ed. (12:01 pm) -- MLB.coms Bill Ladson reports via his twitter account:

So we are clear: #Nats LHP Doug Slaten was not designated for assignment, said a prominent person in the organization.

Strange that a national, respected, credentialed organization like CBSSports.com can have information like this wrong. 

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According to this article at rotoinfo.com. the Washington Nationals have designated left-handed reliever Doug Slaten for assignment.

CBSSports.com has it too.

We will try to confirm these reports as quickly as possible.

In 19.1 IP, Slaten is 2-1 with a 2.79 ERA with 13 Ks and 7 BBs.

Photo 2010 © Cheryl Nichols Photography/

Nationals News Network. All Rights Reserved

After the Washington Nationals defeated the San Diego Padres 5-3 Friday night, they returned OF Justin Maxwell to Triple-A Syracuse to make room for Satruday's starter, J.D. Martin.

Martin will face Padres rookie Mat Latos Saturday afternoon.

Maxwell is hitting .138/.395/.276 in 43 plate appearances for the Nationals this season.

With Mike Morse' rehab stint in Triple-A Syracuse coming to a close, the Washington Nationals will designate Willy Taveras for assignment, giving the team 10 days to trade or release the veteran outfielder. 

 Taveras, 28, hit .200/.243/.257 for the Nats in 37 plate appearances.  He had four RBIs (all in one game), with one steal.  He was caught stealing twice.

Lifetime, Taveras is a .274/.320/.327 hitter, but those numbers are propped up by one good season in 2007, when he hit .320 with a .370 BABiP for Colorado.

According to reports, Taveras took the news as well as can be expected, but was undecided if he would return to play minor league ball should the Nats wish to retain his services.

Morse played in four games early this season before he injured his calf making a play on a routine fly ball.  It seemed a trivial matter at the time, but has held him out of major league action for six weeks at this point.

Morse earned part of a platoon situation in right field coming out of spring training, sharing time with left-handed hitter Willie Harris.  But Roger Bernadina has played well after his recall though, and to start with, Morse will probably get at bats against tough lefties and provide some measure of pop off the bench--where there is a dire shortage.

Morse is a .291/.352/.405 lifetime hitter in the majors over 398 plate appearances.

The Washington Nationals are in the process of making several roster moves today to bolster the lineup and make room for today's starting pitcher, LHSP Scott Olsen.

First, after the game last night they re-assigned OF Roger Bernadina to Triple-A Syracuse.

Before today's game, the team will announce the recall of OF Justin Maxwell.  With the team facing LHPs three out of four days, manager Jim Riggleman wanted Maxwell's right handed bat availble to him, and Maxwell is penciled into today's starting lineup.

To make room for Olsen, several outlets are reporting that RHRP Jason Bergmann will be removed from the roster.  Bergmann is out of options, so he would have to pass through waivers in order for the Nats to send him to the minor leagues.

So far this season, Bergmann is 0-1 with a 15.43 ERA in four appearances.  In 2.1 IP, he's given up four earned runs on three hits and a walk.  Two of the three hits were home runs.

Bergmann has been with the team since 2005, and has a lifetime 5.04 ERA.

The Nats face J.A. Happ and the Phillies today at 3:00 pm in the finale of the three-game series.

The Nationals outrighted LHRP Victor Garate to Triple-A Syracuse to make room on the 40-man roster for new closer Matt Capps. 

Garate was acquired at the trade deadline last season from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for 2B Ronnie Belliard, who went on to oust Orlando Hudson from the starting position down the stretch for the Dodgers.

Garate, 24, had no decisions in four appearances for the Nats last season, giving up five erned runs in two innings on five hits, three walks, a hit by pitch and one home run, making his big league ERA a tidy 22.50 with an even 4.00 WHIP.

At Double-A Chattanooga in 2009, he threw 53.0 innings with an 0-1 record.  His ERA was 2.04 and WHIP of 1.113, striking out 9.5 batters per nine innings.

Photo © 2009 Cheryl Nichols. All Rights Reserved.

• Non-tendered RHRP Mike MacDougal and LHSP Scott Olsen.
• Offered arbitration to C Jesus Flores, OF Josh Willingham, C Wil Nieves, RHRP Jason Bergmann, RHRP Brian Bruney and LHRP Sean Burnett.
• Signed RHRP Ryan Speier to a minor league contract.
• Signed LHSP Scott Olsen to an incentive-heavy free agent contract.

There are a couple of expected moves in the above list, and a couple of surprises.

First, the expected.  The Nats' non-tendering of MacDougal and Olsen.  Both players stood to make a pretty big payday with arbitration, and figured they could re-sign both -- if they wanted -- after non-tendering.

They were right about Olsen, as he was a free agent less than one day, signing a $1 million contract, with incentives that could push the total to just under $4 million.  Olsen is coming off of season-ending labrum surgery, and according to GM Mike Rizzo, he is ready to start getting into baseball shape.

Whether Olsen returns from the surgery to be a valuable member of the Nats rotation is a story for another day, though, because we won't know until well into spring training how his shoulder responds to the procedure.

MacDougal has to be considered questionable at this point to return, though MASN.com's Byron Kerr indicates talks are continuing. 

MacDougal led the team in saves last season, and was third in the league in save percentage last year, but his underlying stats tell a different story.  He hard-throwing righty posted a career low K/9 at just 5.6, while his walk rate for the Nats was the same 5.6.  His overall WHIP was 1.520, much higher than one would expect for the No. 3 save percentage closer in the game.

His gaudy save total (20-for-21) though would have driven an arbitration salary through the roof of what the Nats would have wanted to pay him.

And it was completely expected that the Nats would offer arbitration to Flores, Willingham, Bruney and Burnett.

On to the (mild) surprises:  bringing back Nieves and Bergmann, and the signing of Justin Speier.

All off-season, the Nats have maintained their need to upgrade at backup catcher.  Primary to the point, the signing of Ivan Rodriguez.  That the club decided to retain Nieves, a player at a position they were vocal about upgrading from, has to be considered a bit surprising.

The team has been very careful not to name names when talking about addressing their needs at catcher, but Rizzo didn't want to go into the season with Nieves as the main backup again, that much is clear.  But offering him arbitration now indicated to me that he will indeed be the primary backup, this time to Rodriguez, at least to start the season.

Everything the Nats have done at the catcher spot (signing Rodriguez, who made it clear he's ready to play every day, bringing back Nieves and Jamie Burke), indicates to me that Flores is not only not going to be ready in spring training, but probably well into the regular season.

Bergmann's return surprised me as well, his quality down the stretch last year notwithstanding.  Overall, though, his season numbers were less than inspiring, and with his track record with the team, I thought this was going to be the season they let him test the free agent waters. 

But we can now expect Bergy to be one of the known elements to a bullpen in flux going into spring training, along with Burnett, Bruney and Tyler Clippard.

Ryan Speier is an interesting case.  A local kid from West Springfield High, he has a lifetime 3.99 ERA in 90 appearances, all for Colorado.  He doesn't strike a lot of guys out, and puts his fair share of runners on base, but manages to mostly keep them off the scoreboard.

He only pitched five and two-thirds innings on the big league level last season, and wasn't particularly impressive in AAA, but he does have a track record and getting out of the "mile high" air of Colorado could help him out.