A few comments found around the internets this morning on the signing of Dunn.
Keith Law thought the Nats made the right move:
The Washington Nationals, who never had serious interest in bringing Dunn back, get Chicago’s first-round pick and a sandwich pick, both welcome additions for GM Mike Rizzo, who is still gradually restocking that farm system and coming off a very strong 2010 draft. Giving Dunn four years would have made little sense for a club in Washington’s position. By the time the Nationals are competitive, he’ll be approaching the overpaid portion of the contract.
Buster Olney is way more negative:
The losers in all of this are the Nationals, who probably could’ve locked up Dunn for something in the range of three years and $30 million at the All-Star break, when Dunn very much wanted to stay in Washington. After deciding to not make that deal, the Nationals’ leadership opted to not trade Dunn when the interest in him was at its hottest, in July; they failed to get any major-league ready young players, which is exactly what they have a desperate need for today.
In the end, they get a couple of draft picks in compensation, and now that the smoke has cleared, it’s clear that they badly missed in taking advantage of his value, either with a contract extension or in trade.
Their lineup without Dunn suddenly looks very different — significantly weakened. Without Dunn hitting in the middle of the order, there is no reason for opposing pitchers to pitch to Ryan Zimmerman.
Justin Havens, of ESPN Stats & Info Blog was not impressed:
Rizzo did not trade Dunn and the slugger left for Chicago. Washington will receive a compensatory draft pick, a return that will almost certainly fall well short of what they could have received had they traded Dunn in July.
Instead of… [getting] young talent, the team will receive compensatory draft picks of considerably less value… The fact that this happened despite a change of front office regimes has to be doubly disappointing for fans in the nation’s capital.
Jerry Crasnik tweeted some hot stove news:
If Adam Dunn leaves Washington, I’m hearing Carlos Pena & Adam LaRoche as the Nats’ two most likely targets at first base.
Ryan Zimmerman seemed a bit perturbed (via Ben Goessling, MASN)
Knowing that we had one of the three top free agents on our team and we didn’t want to resign him, it’s frustrating for us as players. We’re not in the front office. We don’t make the decisions, and we don’t have to write the checks. But we’re getting to the point on our team where we’re supposed to wait it out, wait for the young guys, start doing some things and start making some moves. Not only are we ready for that, I think the fans are, as well. We’ve trusted the front office, and we still trust them. But we want to best possible team on the field.