Nats trade Moore to Braves for fellow first baseman Freiman

By Mark Zuckerman

Nationals

March 27, 2016, 1:04pm

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VIERA, Fla. - Tyler Moore's time in the Nationals organization officially ended today when the recently demoted first baseman was traded to the Braves for fellow 29-year-old minor leaguer Nate Freiman.

Moore had been outrighted to minor league camp Friday evening after clearing waivers, a transaction that kept him in the organization but removed him from the 40-man roster. Two days later, the Nationals and Braves found common ground on a trade for two players with similar traits.

Tyler Moore bats gray.jpg Freiman essentially is a taller version of Moore, a 6-foot-8, right-handed-hitting first baseman who hasn't been able to stick in the majors. A .256 hitter in 116 career big league games, all with the Athletics, he was released by Oakland in December and immediately signed a minor league deal with the Braves.

Freiman appeared in 13 games for Atlanta this spring, recording only three hits in 25 at-bats (one of them a homer). Already on a minor league contract, he'll most likely open the season at Triple-A Syracuse.

The Nationals like Freiman's platoon splits: He's a career .279 hitter with a .796 OPS against left-handers. A rare professional ballplayer with a college degree (he went to Duke), Freiman actually was born in Washington, D.C., but went to high school in Massachusetts.

The Braves, in agreeing to the trade, picked up Moore's full $900,000 salary for 2016, perhaps signaling their intention to add him to their big league roster at some point in the near future.