Nats acquire Willingham and Olsen from Marlins (updated)
The Nationals began to rebuild their team on Monday night by trading second baseman Emilio Bonifacio and two minor leaguers; right-handed pitcher P.J. Dean and shortstop Jake Smolinski to the Florida Marlins for outfielder Josh Willingham and left-handed starter Scott Olsen.
A press conference introducing Willingham and Olsen is scheduled for 3:30pm today at Nationals Park.
Olsen, who went 8-11 with a 4.20 ERA in 33 starts and set a career-high with 201 2/3 innings in 2008, is expected to be part of the Nationals rotation when the season begins. The 24-year old lefty is 31-37 with a 4.63 in 102 career games; 101 starts.
Willingham hit .254 with 15 home runs and 51 RBI in 102 games for the Marlins last season, but he missed 50 games with a herniated disk in his back. Willingham hit 26 homers with 74 RBI in 2006 and 21 and 89 in 2007.
With Elijah Dukes, Lastings Milledge and Austin Kearns as the regular outfielders, it's not exactly known where or how Willingham fits in to the Nationals plans. Willingham can play first base, but I'm not convinced that's where he'll end up.
Bonifacio, who many thought was going to be the opening day second baseman and lead-off batter in 2009, only hit .243 with 14 RBI in 49 games after he was acquired from the Diamondbacks last July in a trade for reliever Jon Rauch.
It looks like Anderson Hernandez, who outplayed Bonifacio, will assume both roles. Hernandez hit .333 with 17 RBI over the final two months of the year.
Dean went 4-1 with a 1.57 ERA in 10 starts for Single-A Vermont last season and Smolinski hit .271 with four home runs and 33 RBI splitting time between the Gulf Coast Nationals, Vermont and Single-A Hagerstown.
 |
Categories (click for archive)Nationals News |
Is the press confrence going to be on masn?