The Washington Nationals announced today they added OF Jonny Gomes to the active roster and designated veteran pinch-hitter Matt Stairs for assignment.

Stairs, 43, batted .154 with one double and two RBIs in 56 games this season. The 19-year veteran reached base in just 19 of his 74 plate appearances for the Nats (.257 OBP).  The MLB all-time leader in pinch-hit home runs, Stairs was brought in to be a dangerous pinch-hitter and solid veteran presence in the clubhouse. He may have fulfilled his duties in the clubhouse, but on the field he did nothing but struggle.

Gomes is hitting .211/.336/.399 with 11 homers and 31 RBIs in 265 plate appearances for Cincinnati this season.  But he mashes left-handed pitchers to the tune of .333/.439/.537 in 2011 and will most likely form a solid platoon with Laynce Nix in left field and be a valuable right-handed hitting pinch-hitter, though Gomes is regarded as one of the worst defenders in the game today.

Gomes will be active for tonight's Nats game against the Florida Marlins.

Another shoe will drop Friday, as a spot on the 25-man roster must be opened for Chien-Ming Wang, scheduled to start against the New York Mets that night.  Barring a trade of someone on the current active roster, it's likely that LHP Ross Detwiler will be sent to AAA-Syracuse and LHP Tom Gorzelanny will be moved to the bullpen to activate Wang.

Nationals celebrate Canada Day! (C.Nichols/Nats News Network)

Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson held an extensive, wide-ranging press conference early Friday afternoon, and in it he remarked more than once that in order to win, he would need the best efforts of all 25 men on his roster.  He also spoke about the necessity of having a power bat on his bench to give the other manager something to think about in the late innings, using the euphemism of having a guy with a "big, hairy chest" sitting next to him in the dugout.

Last night, in the Nats 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, Matt Stairs was that big, hairy guy Johnson needs him to be. As it happens, the New Brunswick native played the hero on Canada Day, which celebrates Canada becoming an independent kingdom on July 1, 1867. 

Stairs drove a 95-MPH fastball from reliever Tim Wood off the right field wall, scoring pinch-runner Alex Cora from third to deliver yet another walk-off win at Nats Park.  The embattled veteran has but seven hits to his credit this season, and certainly none were as big as the one last night.

Veteran Matt Stairs came though for the Nats. (C.Nichols/Nats News Network)

The win pushes the Nats back to the .500 mark, kicking off this 10-day, 11-game homestand in grand fashion. It also marks Johnson's first win as a major league manager in eleven years.

“You win pennants with 25 players,” Johnson said in the pre-game press conference. “They’re all invaluable. You can’t win with 24, 23, 22, so my job as manager is to try to take care of all 25. [Stairs] had some sporadic at-bats, and he wasn’t hitting too good. We need his capabilities coming off the bench late in the ballgame.”

Certainly the burly Canadian had tried everyone's patience this season, batting just .138 with a lone RBI until last night's game-winner.  But the 43-year old has had rough stretches before, and he figured eventually he would pull out of this one too.  While that remains to be seen, he's appears to have benefited from getting three starts in a row as designated hitter while the team was out in Anaheim taking on the Angels. 

While the decision to give him all those at bats might not have paid off in that series, rarely this season has Stairs hit a ball harder than the one that he lashed halfway up the wall to the left of the Nationals bullpen in right field.

"[Stairs] swung the bat pretty good out in L.A., and he's still not quite 100 percent, but that looked like 100 percent right there. That was a rocket," Johnson said from his office after the game.

Johnson sent Stairs up to hit for Ian Demsond, who is struggling in his own right.  "I told Desi, 'Look, you're not swinging like I know you're capable of. Normally, I wouldn't do this, but there's a chance. I got to try to put everything I got in this thing,' " Johnson said.  The 68-year old skipper had already lifted his first baseman, Michael Morse (who singled to start the inning), for the pinch-runner Cora, and now was pulling his starting shortstop in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth.

As Johnson described, he rolled the dice a little bit, and on this night he came up a winner.

The heroics came too late to do anything for starter Tom Gorzelanny, who threw another terrific ballgame.  He went seven innings and allowed just one unearned run on six hits and one walk, striking out eight.  The Pirates got a run off him in the third on a single, an error on a sacrifice and a ground out.

The Nats first run of the game came courtesy of Roger Bernadina's fifth home run of the season, who also singled in the game.  The Nats center fielder got support from his new manager during the post-game as well.  Johnson said Bernadina "deserves a chance to play every day, and I'm gonna give it to him."

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THE GOOD:  A win!  Davey Johnson is as crusty a manager as there ever was, but even he admitted feeling relief notching his first win after three consecutive losses to start his Nats tenure. "Now I'm going after number two." he said post-game. "First win... [being out] 11 years in the big leagues, here in front of the home crowd. That's special. ... It's been a while."

THE BAD:  Ryan Zimmerman. 0-for-4 with a K and a couple of ground outs. The Z-man isn't making very good contact right now.

THE UGLY:  Wilson Ramos went 0-for-3 with a walk, and did drive a ball to right that moved the runner up in the ninth inning.  But after his strong start this season, he's now hitting just .235.

THE STATS:  Six hits, five walks, six strikeouts. 1-for-7 with RISP, eight LOB, Three GIDP. E: Gorzelanny (2), Morse (1).

NEXT GAME:  Doubleheader Saturday against the Pirates. Game One is at 3:35 pm and pits John Lannan (5-5, 3.48) against James McDonald (5-4, 4.52).  Game Two is at 7:05 pm and Livan Hernandez (5-8, 3.81) will start for the Nats.  Pittsburgh has not announced a starter for the second game as of this post.

NATS NOTES:  Before the game, the Nationals announced they dismissed first base coach Dan Radison and replaced him with Trent Jewett, who was serving as bench coach when John McLaren was reassigned. Radison was a very close confidant of former manager Jim Riggleman.

Morse made his first error at first base. In fact, it's his first error since when he was with the Seattle Mariners in 2005.



Danny Espinosa shows off his high jumping skills. (C.Nichols/Nats News Network)



Alex Cora advanced to third on Wilson Ramos' fly ball to right in ninth inning. (C.Nichols/Nats News Network)

So much for a quiet off-day in spring training.

By now, you've all read the reports.  Rick Ankiel has won the centerfielder job.  Matt Stairs has a place on the bench.  Jayson Nix could very well be a backup outfielder. 

And now, for the coup de grace, the Washington Nationals have signed LHP Oliver Perez to a minor league deal.

It's enough to make one wonder about the decision-making process in NatsTown.

To be polite, Ankiel's best days (not that they were all that great to begin with) are in the past.  In 2008, the then 28 year old Ankiel completed a remarkable transition from left-handed fireball pitcher to Major League outfielder, hitting .262/.337/.506 with 25 home runs and 71 RBIs for the St. Louis Cardinals. 

The tragic story of a pitcher that lost the ability to throw strikes had its happy ending.

Since then though, Ankiel, 32 in July, hasn't come close to replicating those numbers.  He hasn't hit 25 homers combined in the last two seasons and his career .248/.312/.441 over eight seasons describes a journeyman struggling to hang on.

Nix, 30, is the very definition of journeyman, working on his fourth organization.  His slash line (.243/.286/.425) is even worse than Ankiel's in his eight big league seasons.

At least both Ankiel and Nix play a decent outfield and are capable of manning center, though both are more suited for left field.

Matt Stairs, however, is a pinch-hitter.  Only.  He's 43 years old and can no longer play the field with any acumen.  He is the Major League record holder for career pinch-hit home runs, and is seems like extending that record is the only thing that keeps him hanging on. 

In the last two seasons, his 240 plate appearances have netted 11 home runs, but with a slash line of .213/.333/.426, suggesting his approach is homer or bust in every appearance.  21 of his 43 hits the last two years resulted in doubles or home runs.

Oh, and all three are left-handed hitters.  It would make sense for the Nats to carry one older, more experienced part-time outfielder bench player on their roster.  But three?

If all three make the roster, it spells doom for others in the system, namely Nyjer Morgan and especially Roger Bernadina -- two younger, more athletic left-handed hitters.

Nyjer Morgan, 30, has his fans -- and detractors -- in the organization.  There are those that feel he really is the player that was showcased for ten weeks in 2009 after the trade that brought him over from the Pirates, when he hit .312/.373/.401 with 34 steals.  There are an equal number that have grown tired of him misplay balls in the outfield, get thrown out on the bases and generally sulk his way to a .253/.319/.314 slash line last season.

His maturity issues add a whole another level of complexity to his rosterability.

But the real victim in all of this rush to add big league experience to a roster that should be in a full-blown youth movement is Roger Bernadina.

The Shark may never be anything more than a fourth outfielder.  But he has an intriguing combination of pop and speed -- 11 HR, 16 SB/2 CS in 461 plate appearances in 2010, his first full season in the majors.  And he is entering the prime of his career, turning 27 in July. 

He's a guy that virtually screams "breakout player", yet it seems like the Nats are going to allow him to languish in Triple-A instead of finding out if they actually have a big leaguer on their hands.

Ankiel, Nix and Stairs almost certainly will not be on this team next season, and definitely not in 2013, when the bulk of the Nats talent should be mature enough to actually compete in the National League East.  Bernadina, on the other hand, could be a contributing member of that squad in the prime of his career.

But the Nats, in their desperation to win as many games as they can in 2011 to justify Jayson Werth's horrible contract, won't know what they have with Bernadina, if they retain his services at all. 

This Nationals team is EXACTLY the type of team that should be playing its youngsters.  They threw Ian Desmond to the wolves last year and he responded, and Danny Espinosa will be given the same treatment this year.

Bernadina showed some promise last season before running out of gas in the longest season of his professional career.  He apparently lost a share of the left field position due to Michael Morse's hot spring, and since he has an option remaining on his contract, will in all likelihood be sent down to make room for a couple of re-treads trying to hang on in the name on "professionalism" and "Major League experience".

As for the signing of Perez?  Heaven help the Nationals if he actually steps foot in Nats Park.  Too many things have to go abysmally wrong for Perez to be an option.  The organization is already touting his relationship with Spin Williams, their minor league pitching coordinator, with whom Perez worked in Pittsburgh. 

But there's no covering up the fact that Perez has walked six batters per nine innings the last two season, nor the fact that his very public complaining about being relegated to the bullpen with the Mets led to his release.

But Perez is a Scott Boras client, and Mike Rizzo has yet to meet a Boras client he wasn't willing to sign, as the Nats now have 11 on the roster.

Seems like the more things change around NatsTown, the more they stay the same.

Matt Stairs crossing home plate at Nats Park
as a member of the Padres.
(C.Nichols/NatsNewsNetwork)

The Washington Nationals announced this morning they signed 1B/OF/PH Matt Stairs to a non-guaranteed minor league contract, which includes an invitation to Major League Spring Training.

Stairs is an 18-year big league veteran who has competed in four post-seasons and won a World Series championship with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. He owns the all-time Major League mark with 23 pinch-hit home runs. Stairs enters 2011 having played for a record-tying 12 different Major League teams and having homered for a record-tying 11 different clubs.

The 42-year-old tied for the Major League lead with four pinch-hit home runs last season, after leading all big league pinch hitters with five homers and 15 RBI (tied) in 2009. Overall in 2010, Stairs clubbed six home runs, six doubles and 16 RBI in 111 plate appearances with the San Diego Padres.

Stairs has reached the 20-homer plateau six times en route to hitting 265 home runs and posting 897 RBI during his career.

GM Mike Rizzo has said on several occasions this off-season he wanted to upgrade his bench with professionals that knew and understood their roles, and Stairs fills that requirement.  He made just 17 starts in the field last season of his 78 appearances, three at first base, 13 in left field and one in right field.