Mike Rizzo on the Nationals' acquisition of Yunel Escobar (Ramos wins award, signs)

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo's reasoning for trading reliable reliever Tyler Clippard to the A's on Wednesday night for infielder Yunel Escobar was simple: The deal, made from a position of relative strength and involving a player who would be a free agent after 2015, fills an immediate need at second base with a veteran that the Nationals can control for up to three seasons.

"It was a good baseball deal between Oakland and us," Rizzo said Thursday afternoon during a conference call with the D.C. media. "We feel we fill a few of our goals in this. We got a really good everyday baseball player that can play shortstop and second base and has done it on a championship caliber club, and this year fulfills as an upgrade at second base. We have protection and depth in the infield beyond 2015. So we feel like we've checked off a lot of the boxes we've tried to check off during the offseason. We tried to get deeper in infield depth, we tried to upgrade the minor league system, we tried to increase our productivity on big league level and add depth and we think we've done all of those."

For that statement to be true, you have to look at the Nats' haul from a three-team trade in December - which netted them right-handed pitching prospect Joe Ross and shortstop of the future Trea Turner, who is still officially the player to be named in the Dec. 19 deal - in tandem with Wednesday night's swap with the A's, the ninth Rizzo has consummated with Oakland GM Billy Beane since 2011. But it's clear that the Nationals view the 32-year-old Escobar - a career .276 hitter who hasn't batted above last year's .258 since hitting .290 with the Blue Jays in 2011 - is the answer at second base, as well as insurance should shortstop Ian Desmond be traded during the 2015 season before he reaches free agency.

Desmond has been the subject of trade talks for weeks, but Rizzo clarified that the Nationals consider Desmond their shortstop of the present - though he's not against trading Desmond if the deal makes sense.

"Our approach with Ian Desmond has not changed one bit since the end of last season. Ian Desmond is our shortstop. He's a leader of our team. He's one of the best shortstops in all of baseball," Rizzo said. "And he's going to be the shortstop of the Washington Nationals. With that said, Ian Desmond or any other player on the roster, if a deal comes up that we can't refuse, we'll always look to improve ourselves for 2015 and beyond. But it's hard to replace one of the, if not the, best shortstops in all of baseball. A deal would have to be pretty elaborate not to have Ian Desmond on this team. Ian Desmond, in my mind, is the shortstop of the Washington Nationals, one of the leaders of the club and one of the best players in baseball."

Escobar is seen by most scouts as a league-average defender and a contact hitter who doesn't walk or strike out at unusually high levels. While his WAR has dropped from a career-high 4.7 in 2011 to minus-0.2 last season with the Rays, Rizzo traces the decline to a pair of injuries that short-circuited Escobar's 2014, limiting him to 137 games (his fewest in three seasons). Rizzo still considers defense to be the calling card for Escobar, who slashed .258/.324/.340 with seven homers and 39 RBIs last year.

"We see Yuni as being an above-average defender at both shortstop and second base," Rizzo said. "He has been his entire career, except for last year. Last year, he played with, especially at the end of the year, a soreness in his shoulder that affected a little bit of his throwing and a quad that affected a little of his range. We feel that getting off the carpet at Tampa Bay and playing on the natural grass at Nationals Park will just be a positive for him defensively. We have no qualms about his defense."

Escobar, however, comes with some baggage. He was suspended by the Blue Jays in September 2012 for writing a homophobic slur in Spanish in his eye black. Escobar's attitude has been called into question, and he was yanked from a game by then-manager Bobby Cox while playing with the Braves in 2009 for his lack of focus in the field, a criticism that has dogged him through his career. But Escobar flourished in the Rays clubhouse under former Tampa Bay skipper Joe Maddon, who firmly believed he could be a useful player. Part of that success - as well as his renaissance in Toronto - came from the abundance of Latin American players on the Rays roster, something the Nationals can't offer.

Still, Rizzo doesn't think Escobar's past transgressions will pose a problem in a veteran-laden Nats clubhouse that has won two National League East titles in three seasons.

"We've done a lot of due diligence on Yuni and talked to a lot of people," Rizzo explained. "We've talked to a lot of personnel in Tampa Bay and he was a good teammate with Tampa Bay in the time he was there. The transgressions he's had, they're well-documented. We're not going to be an apologist for poor behavior, but that was years ago when he was a younger kid and we believe he has matured. He's matured into a good player and he's matured into a much better teammate over the last couple of years. We've vetted him quite a bit, done a lot of due diligence on his character and his make-up and we're satisfied that he will fit into the Nationals clubhouse. And don't forget - this clubhouse is second to none that I've ever been a part of in my time in baseball and players police players, and we've got the leadership core group in there that's not going to let anybody upset the boat."

Clippard's departure leaves a huge void in the Nationals bullpen, and Escobar's arrival seems to further diminish the role of infielder Danny Espinosa. Rizzo addressed both of those topics during his 15-minute conference call. Clippard could earn around $9 million in 2015 through arbitration, and is poised to be one of the best bullpen arms on the market next winter. He's viewed by some teams as a potential closer, a role he succeeded in during the 2012 season with Washington, when he posted 32 saves in 37 tries.

Pointing to the "outstanding internal candidates" in the organization, Rizzo played off Clippard heading to Oakland as an opportunity for another pitcher to step up and seize an opportunity, much like Clippard did when he was converted to relief full-time in 2009. It is believed right-handers Blake Treinen and Aaron Barrett could slide into the eighth inning, and minor league righty A.J. Cole could be part of the back-end bullpen equation based on his performance in spring training.

"We've got power pitchers in the minor leagues and it's going to be opportunities for players to step up and earn big league time," Rizzo said. "I remember having the same conversation when we moved Tyler Clippard from starter to reliever. He had an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues, took it and ran with it, and became one of the best relief pitchers in all of baseball and maybe the best eighth-inning set-up man in the history of the game. ... If performance is there, opportunity is there, and somebody is going to take the bull by the horns and win a job."

Espinosa, on the other hand, appears to be shuffling further down the major league depth chart. Once considered the Nats' second baseman of the future, a blend of defensive excellence and improving gap power, Espinosa seems to be a man without a position after his average and playing time have tumbled in the past couple of years - and Rizzo's comments didn't exactly do anything to dispel that belief.

"I think he's, with the addition of Escobar, moved to a vital bench role," the GM said of Espinosa. "He'll be our utility player that can play third, short, second base and come off the bench for us."

While Wednesday night's trade surprised some, Rizzo said he had tried to acquire Escobar from Tampa Bay before Escobar and utility man Ben Zobrist were dealt from the Rays to the A's over the weekend. But Rizzo said that his talks with Tampa Bay were larger in scope and involved minor league prospects the Nationals were not willing to part with. That comment might indicate that the Nats were in on the Escobar-Zobrist tandem, but weren't willing to pay a high price for Zobrist, who has one season of team control at a reasonable $7.5 million before he reaches free agency next offseason. Escobar, by contrast, will earn $5 million in 2015 and $7 million in 2016, with the Nationals holding a $7 million club option for 2017 (with a $1 million buyout), and his presence provides both insurance for Desmond and a bridge to Turner.

Note: Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos has been named the winner of the 2014 Tony Conigliaro Award, which honors a major league player who overcomes adversity through spirit, determination and courage that were trademarks of Conigliaro, whose promising career was cut short when he was struck in the face by a pitch in 1967.

The 25th annual Tony Conigliaro Award will be presented Jan. 22 at the 76th Boston Baseball Writers' Association of America annual dinner. Ramos received 24 points in the voting, edging Reds closer Aroldis Chapman and Orioles pitcher Miguel Gonzalez, who each had 20 points.

Ramos endured a harrowing kidnapping in his native Venezuela in November 2011, and has since overcome myriad injuries - including a torn ACL in his right knee, a broken hamate bone in his right hand and multiple hamstring strains - to become one of the best catchers in the National League.

Conigliaro was the youngest player in major league history to lead his league in home runs when he hit 32 as a 20-year-old in 1965. After being hit in the face by a pitch in August 1967 at Fenway Park in Boston, he missed all of the 1968 season before making a comeback in 1969. He was traded to the California Angels after the 1970 season, played one season there, and made another comeback with the Red Sox in 1975, his final season.

Update: The Nationals announced this afternoon that they have agreed to terms with Ramos on a 2015 contract, avoiding an arbitration hearing.