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Catching Up on Transactions

A few, um, minor moves were made yesterday to cut the major-league camp contingent down to 32:

  • LHP José Ferrer optioned to Rochester
  • OF Stone Garrett optioned to Rochester
  • IF Leonel Valera reassigned to minor-league camp

As noted in the previous post, the “battle” for the remaining open jobs is essentially down to Michael Chavis, Jeter Downs, and Matt Adams on the position side, and a bevy of arms to round out the bullpen, of which only one—Thad Ward—could reasonably be called a prospect.

Naturally, this leads us to the perennial (and tiresome) look at options and who has ’em. According to FanGraphs, Chavis (1) and Downs (2) have options remaining, as do Hobie Harris (3) and Mason Thompson (1).

Again, with none of “our guys” in the running, this is beyond our ken (or our barbie)…

23 Commments

  1. Why on earth is Downs still in major league camp? Can’t the f.o. understand numbers.

  2. I’m really surprised Ferrer was optioned before Cronin. Cronin is both more polished, more experienced and older. I’d have expected him to get a long look, and Ferrer more of a taste, but not a serious look. It’s at least encouraging they’re finally taking Ferrer seriously, after forgetting he was in the system from 2019-2021.

    That leaves Banda as the only lefty in camp, and assures him a roster spot. Hopefully Cronin and Ferrer both start the season well, because it won’t be long before the calls to DFA Banda arise.

    1. Cronin was optioned to AAA a week ago. I expect him to be the first lefty call-up assuming he can perform in Rochester

      1. Yes, sorry. I meant to say I was surprised Ferrer was optioned AFTER Cronin, given the ensuing reasons.

  3. while not one of our guys, Gray was impressive yesterday.

    Downs, Adams and Chavis all in the lineup as explained by Luke above. one brings defensive skills w/flexibility, one brings power potential and one brings a little of both (see my order of listing). Adams might be the most deserving based on his spring, tough call.

    McKenzie had a nice liner up the middle. Connell over-matched on three pitches; Lipscomb contributed to the 8th inning meltdown with an error.

    1. Victory already achieved for Gore after 4 IP on his way to 5? 6 Ks .
      The kiddie corp needs McKenzie with a capital K on the beam .

    2. The meaningful positive stories from MLB spring camp: strong springs from Gray and Abrams, and the Ruiz contract. I’m glad that Robles also is having a good spring, but it will take a few months to know if that truly means anything. I no longer consider Robles a key cog in revitalizing the franchise. The other three are.

      The Cavalli injury certainly is a setback. The good news it that he should be pitching for a more competitive squad by the time he comes back.

      The best news on the minor-league side probably is that Henry is back. I’m sure they will try to be slow and careful with him, though.

      1. Kw you spoke about the good news about Cole Henry .
        Any chance the same vibe could be about Ted Dyson ?
        This spring will be interacting to see what productivity comes out of the names listed in Wilmington big board arms .
        Especially Fonzi .

  4. Wilmington mixture ?
    Mendez , Wood , Young , Connell
    Young 1b
    Frizzell and Mendoza to lend lefty depth in lineup ?
    Lipscomb joins Arruda and Sanchez in infield ? Infante ?

  5. I’ve expressed plenty of horror over the team’s interest in Downs and Chavis, like everyone else. Their presence is due to the same root cause as the everything else: the utter inability of the Nats’ farm system to produce ANY talent, even capable utility guys. Since Difo and Adrian Sanchez, even that cupboard has been bare. They had a brief infatuation with Jake Noll, but that didn’t last long. They begged Antuna and Jackson Cluff to turn into something, but that didn’t work. They picked up failing bonus babies Gilbert Lara and Lucius Fox, and now are doing it again. Sigh.

    Unless Armando Cruz starts to hit more, he’s going to soon be grouped with the utility options. But even expensive utility options are better than none.

  7. Seth Shuman had TJ surgery this week. He was having a good year when he was injured in July. Don’t know why they waited this long for the surgery.

    For better news MLB Pipeline ranked the system today as #10. It’s a free site so check it out.

    1. Good God ! Is there a vibe that when a young kid gets a mexy AJ with the Nats the TJ pops up?
      Wow they will have to draft heavy heavy college prepped healthy .
      Maybe they should carve a voodoo doll which wards off TJ .

    2. MLB Pipeline has the Nats’ system at #10. BA has them at #7. There’s no doubt that there has been improvement in the quality in the system, but it’s a really skewed curve. There are one or two high-end pitchers (depending on whether you still count Cavalli), one high-end INF (House), and then 8-10 outfielders. One would assume that they’ll be trading OF talent for pitching sooner or later.

      1. Listen to the Doctor ( Doobie Bros )
        The third OU arm will avoid TJ ??
        It’s not like his arm has a workload like Cavilli .

    1. I would think that the hope would be to have Bennett at Wilmington by June. It’s possible they might even start him there, considering how high they were on him.

      I’m a Bennett skeptic myself, thought there were better options on the board when they took him. The big positive for him is that he doesn’t walk a lot of guys. The negative is that he gives up a lot of hits. If they hit you in the Big 12, they’re gonna hit you even more in the pros.

  10. Jacob Young made a nice play last night throwing out a runner at the plate. too bad he didn’t come along in the PED era

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