Nats Get Their Outfielder; Acquire Ben Revere for Drew Storen
Drew Storen and Jonathan Papelbon on the same team just was not going to work. You know it. I know it. They knew it, and most importantly, Mike Rizzo knew it. So last night the Nats traded Storen to the Blue Jays for outfielder Ben Revere. Revere is a speedster who should vastly improve DC’s second-to-last rank in the National League in stolen bases – Revere has 80 in the past two seasons while the entire Nationals team had only 57 last year. While Revere has speed, I wouldn’t be shocked if KFC and his 0 home runs during the Barstool Homerun Derby has more power than him. Ben Revere has a total of 4 homers in his 645 game career while pitcher Madison Bumgarner hit 5 homers just this year (in only 36 games; he hit 4 bombs in 34 2014 games as well).
While power might not be Revere’s strongest suit, walking probably isn’t either, he set a career high with 32 walks (5%) last season but, due to his speed and ability to reach base via the grounder, this isn’t that big of a deal (his OBP of .342 is much higher than the .317 league average). Defensively, Ben Revere isn’t a gold glove outfielder but he is capable of playing centerfield and should challenge Michael Taylor for playing time during spring training (although the initial starting job isn’t that big of a deal because each of them will earn playing time once LF Jayson Werth is inevitably injured). Additionally, Revere is a marked improvement on Matt Den Dekker as a left-handed hitting outfielder to accompany Bryce.
Drew Storen gave the Nats some great years but his legacy here will unfortunately be that he struggled mightily in his postseason opportunities and that he broke his thumb after Yoenis Cespedes got to him. This guy was also a very capable closer for most of the season and put together a gaudy 1.12 ERA just two years ago.
Ultimately, a trade like this had to happen if the Nationals want the clubhouse to work smoothly and Ben Revere is a good return who clearly fills one of the team’s most pressing needs (Left-handed OF who can play Center) but this trade also signals that the team is probably out of the market for one of the super-star caliber outfielders that are still on the market (like Upton or Cespedes). The door remains open for a blockbuster Jonathan Lucroy trade like I mentioned here or for an addition to the team’s already-capable rotation.