Why Jose Reyes to the Nats Makes Sense

The Washington Nationals showed a commitment to spending money towards building a contender when they signed Jayson Werth for seven years and 126 million dollars, making him the 14^th highest paid player in baseball history. Although nearly everyone, including Nationals fans themselves, realized that Werth was being severely overpaid, it was important for the Lerner family to show the Washington faithful that they were devoted to making the Nats a contender after six disappointing seasons in Washington. Although Werth had a down year, drawing boos from Nats fans and mockery from the national media, Wilson Ramos, Jordan Zimermann, Danny Espinosa, and of course, Stephen Strasburg gave the Nationals reason to believe that the future is bright. There has been a lot of talk about the Nats going after one of this summer’s big name free agents, and while most people are advocating a run at Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder, the hot stove’s top two sluggers, the Nationals should look in a different direction: shortstop and lead-off hitter Jose Reyes.

The Nationals must focus their offseason acquisitions and future plans around the two most valuable pieces of their organization, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. Mike Rizzo and the rest of the front office hope to ride Strasburg’s powerful arm and Harper’s powerful bat to the top of the NL East for many years to come. While baseball is a team game, if these two players become as dominant as they are projected to be, they would give the Nats a tremendous driving force towards ote thop of the National League. The Nats already have some starting pitching depth behind Strasburg, with Jordan Zimmermann’s impressive 2011 campaign, the consistent John Lannan, and a pick-your-two-favorite grab bag of Chien Ming Wang, Ross Detweiller, Brad Peacock, and Tom Milone, all of whom showed signs of promise last year. They would be prudent not to spend big dollars on CJ Wilson or Mark Buehrle, the top two hurlers out on the market. The front office needs to focus on run producing, an area where the Nats failed miserably last year. Surprisingly enough, the Nats actually have a good amount of middle of the order hitters, with Ryan Zimmerman, Mike Morse, Jayson Werth, and eventually Harper forming a nice core of guys with power. What the Nats lack; however, are the guys to get on base to be driven in by these heavy hitters. The Nationals ranked a lowly 25^th in team OBP in 2011, directly correlating with a similarly pathetic ranking in runs produced. Reyes, who ranked 15^th in this category, would help the offense greatly

Perhaps most importantly, the players Reyes would be replacing at shortstop simply aren’t very good. Ian Desmond does not seem to be a long term solution at short, and Steve Lombardazzi projects more as a utility infielder than an everyday player. The Nationals have a bright future building around their two homegrown stars, and Reyes would be the perfect complement to the puzzle. Despite everything positive that comes with signing a player like Reyes, the Nats need to make sure they are more financially prudent than they were last summer with the Jayson Werth signing. Signing Reyes to a seven year deal, which would expire when he is 35, and in all likelihood will have lost almost all of his speed, would be foolish. The Nats need a star like Reyes to set the tale, but should learn from their mistake a year ago and only sign him if it is at a reasonable price and for five years.