I think by now it’s clear that the 2018 season has been a huge disappointment for the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have made the post season four of the last five season, but it doesn’t appear that they’re going to get their this season. It now looks as though the Nationals themselves have thrown the towel in on the 2018 season as they dealt two of their veteran players yesterday and no one of them wasn’t Bryce Harper.
Washington sent 2nd baseman Daniel Murphy to the Chicago Cubs for Class A infielder Andruw Monasterio and either cash considerations or a player to be named later. The Nationals will also send an undisclosed amount of cash to the Cubs in the deal.
Due to injury Murphy has played in just 56 games this season. It took Murphy a little time to get going this season, but his batting average is now at .300. Murphy has 17 hits in his last 47 at bats which is a .362 batting average.
Murphy is also a proven post season player. In 24 career post season games Murphy is hitting .323 with 8 home runs and 19 RBI’s. Murphy was the 2015 NLCS MVP.
Murphy is also a versatile player which fits in well with the rest of his new teams roster. Murphy has played 1st and 2nd this season, but has also played some 3rd base and leftfield in his career.
It’s clear that the Cubs acquired Murphy for his bat as their offense has really been struggling lately, but he’ll also add some veteran leadership with post season experience.
In adding Murphy it has brought up some questions about former MVP and Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant. Bryant hasn’t played since July 23rd as he went on the disabled list with left shoulder inflammation. There have been reports that Bryant is behind in his recovery as he is only hitting soft toss and doesn’t have full mobility of his shoulder. Originally Bryant was expected to return at the beginning of September, but that may be pushed back.
In another move the Nationals sent Matt Adams back to the team that he started his major league career with the St. Louis Cardinals. There where some conflicting reports here as some have said that the two teams agree on a deal and other have reported that the Cardinals claimed Adams on waivers and the Nationals just let him go. Either way Adams is now with the Cardinals.
In 94 games with the Nationals Adams hit .257 with 18 home runs and 48 RBI’s. Adams needs just to more home runs to tie his career high set last season.
Adams spent five plus seasons with the Cardinals before they traded him to the Atlanta Braves last season. Adams signed with the Nationals as a free agent this past off season.
It’s been reported that the Cardinals where interested in Adams mainly as a left handed bat off of the bench as a pinch hitter, but he has the ability to play 1st base and either corner outfield spot. To open up space for Adams on their 40-man roster the Cardinals moved Dexter Fowler to the 60-day disabled list and they sent Patrick Wisdom to Triple-A Memphis.
Of course since it’s the Nationals everyone wants to know about Bryce Harper. While Harper was placed on waivers he didn’t make it through. Instead of trying to work out a deal with the team that claimed Harper the Nationals simple removed him from waivers. While team that make claims on players aren’t announced it has been speculated that it was the Los Angeles Dodgers that made the claim on Harper. By placing Harper on and them removing him from waivers it means that he’ll be with the Nationals for the remainder of the 2018 season.
With 9 days left for teams to still make deals you have to wonder if the Nationals will make any more moves or if will see any other players get dealt.
While the Cubs where adding Murphy they where also losing a piece to their starting rotation.
The Cubs announced yesterday that Yu Darvish will miss the remainder of the season with a stress reaction in his right elbow. Darvish was already on the disabled list because of a right tricep strain.
Darvish was the Cubs big free agent signing this past off season as he inked a 6 year $126 million dollar deal. The first year of that deal didn’t go well for the Cubs or Darvish. He made just 8 starts covering 40 innings. He was 1-3 with an ERA of 4.95. He walked 21 batters while striking out 49.
While the Cubs where adding Murphy and losing Darvish on the other side of Chicago the White Sox where getting a peak at what they hope is a bright future as Michael Kopech took the mound in his first major league start.
It seem as though everyone wanted to see Kopech pitch except mother nature. Kopech worked two scoreless innings before the rain came in and caused a 52 minute delay. After the long delay the White Sox decided that Kopech’s debut was done.
All in all Kopech pitched 2 innings gave up 3 hits and struck out 4 while throwing 52 pitches; 35 of which where strikes.
There was no announcement made on Kopech’s next start, but if the White Sox stay with a 5-man starting rotation Kopech’s turn should come up again Sunday against the Detroit Tigers.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not as big of a fan of college football as I used to be, but I guess I haven’t been paying much attention because the season actually starts this weekend.
I did see that the first set of rankings came out and I wasn’t shocked at all to see that Alabama was ranked #1. The ret of the Top 5 looks like this. Clemson is #2, Ohio State is #3, Georgia is #4 and Oklahoma rounds out the Top 5. I’m not sure if these rankings came out before there was an issue at Ohio State with their head coach Urban Meyer.
Will Alabama be the team winning it all in the end? Or do you have someone else as champion?
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