Nationals get stronger with addition of Soriano
The Washington Nationals were already the team to beat in the National League East and Tuesday they made it even more unlikely that somebody will beat them.
Nationals get stronger with addition of Soriano
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
The Washington Nationals were already the team to beat in the National League East and Tuesday they made it even more unlikely that somebody will beat them.
According to Yahoo.com's Jeff Passan, the Nationals have teamed up with their favorite agent, Scott Boras, and struck a two-year, $28 million deal for arguably the premier reliever on this year's free-agent market.
Rafael Soriano, 33, spent the last two seasons with the New York Yankees and posted a 2.94 ERA in 111 games. He served as Mariano Rivera's setup man in 2011, but when the future Hall of Fame closer went down early last season, Soriano stepped in as New York's closer.
His performance was Rivera-esque as he went 2-1 with a 2.26 ERA while converting 42 of 46 save opportunities.
Soriano's addition to the Nationals makes a strength even stronger. A year ago, the Nationals' bullpen ERA was 3.23, which was the seventh best in baseball and the third best in the National League.
That is a nice complement to a starting rotation that had a 3.40 ERA and a major-league leading 72 victories. Only Tampa Bay's starters had a better earned run average among baseball's 30 teams last season.
The Phillies felt they significantly upgraded their bullpen by adding free agent Mike Adams, who is considered one of the best setup men in baseball. They signed Adams to a two-year deal worth $12 million.
Relying on a cast of young relievers to get the ball to closer Jonathan Papelbon, the Phillies' bullpen had a 3.94 ERA last season, which ranked 21st in baseball and 10th in the National League.
The addition of Soriano gives the Nationals the luxury of three quality pitchers with closer experience. Tyler Clippard served as the team's primary closer last season and had 32 saves in 37 opportunties. The year before, Drew Storen had 43 saves in 48 opportunities and posted a 2.75 ERA.
It will be interesting to see who manager Davey Johnson selects to be his primary closer in 2013, but it's obviously a nice problem to have and another reason the Nationals will be difficult to dethrone as N.L. East champs.
Comments (75)
It looks like Scott Boras has identified a go-to team to hook up his client with. After almost bankrupting the Rangers with the A-Rod deal, I can only hope a similar outcome to the loud mouthed Mr Rizzo down in DC. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Bourn winds up here on a one year deal.....
It's going to be a very interesting NL East this year!— DelawareRiverRat- @zubzub: Very interesting point of view! The days of the cellar dwelling Nats are over for the time being and to pad the ownership's pockets with additional revenue they normally wouldn't have seen with their usual fanbase is indeed feeding the fire. The problem is it's so much more convenient for a visiting Phils fan to hit 95 down south then deal with the North Jersey, New York roadway nonsense. And Phiadelphia fans love to travel, as all major league sports has shown....— DelawareRiverRat
- 1980's major argument appears to be that $50 million wasted on an unreliable closer wasn't so bad because team was so non-competitive that the 10 games he was responsible for losing at the worst moments might not have made a difference anyway....uh, yeah, that's why a competent g.m. might have chosen to spend the $50 million on improving the team instead...
as for my caling it the "worst signing of last winter" that was a quote from a poll of baseball executives, and based on Papelbon's poor WAR for dollar spent, so perhaps if you weren't so ignorant and understood baseball you wouldn't find information "nonsensical"..
and yes Papelbon's batting avg against after 15 pitches was above .300 which makes him a less-than-adequate pitcher by most sabermetricians who understand baseball... Papelbon is most effective against an over-anxious free-swinging rookie but in a situtation where smart hitters wait him out and get his pitch count up, he's generally toast and the last guy you'd want to see in a big spot
...as for the need to pay $10 to have an anonymous poster's a## kicked, becuase you don't like the posts, well gee that truly shows what kind of psychological profile you have and what a "big thinker" you are, you sanctimonious ignorant fraud— warbiscuit - Did I refer to you as a J/O? Please, give me a minute to sincerely apologize to the J/O's of the world for lumping you in with this carnival freak borefest little pissant.
— 1980 - from fangraphs 2/8/12 "10 worst transactions of the winter..
#1 – Phillies Sign Jonathan Papelbon for 4/50M... The Phillies overpaid and got a reliever, then had salt rubbed in the wound ... he’s not without his own set of risks. For a team that had other holes to fill, this just wasn’t a good use of resources, especially with the glut of relievers on the market. By exercising a little more patience, the Phillies could have walked away with a good closer, a real answer in left field, upgraded their bench, and had enough left over ...Instead, they decided to go all-in on a ninth inning upgrade that might not even turn out to be a big upgrade. "— warbiscuit - Stark of espn 2/17/12: "with the help of 20 brilliant baseball men who took part in our annual spring-preview survey...Worst Free-Agent Signing: 1. Jonathan Papelbon, Phillies (4 years, $50 million)..."— warbiscuit
- Hey dbag, Stark's comment is from LAST FEBRUARY, before Papelbon finished in the top third of every meaningful statistic. You and 24sDad should have a lot of fun whispering about that to each other, deep into the night. — 1980
- fangraphs 6/7/10: "You may be surprised to learn that Jonathan Papelbon, he of 2.6 Wins Above Replacement per season as a full-time reliever from 2006-2009, is among the most egregious offenders. ..
In 24 innings pitched, the famed river dancer is walking a tight rope — his 3.00 ERA doesn’t look so bad, but his xFIP sits at 5.02. With -0.3 WAR, Papelbon has arguably been the least effective of Boston’s bullpen options..."— warbiscuit 
Twenty-seven posts, 9 from one who has Tourette's of the keyboard, OCD, as he has to have the last word, Paranoid, as he perceives anyone elses comments to require immediate nullification, and if you "attack" his point of view, you are an automatic "imbecile ( a badge of honor considering the source ).
Since baseball is a game of infinite statistics, I compiled a typical breakdown of your commentary WarCopper ( where is your sockpuppet today since I called you out on it yesterday? ).
In any case, 1/3 of the posts are yours, you don't encourage free speech, just the world according to doggie bone.
You HATE Rube, you HATE Papelbon, you HATE, period.
The board is getting tired fast. I hope your anti-matter doppelganger comes back to keep you on a short leash. In the meantime, for those that missed it, I had my first doggie-bone up close and personal experience yesterday. Suffice it to say, this post is meant for the posters of the board, not the person who said his pronouncements were "omnipotent and "omniscient". Sounds bi-polar and not taking the meds.
Well, a G-d in his own mind, how lucky we all are to share a board with an unpaid reporter like you doggie.
Zubzub, great points, and Delaware River Rat, great as well. Lets not let the message get lost in the din.
You don't win or lose games on paper, like the Eagles "dream team", in tatters one year later. I am concerned we never know about Utley, don't compel Howard to diet, or Rollins taking enough BP to avoid the pop-outs. Yes, indentured servitude is gone, but where is the self-motivation, ala Steve Carlton, and many past greats, who had their own regimen to stay in shape and be ready from Day One.
We are committed fans ( and perhaps one poster in particular should be committed ), how about the same culture of winning start here, start now. PS. The Gnats haven't won anything yet.- PBNYC: RAJ has talked about Chase working out this year (of course, with a non-committal "You never know how he'll be when the spring training bell rings") and Ryan has appeared to have lost weight prior to disappearing off the map since his wedding. Rollins? I say let these 3 determine what they need to do in order to arrive in decent spring training condition. I think the hue and cries after last year spurred the Phils into actually checking up with their star players in the off season. We'll see about that, as Andy Reid was fond of saying!
For some strange reason, I think this team will be fine next year and possibly challenge for the NL East title. I believe that they believe their bullets in the chamber are running low and expect to see a good effort from them. The last month and a half with the core group back last year was encouraging.
Looks like 24sDad below has gotten creative while mixing into the fray! Paranoia setting in, no one is who we think they are. Hey, who took my rat avatar!!!????— DelawareRiverRat 
Wow.
This better than Entertainment Tonight!
Standing by.
I say good for the Nats to load up - exactly what people outside of Philly were saying about the Phil's 3,4,5 years ago as they filled a roster with L33 Halladay et al. What goes around comes around. It'll be a hard slog against the Nats but I take my chances that the Phils split with them and the Nats don't win more than 93 making it a race in the East.
As for Boras, he's good at what he does. But if I were him I'd hate being 'Despicable Me',— warbiscuit- NO doubt the Nats are the Phillies of 4 years ago While Rube sits on his hands and watches our next World Series go down in flames. Said it before We will still bye tickets pay for parking and concessions and shirts and hats. If this teams management cared about us they would go over the cap for Upton and go for it this year because this team is going to look alot different for years to come. Oh well we are paying for those bad contracts now. Roseman and Rube ought to get together for dinner and talk about what they did not do right.— zbeachigo
- examples of schizophrenia --"phillyboyinnyc" in his/her/its own words:
"Why is ALL the blame on Amaro?"...
"...if you were looking for MOTIVES. Rube is slightly clueless...So, if they are not delusional, see the big picture, instead of foaming at the mouth like a clueless one note "warrior", WHO has the motive?..."
"...I eviscerated ( look it up ), both Amaro and gave the manager the moniker, "GOMER GUMP". .."
"Just check out a two year battle I waged to rid the Flyers board of a SIX alias poster, who was merely a Cindy loving Penqueen fan, the latter another term I coined, and now in general use."...
"I could go on and on, but I post so infrequently [SIC]... I admit to hating trolls on a sports board, especially the one who plagued the Flyers boards for years under six aliases. Anyone there remembers "Supreme One", Flyers losers", "Big Tom threw 3", and many more. Perhaps he was finally institutionalized...."
ok, there, i guess being a phillyfan in ny has taken a toll-- i'm whoever you want me to be, ok, but i'm apparently your worst nightmare ... but relax, ok, cause, see, we're all anonymous here and I really can't get you or your little friends ..now take a deeeeep breadth and see if there are some more anonymous posters plaguing the Flyers board again,,,psst, a secret, my real name is NOT warbiscuit on my birth certifcate..— warbiscuit - Anyone notice that Soriano's first name is never used in the article? Nice editin, Inky.— JusWonderin
- Soriano throws hard. But flat. Not movement. He blows. Nationals didn't get better.. Just blacker...— FetchDixon
About this blog
The Phillies Zone is the place for up-to-the-minute Phillies coverage from the Inquirer.
Matt Gelb
Inquirer Staff Writer
Bob Brookover
Inquirer Baseball Columnist
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