Johnson To Marlins: Is That All There Is?

"We are not rebuilding. This is a team that, in my opinion, is not far away from being a very good, solid baseball team." -- Mike Rizzo, July 31, 2009.

The Washington Nationals lost to what's left of the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night when former Nationals outfielder Lastings Milledge, making his Pirates debut, drove in the winning run in a 5-4 victory.

Starter John Lannan was hit fairly hard, giving up five earned runs on nine hits over seven innings. The Nats couldn't muster much offense except for Ryan Zimmerman's 20th home run of the season.

But these facts are largely immaterial.

Today, at the Major League trading deadline, the Nationals parted ways with the last remaining player to wear the tri-colours of the Montreal Expos, first baseman Nick Johnson, and left-handed reliever Joe Beimel.

In return, the Nats received a soft-tossing left-handed control artist who was working his way backwards out of the Florida Marlins top prospects, a Triple-A converted reliever who just had Tommy John surgery two months ago, and a kid in A-Ball with a 6.24 ERA.

Oh, and the Nats also picked up the rest of his salary, so it's not even a salary dump.

I was one of the "dopes" that was calling for the Nats to move Nick Johnson. His contract expires at the end of the season, he will not qualify to return compensation picks, and let's face it, has been mostly terrible defensively this season, especially on balls hit behind him where he has to back up or go toward the stands.

Apparently, the team and his agent had tried to work out an extension to his contract to keep him in D.C., but were unable to before the deadline, prompting the trade. Presumably, this means Johnson is open to returning to Washington next season as a free agent. He probably should remain open to the idea, because it's here where he probably has the only chance of making what he thinks he's worth.

Johnson is 30. Not an old man, but definitely on the downward slope for a professional baseball player. If the steroids era taught us anything, it reminded us that ballplayers aren't supposed to get better after they hit 3-0.

Also, Johnson has an extensive and painful injury history. I won't rehash it here to save space, but he's suffered from some of the more grisly injuries known to baseball players.

And there's this: he has no power. Granted, his on-base skills are excellent, and those are skills that can prolong player's career and make him more money in free agency. But let me be perfectly clear about one thing: there is no market for first basemen that hit less than ten home runs a season.

The accumulation of injury has reduced Johnson to an opposite-field, slap-hitting, on-base machine. And that would be wonderful if he played middle infield. But he doesn't. He plays the one position on the field where power is not only required -- it's paramount.

The fact that Johnson has but six home runs at the trade deadline despite his .405 OBP and playing just about every day was as much to blame for the return on the deal than anything else. Want to know why Rizzo couldn't get anything more for Johnson at the deadline? There was no market for him.

Did you see what the Red Sox gave up to acquire Adam LaRoche? A middling SS and pitching prospect. And he has 14 home runs.

The time to have traded Johnson was back in early June, when Mike Lowell first started having his annual back spasms and Big Papi was just slumping, not festering amidst steroid allegation. Not at the deadline, where a "take it or leave it" 11th hour deal leaves you handicapped.

Rizzo said, "We held out for the player we wanted." Really? A Double-A poor man's version of John Lannan?

That, and the opening quote, are the most interesting things to come out of Friday's deals.