Nationals Talking Trade

Ken Rosenthal of The Sporting News reported yesterday that the Nationals were on the brink of acquiring Colorado Rockies OF Preston Wilson in exchange for RHP Zach Day and OF JJ Davis. Later in the afternoon, ESPN said the deal had fallen through due to money issues, the Nationals and Rockies could not agree on how much of Wilson's roughly $6M each team would pay. The Washington Post's Barry Svrluga reports the Nationals are only willing to pay $2.5M and are "working on creative ways to get Wilson, including a three-way deal that could involve Day going to the Chicago White Sox, who would in turn ship prospects and money to Colorado." From a pure value standpoint, there is not a whole lot to quibble about. JJ Davis is a AAAA OF (i.e. a #5 OF) and while sinkerballer Zach Day has potential, with the Nationals' acquisition of fellow sinkerballer Ryan Drese makes Day redundant. Not to mention Day's run-ins with manager Frank Robinson have landed Day on the persona non grata list (see Chavez, Endy and Ohka, Tomo). The issue with this deal is who is going to play in the Nationals OF if they were to acquire Wilson. I'm not going to rehash it, I'll direct you to Chris who really nails it on the head.