The trade deadline has now passed, and Washington made a minor splash by trading Nick Johnson to Florida for a minor league pitcher. I commented in an earlier post that Washington should do nothing at this deadline. I still fell that way, and in truth, this was as close to doing nothing as they could.

Bill Ladson wrote on MLB.com that the Nationals HAD to trade Johnson because he didn’t want to negotiate an extension, and the Nats wanted to get something of value for him during the season rather than taking their chances in the off-season if he became a free agent. Apparently, there was very little interest in Johnson which of course begs the question: couldn’t the Nationals have gotten 2 months service out of him and then taken their chances that he wasn’t going to be signed by anyone?
There is also a deeper question of who is going to play first. The Nats have talked of putting Dunn or Willingham, or possibly Belliard there and Willingham has expressed his desire to play. As a matter of fact, he has been taking extra ground balls. Chico Harlan in the Washington Post explains that the Nationals are not too concerned about that position for either this year or the next. In 2011, the position will probably be played by Chris Marrero, the Nationals’ first round pick in 2006 who is now in the Carolina League (Class A). Mike Rizzo is quoted as saying that he is “right on pace” to be in the bigs in two years. He is hitting .299 and has a little pop in his bat with 20 doubles and 15 home-runs. One glaring problem- he has walked 36 times and has struck out 86. Anyone knows that is a backwards ratio. Another problem? His defense. He currently has 14 errors for the Potomac Nationals. That seems to be a recurring theme with the Nats.
So, that seems to be the future at 1B. Now if we can just get an answer at second.