and LHRP Sean Burnett.
• Signed RHRP Ryan Speier to a minor league contract.
• Signed LHSP Scott Olsen to an incentive-heavy free agent contract.

There are a couple of expected moves in the above list, and a couple of surprises.

First, the expected.  The Nats' non-tendering of MacDougal and Olsen.  Both players stood to make a pretty big payday with arbitration, and figured they could re-sign both -- if they wanted -- after non-tendering.

They were right about Olsen, as he was a free agent less than one day, signing a $1 million contract, with incentives that could push the total to just under $4 million.  Olsen is coming off of season-ending labrum surgery, and according to GM Mike Rizzo, he is ready to start getting into baseball shape.

Whether Olsen returns from the surgery to be a valuable member of the Nats rotation is a story for another day, though, because we won't know until well into spring training how his shoulder responds to the procedure.

MacDougal has to be considered questionable at this point to return, though MASN.com's Byron Kerr indicates talks are continuing. 

MacDougal led the team in saves last season, and was third in the league in save percentage last year, but his underlying stats tell a different story.  He hard-throwing righty posted a career low K/9 at just 5.6, while his walk rate for the Nats was the same 5.6.  His overall WHIP was 1.520, much higher than one would expect for the No. 3 save percentage closer in the game.

His gaudy save total (20-for-21) though would have driven an arbitration salary through the roof of what the Nats would have wanted to pay him.

And it was completely expected that the Nats would offer arbitration to Flores, Willingham, Bruney and Burnett.

On to the (mild) surprises:  bringing back Nieves and Bergmann, and the signing of Justin Speier.

All off-season, the Nats have maintained their need to upgrade at backup catcher.  Primary to the point, the signing of Ivan Rodriguez.  That the club decided to retain Nieves, a player at a position they were vocal about upgrading from, has to be considered a bit surprising.

The team has been very careful not to name names when talking about addressing their needs at catcher, but Rizzo didn't want to go into the season with Nieves as the main backup again, that much is clear.  But offering him arbitration now indicated to me that he will indeed be the primary backup, this time to Rodriguez, at least to start the season.

Everything the Nats have done at the catcher spot (signing Rodriguez, who made it clear he's ready to play every day, bringing back Nieves and Jamie Burke), indicates to me that Flores is not only not going to be ready in spring training, but probably well into the regular season.

Bergmann's return surprised me as well, his quality down the stretch last year notwithstanding.  Overall, though, his season numbers were less than inspiring, and with his track record with the team, I thought this was going to be the season they let him test the free agent waters. 

But we can now expect Bergy to be one of the known elements to a bullpen in flux going into spring training, along with Burnett, Bruney and Tyler Clippard.

Ryan Speier is an interesting case.  A local kid from West Springfield High, he has a lifetime 3.99 ERA in 90 appearances, all for Colorado.  He doesn't strike a lot of guys out, and puts his fair share of runners on base, but manages to mostly keep them off the scoreboard.

He only pitched five and two-thirds innings on the big league level last season, and wasn't particularly impressive in AAA, but he does have a track record and getting out of the "mile high" air of Colorado could help him out.

The Washington Nationals unwrapped their shiny, new toy today, just in time for the holidays, introducing 14-time all-star and 13-time Gold Glove winner Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez to the media today at a press conference held at blustery Nationals Park.

First, let's get this out of the way:  the man really shouldn't be called "Pudge" anymore.  His features on his face and neck are as chiseled as any marble statue.  There's nothing pudgy about the man, as even Mike Rizzo mentioned his "five percent body fat."

Anyway, Rizzo and Rodriguez were both introduced and made brief opening comments.  Rodriguez then donned his familiar No. 7 jersey for all to photograph, then both took questions from the smallish press contingent, perhaps made smaller by the hour-and-a-half delay in the festivities.

Pudge's preliminary comments:  "It's an honor for me to be here today. I want to say thanks to the Washington Nationals' organization for giving me the opportunity to be with the Nationals for the next two seasons."

"My goal is just bring my experience into the ballclub, as a baseball player, and be ready to play in the field. I'm a player that I love to win, I love to play hard in the field, and I look forward to my teammates doing the same thing when we play."

On his influence on the young pitching staff:  "Spring Training is for that, to work with the pitcher. I know that I've never seen, I've never caught them, but at the same time, communication is very important, you know, in Spring Training we want to sit down and first of all, I want to talk to them and see what they like to do, how they like to pitch, and then we go from there."

"I'm not a difficult catcher, I just try to things very simple for the pitcher, so I just go with what they feel comfortable and we go from there."

On playing time:  "Well I'm ready to play every day.  I'm a player that can still play every day and I will play every day and basically do my best for the club. I know it's hard for me to play 162 games -- that's impossible for a catcher. But as long as I'm healthy, feeling great physically, I'll be in the field playing."

"I'm a guy that I take care of myself very well; I'm keeping myself in good shape. And I'm gonna be in spring training in February ready. Those decisions are not in my control. My control is just to go to spring training in good shape and be ready mentally and physically to play on an everyday basis."

On working with Jesus Flores:  "We're all teammates, and the goal is winning games. He's a talented player, hits very well, good catcher, and I'm sure that we're going to talk a lot. He's a guy that, I've talked to him before, he comes to me and says hello to me when we're against (each other)...and he's a very nice guy."

"So I look foward to talk to him, and whatever he needs, I'm here for that, but the most important thing is that we're here to win, we're here for one goal, just to win and have a good season and be in the playoffs in October."

On similarities with Detroit [signing with 100-plus loss team]:  "When I sign with Detroit in 2004, I think I see this team [Nationals] is better than 2004 in Detroit."

"Coming here my goal is to put my piece in the team and to support the whole team and win ballgames."

Rizzo on Jesus Flores:  "Jesus Flores is still rehabbing [from shoulder surgery]. It's been passed along to me yesterday that he should be full-go, ready to go by the beginning of spring training. We'll go to spring training with that in mind, but in the past, specifically with arm surgeries and labrum surgeries, we go into kind of cautiously optimistic."

Overall, the impression Rodriguez left is that he is ready to play every day.  Whether or not he's treated as an everyday player comes down to two things:  Jesus Flores' health and manager Jim Riggleman's whim filling out the lineup card.

My recorder stopped working at some point during the festivities, but after the press conference was over, Rodriguez and Rizzo were both available to the media.

Rodriguez maintained his desire to play regularly, citing his good health and desire to win and play the game the right way.  He also mentioned a goal of reaching 3000 hits, which he's just 289 short.

"You have to play 27 hard outs every game."

Rizzo was asked about Rodriguez' reaction to his playing status, and responded that Pudge is a 14-time all-star, that he thinks his skills are still intact and that he will be a "significant contributor" to the ballclub, but whether it's 70, 80, 90, or 100 games, that will be answered as they go through the summer.

I specifically asked Rizzo if he looked at Pudge's splits from last summer, in a season where he hit .249/.280/.384 overall.  He a couple of months where his numbers were slightly lower that his career numbers would indicate (career .336 OBP), but nothing alarming, and he had a couple of really poor months.  Rizzo indicated that yes, they looked at that, and attributed that "somewhat" to playing as often as he did, especially the first half of the season with Houston.

Rizzo concluded, "The best problem I could have all season is, 'Who of these two hot catchers [Pudge or Flores] are we going to play on an everyday basis?'"

So to recap:  Pudge is preparing as if he's going to be the everyday catcher, and Rizzo said the doctors indicate that Flores should be ready for spring training, but we'll have to see how Flores' arm responds at that point.

Drama at the catcher position?  It's a good problem to have, if Rodriguez is up to the task.

The Washington Nationals are faced with very few decisions with regard to the make-up of their daily lineup.  There are all kinds of questions about the pitching staff, but that's fodder for another day's column.

We know (barring trade) that Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Dunn, Josh Willingham, Nyjer Morgan, Elijah Dukes and Cristian Guzman will be in the opening day batting order, with either Jesus Flores or Pudge Rodriguez behind the plate.

The only question is whether Ian Desmond will join them in the lineup.

One of the biggest off-season points of emphasis for Mike Rizzo and the rest of the Nats pro personnel department is to upgrade the middle infield defense.  They have instructed Guzman to be prepared to play second base come spring training, which signals an intent to do one of two things:  acquire a shortstop or begin the season with Ian Desmond in the position.

With a couple of the free agent shortstops already spoken for, and with the premium placed on that position, it's highly unlikely at this point the team could find an appropriate starting shortstop via free agency.  It was a down year at the position anyway, as Marco Scutaro was the prize gem available.

Trading for a major league shortstop is a dicey proposition as well.  They just don't grow on trees, and would probably cost more in player resources than Rizzo would be willing to spend.

What's more likely at this point is that the Nats could find a player that can play both short and second base adequately to be a late inning defensive replacement, or in the possibility that Desmond would fail, could play second base full-time with Guzman sliding back to short. 

Not an ideal situation.

So, we're left with Desmond as the starter from Day One.

Desmond is not really a kid anymore.  He’s 24 years old and has six years in the minors leagues under him.  If he isn’t ready to be playing by now, a couple more months in Triple-A isn’t really going to help.

The Nats have a built-in emergency shortstop on the roster already: his name is Cristian Guzman.  If Desmond starts off 2-for-45, the Nats can send him down, slide Guz over and whoever they bring in for the utility spot to second base. 

There are in-house options as well.  Alberto Gonzalez and Pete Orr are both still kicking around, and Willie Harris can play second in a pinch -- not that it would be preferential for him to get a lot of at bats there. 

But it’s not like the Nats are going to contend this season.

This is what lousy teams (and let's face it, two-straight 100-loss seasons qualifies as lousy) have the luxury of doing: turning positions over to almost-ready players and letting them learn how to be major league players.

Desmond should be given the opportunity to sink or swim.  He'll probably do a little of both.  But September showed us that he's capable of playing the position and hitting a little bit from there as well. 

Let's give him the opportunity to show us that potential he showed us is for real.

The Washington Nationals selected OF Jamie Hoffman from the Dodgers organization in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft and will send him to the Yankees as the oplayer to be named later in the Brian Bruney deal.

Honestly, judging from the names that were selected in the draft, it's not surprising that the Nationals agreed to send the No. 1 pick to the Yankees for a servicable middle reliever.

The Nats also lost Zech Zinicola, selected by the Toronto Blue Jays, in the draft.  Former Nats minor league director Dana Brown now has similar duties in  Toronto, so they are well familiar with the player.

Teams must keep Rule 5 picks on their major league roster the entire season, or they have to return the player to their original team or make a trade to send the player down to the minor leagues.

The Washington Nationals checked another item off their Winter Meetings to-do list, signing catcher Ivan Rodriguez to a two-year, $6 million contract.  The team envisions the future hall-of-famer to back up Jesus Flores, play his mentor, and help nurture a young, up-and-coming pitching staff.

Whether or not the 38-year old Rodriguez is up to the task is anybody's guess.  But GM Mike Rizzo surely believes that the man they call "Pudge" is up to it.

Last year, between Texas and Houston, in 448 plate appearances, Rodriguez hit .249/.280/.384 with 10 home runs, 23 doubles and 47 RBIs.  He walked just 23 times, for a woeful 4.8% walk rate. 

On the defensive side, he threw out 6 of the 13 runners that tried to steal against him, a 46% rate, up from recent years in the 35% range.  He was 11.2 runs above average at catcher in 2009, a huge jump and his highest  Rtot/yr since 2006.

The general opinion so far is that "yeah, he's washed up, but it's better than what we had last year."  But is he really?  And at the cost?

Wil Nieves hit .259/.313/.299 in 249 plate appearances with one homer and 26 RBIs, and had a 28% CS rate.  Josh Bard hit .230/.293/.361 with six homers and 31 RBIs in 301 plate appearances with a 27% CS rate.

So maybe performance-wise, Pudge is marginally better than the duo that filled in for Jeus Flores most of the summer.

But the Nats handed over $6 million over two years, which seems awfully high, especially when he was on a one-year, $1.5 million contract last season.  Are we left to believe that the "loser sur-tax" to bring credible free agents to D.C. is four times the market rate?

Count me in the column that doesn't particularly like this deal.  But hey, at least they attracted one washed up future Hall-of-Famer.  Maybe that'll help lure another one (John Smoltz, anyone?).

This is starting to look like how the Tigers accomplished their worst-to-first journey a couple years ago.  Draft a stud pitcher (Verlander/Strasburg), sign Pudge, then trade for Miguel Cabrera.  So who is going to play the part of Miguel Cabrera for the Nationals?

In the first deal of the 2009 Baseball Winter Meetings, the Washington Nationals traded a player to be names later to the New York Yankees for RHRP Brian Bruney.  To make room on the 40-man roster, the Nats unconditionally released veteran RHRP Saul Rivera.

Bruney, 28, went 5-0 in 44 appearances covering 39.0 innings for the Yankees last year.  He had a 3.92 ERA and 1.513 WHIP, striking out 8.3 per nine innings.  For his career, he has a 4.27 ERA in 221.3 innings.

Bruney immediately threw his hat into the ring for the available closer job, telling Nationals Journal: 

"I love closing ballgames.  There's nothing better than that in my opinion. I felt like New York was a good stepping stone with lots of pressure-filled situations. But to be honest, I had talked to my agent and I said, 'I can't wait to get to the place where I can try and close somewhere.' "

Bruney (6'3", 219) has 13 career saves in six major league seasons, 12 of which came in one season, 2005 with Arizona.

This past June, Bruney criticized New York Mets closer Francisco Rodriquez after a game and the two needed to be separated the following day during batting practice when "K-Rod" confronted Bruney prior to the game.

 
Rivera was a dependable part of the Nationals bullpen for parts of four seasons, but had a 6.10 ERA in 30 appearances last season and spent part of the year in the minors.  Rivera turned 32 today.