Prior to this week, the Washington Nationals had a pretty uneventful offseason. Apart from avoiding arbitration with some of their current players, they also traded left-handed reliever Jose Ferrer to the Seattle Mariners.
With that in mind, they made a big move Thursday, trading their ace Mackenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers for a prospect haul that included five players. Those players were: SS/3B Gavin Fien, 1B Abimelec Ortiz, SS Devin Fitz-Gerald, RHP Alejandro Rosario and CF Yeremy Cabrera.
Of these prospects, Fien is the most highly coveted, having been ranked No. 2 in the Rangers system.
Considering Fien’s position (SS), one National League West team inquired about trading for the Nationals’ star shortstop CJ Abrams, hoping that Washington would be willing to deal him after moving on from Gore and acquiring a top ranked shortstop.
According to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, it was the San Francisco Giants who had tried to make a play at acquiring Abrams, reportedly offering one of their top prospects (Josuar Gonzales) to get the deal done.
That said, Washington declined the offer.
Given that Abrams has one more year left in arbitration than Gore did, chances are that the Nationals will have a much higher price tag on his services.
Last season for the Nats, Abrams posted 3.4 WAR, 19 home runs, 60 RBIs and 31 stolen bases with a .257 batting average. It was Abrams third straight season recording at least 3.4 WAR, 18 home runs, 60 RBIs and 31 stolen bases.
At 25-years-old, Abrams is likely to have a long major league career ahead of him. However, it remains to be seen how long he’ll stay with the Nationals.
