DECEMBER 18: The Nats have announced the signing.
DECEMBER 15, 3:38 PM: The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty tweets that Adams will earn $3MM in 2019, and he’s also guaranteed a $1MM buyout on a mutual option for the 2020 season.
3:18 PM: Free agent first baseman/outfielder Matt Adams has agreed to a one-year, $4MM deal (contract details via Yahoo’s Jeff Passan) with Washington, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Per Rosenthal, the deal is pending a physical.
Adams, 30, was excellent in 277 plate appearances for the Nationals last seasons, slashing .257/.332/.510 (123 wRC+) before moving back to St. Louis on a late-August waiver claim. Despite poor numbers in a minuscule sample upon returning to the Cardinals, a slimmed-down Adams posted his highest hard-hit rate (39.1%) since the 2014 campaign, and displayed, for the first time, an ability to adequately handle a corner-outfield spot, earning decent DRS marks after a dreadful initiation to the spots in 2017.
Adams, though, has long been a near-automatic out against left-handed pitching (career .208/.238/.358 batting line, 59 wRC+), and did little to dismiss the notion in 32 plate appearances versus lefties in 2018. Still, he’s a solid bench option for a team in dire need of upper-level offensive depth, and should be an adequate replacement for an aging Ryan Zimmerman or the injury-prone Adam Eaton, should either fall prey to the DL and/or bouts of ineffectiveness.
The Slippery Rock University product made his MLB debut in 2012 with St. Louis after systematically annihilating minor-league pitching from 2009-12. His rookie season in 2013 was arguably his best, as the then-24-year-old joined a host of lineup-mates in demolishing NL pitching (his 135 wRC+ was third-best on the team) en route to the team’s second pennant in three seasons. Sharp decline followed, though, and an undiscerning eye (5.0 BB% from ’14-’15) relegated the 23rd-round pick to extreme part-time duty.
An increased, 7.6 BB% allowed for a slight rebound in Adams’ 2016 performance, before the slugger dropped 30 pounds and vowed to improve his versatility. There’s hope for more, too: Adams’ 107 wRC+ last season was suppressed by a career-low .245 average on balls in play, with his second-St. Louis-stint results (.167 BABIP in 60 PA despite a 56% hard-hit rate) being an obvious anomaly.
Welcome back!
I will resist the Welcome Back, Kotter insert here.
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Long live Arnold Horshack
Poor guy didnt make it.
$4MM seems cheap. I’m happy
Angels got Bour for 2.5M, and he’s a better hitter.
He’s also from D.C. which makes a nice story.
He’s also from D.C., which would make a nice story.
Heard you the first time.
I’d rather have Adams.
Stop complaining
Not quite first!!
ey’s heart grew three times today when she saw your post, or maybe it’s all those corn dogs.
Gets funnier every time…
I had a feeling that they might do it because Zimmerman is running on fumes.
Not completely fumes but can’t trust Zimm Zamm to stay 100% healthy. If he is healthy, Zimm is still one of the better players in baseball. Look at his 2017
Yes and Chris Carter is one of the better players in baseball. Look at his 2016.
And Zimm was hurt for most of 2014-2016 before finally being fully healthy on 2017 where he went back to 36 homers, 108 RBI and a .300 average which was what he was putting up before he was hurt.
RZimm’s games played the last five years:
2014: 61
2015: 95
2016: 115
2017: 144
2018: 85
I’m a Nats fan. I know that the team needs a solid backup, because it’s very unlikely that Zimm stays healthy. Matt did a great job last season. Happy to see him return.
Hands down Ryan Zimmerman is the best Nats 1b since Adam LaRoche. Book it
Ah yes, another player signs with a team that just traded him away despite Pads Fans and Ray Ray’s insistence that it never happens.
Patch Adams is more like it. Rofl
Welcome back!! Good run last year
Adams is the epitome of underrated. Never gets any love
Just like Mike Ford! And Neil Walker… and Greg Bird….
idiot
Real xabial or a burner?
Fake, I believe. Real X is almost always polite, even in an argument.
Can someone explain to me the Xabial thing? Why is he/she so hated? Why are people making fake versions of his/her account?
He’s usually first to comment and proposes trades/signings for the Yankees that are unrealistic or unbalanced
Oh, he’s one of THOSE yankees fans huh.
Red Sox are still worse.
Also I love your username btw.
That band isn’t very good.
It’d be funny if the Cardinals claimed him off waivers again in August.
As a Cardinals fan, no no it wouldn’t be.
I always like Matt Adams. Slightly underrated and always with a good attitude, along with the willingness to play a position he has no real business playing (LF). I really had my mind made up, at the start of the off season, that he’d end up with the Rays.
Great news!! Matt is so underrated. I’ll say the same thing I did when he signed last winter.
Ryan Zimmerman would make a good backup for Adams!! (I’m not kidding)
Not a nationals fan but what is really finding letting Adam’s go last year to be very puzzling. Glad to see they saw the error of their ways. Very solid player who does not get the credit he deserves. I am a Yankee fan but the person who mentioned Greg bird needs to be slapped LOL.
It was sarcasm because Xabial used to talk about how good and underrated Mike Ford, Greg Bird, and Neil Walker were. Smh anyone with a brain knows my comment was sarcastic.
Again, I was never in Bird’s corner. Or much of a Walker fan…
You’re not making sense. Idiot
Given a 2nd chance, yet same old bb16000
Ass.
Nats traded Matt Adams because he was on a one year deal, all but out of playoff contention and was trying to save money. Clearly the move didn’t damage their relationship
Then you might not want to put in the same sentence an underrated player like Neil Walker LOL!
Don’t mind him I’m a Yankee fan too and have a lot of bugs here like trolling me
I’ll give him Mike Ford, though. He’s still an idiot.
What do you have against Walker’s career? Just askin’.
Only Walker’s Yankee career.
had a very peculiar beginning. But strong end
Man, what a cycle. From the Cards to the Nats, then back to the Cards and now again with the Nats.
As a Cards/Nats fan, I’m always welcoming him back.
Braves in there for a minute.
Yes, he started out on fire for the Braves after the Cards essentially gave him away due to roster squeeze, and there was much whining among Cards fans. But he cooled off and the Braves ended up releasing him.
Completely forgot about that stint
Slippery Rock University lol
Lou Trivino played there too.
Don’t knock the Rock!
Given the local vernacular, it’s amazing that it’s not called Slippy Rock University.
Underrated? Bahahaha
Stop self medicating.
He is, at his very possible best, replacement level
His OPS with DC last season was .842. If he had enough ABs, that would be around top 30 in MLB.
Papa
You are starting to sound like me the way you throw those numbers around LOL, Where’s Brino? LOL (again)
Was hoping Rockies would sign him. Desmond actually hits RH pitching pretty well, would’ve made a solid platoon.
Starting to think Bridich is going to signer Marwin and another 8M AAV mediocre RP.
Rock Chalk Slippery Rock! Love to see the Rockets getting some love.
I can’t believe an AL team hasn’t gone after him to be a full time DH that could play 1st or corner OF in a pinch. He could be had on the cheap too.
That would seem to be a good fit for Matt. But glad we got him on he bench.
Now I am hoping we can pin down Marwin
Let’s see…..The Cardinals wanted a left handed bat off the bench with power. They traded for Adams last season to fill the same gap. He did so adequately!! Why didn’t the resign him??
Cards wanted a left handed hitting utility player.
Adams is at best a pinch hitter off the bench for the Cards with Goldschmidt at first. Outfield didn’t quite work out. Good signing for Nats. I wish Big city the best of luck.
Was hoping KC would have picked him up last year—or this year, for that matter. Although he was more of a platoon guy, Adams’ career numbers are almost identical to Hoz, with Hoz having a 20-point edge in SLG while Adams had OBP. Either way, good signing.
Adams is a good signing for Nats.
It’s interesting how similar Matt Adams is to Adam Lind. Left-side, Bat-first players whom destroy right-hand pitching and subsequently flounder against lefty’s.
They really are incredibly similar. I’d say Lind is/was a better player overall but not by much.
The Nationals thought so, and swapped out one Adam for another.
Solid pick up. Good platoon player and left handed hitter with power off the bench. At 3 million his limitations aren’t a big issue you aren’t paying him to pay something he’s not
Why doesn’t he sign with an AL team where he can DH? His defense is what keeps him out of the everyday lineup.
And the fact he can’t hit lefties…
If he can play deep enough at first to prevent anything down the RF line, he’ll be fine with the occasional start or late inning sub. I see him as more of a PH. Of course, the counter move is to go to your lefty reliever.
Kershaw has a poster of Adams above his bed
Having a solid back-up/platoon 1B when Zimmerman’s health has been on again off again the past few years is a good plan to have.
If the mutual option is not exercised does the 1M count again the 2019 or 2020 cap?
Well it looks like many agents and players are less willing to wait around after the molasses free agent pace in 2017/18. It doesn’t look like they will need to set up a free Agent Spring camp this year…
Happy to have Matt Adams back on the Nats for 2019. Always need a solid backup for old man Zimm.
Losing the weight and focusing on defense shows the guy wants to stick around. I hope he does well.
I’ve always been surprised (and kind of felt bad) for Adams. To me it seems like he’s been a guy that just needed a good opportunity once to get his career of the ground and really take off. Unfortunately he just seems like he never really gets that chance. And now he’s starting to get up to the age where it just all feels like a case of ‘what could have been’ — sort of reminds me of Steve Pearce’s career… who knows maybe Adams will find a ‘perfect fit’ like Pearce has at the tail end of his career.