Defensive Indifference

I haven’t become a nihilist in the last few days, but I have been wondering lately just what the point of all this is.

The Nationals acquired pitcher Scott Olsen and outfielder Josh Willingham from the Marlins for Emilio Bonifacio and a pair of low-level prospects. In short they got two useful major leaguers for next to nothing. In a vaccuum, it’s a good deal. Klaw likes it. The Washington media likes it. Even the bloggers seem to generally be happy with it. But baseball isn’t played in a vaccuum.

In Washington, it’s played in a brand new stadium in front of a scant few fans. I know because I watched them play in person at least 15 times this season.

Willingham is an upgrade on the unholy Wily Mo Pena/Austin Kearns combo in the outfield (or Nick Johnson at first), but he’ll also be 30 next February and has battled numerous injuries during his professional career. Olsen is a promising lefty I suppose, but he’s yet another headcase in the Nationals clubhouse, a guy who frankly seems like a bit of a bad apple. He has a live arm, and there’s still time for him to turn into a nice pitcher, but I’m skeptical that that will ever happen.

The Nats fielded one of the worst teams I have ever seen last year. So in that sense it’ll be nice to see Olsen and Willingham prowling around Washington. On the other hand, it’s hard not to feel like this is a move that will bear little fruit for the Nats. I suppose they have to try and get better, but what did they do here? Add a couple of wins to a team that won 59 in 2008. Neither player is going to move the ticket gate, and the odds are against them signing a player who will this winter.

The Olsen-Willingham deal reminds me a lot of Bowden’s last universally praised move — the one that brought Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns to D.C. It was a good deal at the time, and is probably still a win for the Nationals, but it didn’t exactly change much franchise. Olsen and Willingham probably won’t either.

If you’re going to be one of the worst teams in baseball, you might as well be spectacularly bad.