Nationals agree to terms with 1B Adam LaRoche on two-year contract with mutual option for '15

The Washington Nationals today agreed to terms with first baseman Adam LaRoche on a two-year contract with a mutual option for the 2015 season. Nationals Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. LaRoche led all MLB first basemen in 2012 with a career-best 33 home runs and 69 extra-base hits in a fantastic two-way campaign that included a .271 batting average, 35 doubles, a career high-tying 100 RBIs, 67 walks, an .853 OPS, as well as Rawlings Gold Glove and Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger citations. LaRoche's 155 hits, 29 go-ahead RBIs and 15 game-winning RBIs last season also established career highs. LaRoche joined Ryan Zimmerman (2009) and Adam Dunn (2009, '10) as the only Nationals to register 30-homer, 100-RBI campaigns since the ballclub arrived in The District in 2005. Defensively, LaRoche claimed the first Gold Glove of his career in '12 and was one of only four big leaguers (2B Robinson Cano, 3B Chase Headley, OF Andrew McCutchen) to win both a Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove this season. LaRoche and Zimmerman (2009) are the only Nationals to win both of baseball's ultimate individual hitting and fielding awards in the same year. The 33-year-old LaRoche is a career .268 (1114-for-4159) hitter with 281 doubles, 197 homers, 684 RBIs and an .820 OPS. In nine campaigns with Washington, Arizona, Atlanta, Boston and Pittsburgh, LaRoche has posted an .820 OPS thanks to career on-base and slugging percentages of .338 and .483, respectively. LaRoche is one of just four current players to have hit at least 25 home runs for four different teams. Adrian Beltre, Alfonso Soriano and Jim Thome have also turned the trick. Laroche's teams have reached the playoffs three times (2004, '05, '12) and he has slugged four home runs and tallied 12 RBIs in 13 career postseason contests. LaRoche has played in 150 or more games three times in the last four seasons.