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.
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.