Dec. 22: The Nationals have formally announced Adams’ signing. Their 40-man roster is now up to 39 players.
Dec. 20: The Nationals have reportedly agreed to terms with first baseman Matt Adams on a deal that would bring him to D.C. If finalized, the contract is expected to include a $4MM guarantee and $500K of available incentives for a single season.
Adams is exactly the sort of lefty platoon bat the Nationals have needed since bidding adieu to Adam Lind at the end of the season. The 29-year-old Adams was non-tendered by the Braves after projecting to earn a $4.6MM salary through arbitration.
While he’s not much of an option against lefties, Adams has an excellent track record when hitting with the platoon advantage. For his career, he carries a .286/.333/.495 batting line against opposing right-handers. Adams is also best limited to playing first in the field, though he has at times attempted the corner outfield.
[Related: Updated Washington Nationals depth chart and Nationals payroll outlook]
Those caveats are just fine with the Nats, who seek a player to step into Lind’s role as a complement to veteran first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and source of left-handed bench power. Adams is essentially a younger version of Lind himself, so it’s easy to see the fit here.
It came as a bit of a surprise when the Nationals declined their end of a $5MM mutual option with Lind, who was quite productive for the team in his single season in Washington. But it seems the organization correctly anticipated a sluggish market for bats and determined it might have a shot at a more appealing asset. Though Lind is a more accomplished overall hitter than Adams, he’s also about five years his senior.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted that a deal was in place, along with the contract terms. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported (via Twitter) that the sides were in serious discussions. ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted earlier that the sides had ongoing interest, as had been reported previously.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
this is getting interesting …. this isn’t sarcasm
it seems like everyday the landing spots for the presumably higher cost free agents is dwindling. I wonder if this is the year that the combination of Borass overplaying his hand, GMs using analytics to no longer go for the high priced guys, and the big money clubs all not looking for high priced guys that make the top free agents scramble near the end.
Good point, it is a very small market place, it just takes 30 owners to not want to overpay for big ticket FAs for the market to change. Fascinating to watch so far.
This very well may be true, however in this case Matt Adams does fit the Nats perfectly as a backup 1st for RH Zimm and a lefty off the bench.
true enough. you just have to hope you get production from him while hes in a part time role. adams seems to play better with regular time.
As a Cards fan too, I watched Adams quite a bit. Seeing him in a Nats uniform will be like some weird parallel universe, like the one where Captain Kirk is a bad guy and Spock has a beard.
It’s not that teams are shying away from higher-priced guys as a rule – Carlos Santana just signed for $2oMM/yr. And plenty of teams are still waiting to see what happens with J.D. Martinez and Cain before they make OF moves.
The main thing at play here is that nobody loves Eric Hosmer that much. Teams aren’t waiting around on a guy who has superstar demands despite producing at replacement level twice in the last four years.
It very well could be analytics. It also very well could be the track record of players such as the following turning into being huge albatrosses: Alex Rodriguez, Joe Mauer, Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, Jayson Werth, Carl Crawford, Jose Reyes, Big Panda, Jacoby Ellsbury, Josh Hamilton, Matt Kemp, Ryan Howard, Shin-Soo Choo, Albert Pujols, Jason Heyward, etc…
Everyone (me included) got excited when their team signed any of the players above. The euphoria lasted a couple years, then it turned into how do we get rid of this dead weight.
This offseason seems to have more trades that are centered around salaries than any other winter I can recall. Also, the last couple of WS have been won by teams full of young stars.
This offseason might end up being an anomaly, or it could signal that the money that came from the huge tv contracts that were signed has finally plateaued.
To be fair, Mauer, Fielder, Crawford and Tex had injuries they could never recover from. Pujols is in that same class, but until 2017 he was still a league-average player. Tex got hurt, too, And not to belabor the point, but if Mauer could still catch he would probably be one of the top-5 catchers in baseball.
The other guys: Arod was whatever. He was maybe the best hitter of all time when he entered free agency. (we can leave supposed PEDs out of this.) Werth is the exact kind of player who doesn’t age well, plus he was injury-prone even in his good years. Reyes had off-field issues and, again, not a guy who ages well. Hamilton had such an odd career arc because of the addiction issues that he is an outlier. Sandoval is the exact kind of player who doesn’t age well (No walks, bad athlete). Kemp got hurt and then abslutely stopped caring one whit about playing defense. Howard suffered a serious injury, but he wasn’t honestly that good in the first place. Choo couldn’t stay healthy. Heyward is probably rhe most puzzling of all these guys but he’s still young enough to recover some offensive value; he’s an elite defender and that’s important too.
I remember how long it took for Prince Fielder ….. but the Tigers eventually came up with an absurd contract and Detroit got a couple decent seasons from him but had to pay a huge amount of his contract AND take on the contract of Ian Kinsler to unload Prince, who had one pretty good season for Texas but two injury plagued seasons and was forced to retire from the game.
Deal – spelled wrong in first line
You sure? I was certain the DEA was escorting him to DC.
Dude! Don’t be that guy!
someone has to be, the guy. if you read the local media where i live…they’re horrible
CLEARLY this will be insurance for when Harper leaves….
Good one.
I’m sorry, but what a shame the braves didn’t trade the guy when we had a chance and he was killing it. We weren’t contending, he was playing out of his mind. Sure no one would give up a ton for him, but the Freddie freeman experiment at 3rd cost us. He could have brought some sort of prospect or minor leaguer at the time, prob something decent too. I know nothing great, but something decent I’m sure. Like a lower end top 30 prospect on a teams farm. Like that’s much better than DFA. He had value at that point, even a minor leaguer with potential in A ball, or cash or international money I mean come on…. what a waste
the joe shmoe we would have possibly gotten back isn’t worth your frustration
You never know. That random joe could have turned out to be a pretty good player, or maybe he was good enough to sweeten the deal of trade in the future. He could be a bust, but you truly don’t know.
what did the freeman experiment do to harm the braves? nothing
Except it takes on a big risk that someone would have been willing to also give up a prospect in order to get him, and the indication was that no one was willing to trade for him., especially since they could always just try to find someone else instead. And if no one decided to trade for him, then the Braves would be stuck with him unless they decide to release him, and keeping him wouldn’t be an ideal option given the indications that they’ll be going with a four-man bench. The overall risks outweighed the rewards, and it’s better that they non-tendered him instead of trying to keep him in the hopes of finding a trade partner.
Besides, he doesn’t have as much value as you’re trying to imply. Yes, he filled in great for Freeman, but he came down to earth pretty soon after he returned.
They tried to deal him away last year when his value was at it’s highest and no one wanted to offer much in return. I’m sure that the Braves tried to deal him away before they cut him. No one was willing to give enough of a return. There were simply far too many similar type players for far too few spots available seeking that type of limited player.
What did FF at third cost Atlanta? Atlanta would have gotten a fringe prospect, maybe 2 bottom level guys. There’s nothing really to lose when Adams was putting asses in the seats. I liked having Adams on the Braves, but realistically, no one was giving up much for him.
Oh, please pleas please! That way the Tribe won’t do something dumb and sign him.
Tribe is bristling at the asking prices for guys like Yonder Alonso and Adam Lind. They could have Adrian Gonzalez at league minimum, but I think they’re really keeping an eye on Rafael Palmeiro’s progress in his comeback attempt.
Hmmm, wonder if he plays cribbage. Francona would love him.
Are there any other kinds of discussions to have with Matt Adams?
Adam Lind had an amazing 2017: .303/.362/.513 and 14 home runs over 301 plate appearances (267 AB)
Bat Nats declined their end of Lind’s $5MM mutual option paying him a $500K buyout instead, and chose to sign Matt Adams for one year $4MM (+$500K incentives)
Who do you anticipate having a better 2018. Adam Lind or Matt Adams. Should they have kept Lind, since he did so well for them in limited PT?
Well, keep in mind that not only is Adams much younger, but he’ll still be arbitration eligible again in 2019 before he can become a free agent, essentially making this a one year contract plus a reasonable team option for a second year.
No, he isn’t. Assuming they keep him for the entire year, he’s a free agent after this year, since this offseason would have been his last trip through arbitration, while it’s now negated by this contract.
Lind can probably make more than $5M with those numbers, so the Nats probably saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship to Adams.
how does this make sense? lind could probably make more than 5 mil so the nationals just kindly let him go from his contractual obligation?
Adams needs to go to a team that needs a first baseman, because he needs every day at bats. He is a decent first baseman and hits with power. A trade to the AL would have been good, because he could DH there. I, for one, wish him the very best.
1 yr 4 mil
ask kershaw and mad bum about his left handed ppwer clutch hitting
I think Lind should find some playing time somewhere. Maybe Tampa or a team that needs a lefty 1st base/outfielder/dh.
Cleveland?
Poon Hammers?
Why? He’s a DH. he’s worst than jay Bruce on defense.
No I’ve watched him. He’s actually a pretty good defense 1st baseman. But outfield play is a different story.
When the Nats signed Matt Adams and the story mentioned his struggles against left-handed pitchers, it made me wonder why there are so many naturally right-handed players who bat left only even though they can’t hit left-handed pitchers as well. When they’re young and developing their skills, why not switch-hit? Lefty pitchers have always been tougher on lefty batters than righties on righties, so why not hit from the natural right side against lefty pitchers?
Maybe as a professional it’s too late to change, but hitting from the natural right side should be easier at first. I’ve read that as a boy Mickey Mantle hated hitting from the left side because it was so much harder, but his father made him.
I’ll bet if Adams is reading this he’s saying, “Man, he’s right. I should have been a switch-hitter. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Good pick up for Washington, ‘Big City’ should come in handy and hopefully hasn’t peaked yet as a hitter.
Matt Adams is 28 years old and thus entering his prime years. Hopefully it translate into further success.