The New Nationals

Over the weekend, the guys at Fire Jim Bowden got the result they’ve been asking for – while he resigned instead of being publicly canned, Bowden is out as general manager of the Washington Nationals. While he was able to survive 100 loss seasons and a reputation in the game as one of the least liked front office people around, he couldn’t sidestep the mismanagement of the team’s Dominican operations and the scandal surrounding Jose Rijo’s academy and the signing of Esmailyn Gonzalez.

So now, the Nationals have to pick a new leader, a new direction, and try to right a ship that is honestly quite damanged. Despite a new park, fans haven’t responded by paying to watch a bad team, and the farm system isn’t brimming with young talent ready to lead the team into the future. The roster is a mix of underachieving outfielders, overachieving outfielders, correctly achieving outfielders, a couple of backup outfielders, and some role player-type outfielders in camp on minor league contracts. There’s also a couple of pitchers hanging around.

For whoever inherits the GM job, whether it’s Mike Rizzo, Tony LaCava, or someone else entirely, they’re going to have to make some significant adjustments quickly. This roster just doesn’t make a team, and there are too many pieces that just don’t fit together. The Nationals need to shuffle some pieces around.

That starts with Nick Johnson. In the last year of a three year contract that has seen him barely take the field, he’s owed $5.5 million for 2009 and then will hit free agency. He just doesn’t fit into the team’s future plans in any way, shape, or form. Meanwhile, the signing of Adam Dunn made an already crowded outfield even more confusing, and his defensive limitations really should keep him from having to chase fly balls around. In short, Dunn needs to play first base, which puts Johnson out of a job. The new GM would be well served to find a spot for him on another roster, even if it means picking up some of his contract in order to get a potentially useful player at another position in return.

Once you get Dunn out of the outfield mix, the logjam frees up a little bit – Milledge and Dukes play when they’re healthy, with Kearns/Willingham/Harris splitting the remaining outfield spot between them. You’d hope that Kearns plays well enough to re-establish some trade value in the summer, so getting him playing time should be a priority.

And, speaking of the summer, perhaps no decision will loom bigger for the Nationals than how to spend the #1 pick in the draft this June. Stephen Strasburg is everyone’s number one prospect, and while he’s going to demand significant money, the Nats just aren’t in a position to pass on him. When you’re attempting to re-establish credibility for your franchise, and there’s a consensus top talent available in a draft where you have the pick of the litter, you have to take that guy. The new GM would be wise to make that a prerequisite for accepting the job – he has to have ownership approval to draft and sign Strasburg this summer.

It’s not going to be an easy job patching the holes that Bowden put in the ship, but it can be done. It just has to start quickly.