Busy day for the Nats, who traded outfielder Josh Willingham to the Oakland Athletics for 23-year-old reliever Henry Rodriguez and minor-league outfielder Corey Brown.
Washington has now completely broken up the heart of a batting order that was pretty good the past two seasons. It also let first baseman Adam Dunn go to the Chicago White Sox without much of a fight. Only Ryan Zimmerman remains from that trio. But by signing free-agent right fielder Jayson Werth and likely handing left field to a platoon of Roger Bernadina and Michael Morse, general manager Mike Rizzo believe his club has a far better defensive outfield and in the process picked up two quality young assets. Rizzo held a conference call with local reporters about an hour ago.
Rodriguez is out of options so he likely starts 2011 in the Washington bullpen. He is one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in baseball with a fastball that can top 100 miles-per-hour and projects as a back-end option eventually. The Nats have scouted him in the Venezuelan Winter League and like that Rodriguez’s walk rate is improving. In 27 2/3 innings with Oakland last season he struck out 33 batters and walked 13. Rodriguez converted to the bullpen only two years ago.
“[Rodriguez] has been scouted a lot lately,” Rizzo said. “His numbers are trending positively as far as the walk numbers are going. The walks are going down the strikeouts are going up. He’s getting much more acclimated to the reliever role.”
As for Brown, he had a nice season in 90 games at Double-A Midland (.916 OPS), but wasn’t very good in 36 games with Triple-A Sacramento (26-for-135, 36 strikeouts, 11 walks). Rizzo says Brown has struggled early on at every minor-league level so far in his career. He will attend big-league spring training in Viera, Fla., but is likely slated for the outfield in Syracuse. The Nats think Brown is athletic enough to play center field, but has enough power to switch to a corner spot. He hit 30 homers in 2008 splitting time between high-A and low-A and had another 15 last season. Also a good defensive outfielder, Brown has speed to burn. He stole 22 bases in 24 attempts last season. The Nats liked him as far back as the 2007 draft, when Oakland selected Brown with the 59th overall pick.
“I think that [Brown] dominated the Double-A level very well. He dominated the Arizona Fall League,” Rizzo said. “We feel that he’s going to adjust quite comfortably to Triple-A and ultimately help us up on the big-league roster in the near future.
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