Rachel Levitin: Seeing what Escobar is all about

When the Nationals announced that right-handed reliever Tyler Clippard was traded to the Oakland Athletics for infielder Yunel Escobar in January, the public opinion was that folks were sad to see Clippard go. Teammates and fans alike were not ready to see their beloved eighth inning reliever (whose use of the song "Peaches" will always make this particular Nats baseball observer smile) trade in red, white, and blue for green and gold. But now that the 2015 season is a few weeks old, it's time to look at what the trade provided.

On Tuesday night, the Nationals fought back from blowing a one-run lead in the top of the ninth and went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 in the 10th inning thanks to a walk-off Escobar home run. Despite being sidelined for the past few days due to an injured groin, Escobar is what the Nats needed - for both infield defense and offensive reasons - going into the 2015 season.

Prior to the start of the 2015 season, changes were brewing for the Nationals. With Ryan Zimmerman's shift from third base to first base and Adam LaRoche's departure from Washington to Chicago, the Nats' true lack of an everyday second baseman left a hole in need of filling. That's what the Clippard trade was all about. In the business of baseball, the Nats had a need and Clippard was the bargaining chip enabling Washington to acquire what it needed.

It doesn't help that a wealth of the Nats' starting talent started the on the disabled list, but Escobar has done his best to give the current lineup a boost. Now that that outfielders Denard Span and Jayson Werth are back playing every day, Washington is just waiting on third baseman Anthony Rendon to make his return. Then, we'll start to see - within the context of what was envisioned when the Escobar-for-Clippard trade was executed - what the Nats brass had in mind when the swap occurred.

There's no denying that the bullpen's productivity has taken a dip to start the 2015\, but Washington has a couple of options there. Let the current guys settle in and see if what they have works out during the first half of the season. Or, if the current bullpen doesn't prove its strength to the satisfaction of Mike Rizzo and his staff, Washington's move before the trade deadline could be for a reliever to help fill a void left by Clippard's departure.

Either way, Escobar is an aggressive and passionate presence that is helping to fill a void the Nats needed to take care of within the infield. Games should start to get far more interesting, especially within the division, once the envisioned starting nine for 2015 take over the daily lineup.

Rachel Levitin blogs about the Nationals for District Sports Page. Follow her on Twitter: @RHLevitin. She will be sharing her observations about baseball in the nation's capital as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.