The Nationals have officially signed of second baseman Adam Kennedy to a one-year deal after the veteran passed his physical today.
Kennedy, 34, hit .289 with 11 homers and 63 RBI last season for the Athletics. Over an 11-year career with the Angels, Cardinals and A's, he owns a .277 average, not to mention a World Series ring and ALCS MVP trophy (both from 2002 with Anaheim). The veteran infielder will earn $1.25 million this year; the contract also includes a club option for 2011 worth $2 million.
Kennedy thus becomes the Nats' new starting second baseman, filling a position that was staffed by seven different players in 2009: Ronnie Belliard, Anderson Hernandez, Alberto Gonzalez, Pete Orr, Willie Harris, Ian Desmond and Alex Cintron. He's likely to be joined up the middle by shortstop Cristian Guzman, though Guzman must prove he's fully healthy after battling shoulder and foot injuries last season. Desmond would be the club's other option at shortstop.
Washington moved quickly to agree to terms with Kennedy last Friday after losing out to the Twins for two-time All-Star second baseman Orlando Hudson. The Nationals, according to club sources, offered Hudson between $3 million and $4 million; he wound up signing with Minnesota for $5 million.
Before formally signing Kennedy, the Nats were required to remove someone else from their 40-man roster. They won't announce the name of that player for another couple of days, because he's been placed on waivers and the club hopes he'll pass through without getting claimed. Either the mystery player will go unclaimed and be outrighted to Class AAA or Class AA, another team will pick him up and be required to keep him on their 40-man roster or GM Mike Rizzo will trade him to an interested club.
5 comments:
I've been thinking about the roster move this week, which shows that being stuck at home does funny things with one's mind. The Brewers took Marco Estrada, so the next person to go is someone Rizzo thought was better.
Bringing Wang on will mean another roster move. I have wondered if the discussion of the 7 to 10 days before a decision is just a ruse to give Rizzo some time to maybe forge a trade.
http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2010/02/adam-kilgore-heading-down-to-d-c
Apparently the Post grabbed Adam Kilgore from the Boston Globe to take over the Nats Beat.
Thanks for the heads up, JMad. I see that the NationalsFanboyLooser blog (see link at right) has a piece up confirming the move as well. I vaguely remember Kilgore from his previous days at the Post. If I recall correctly, he covered that other team up north a fair amount.
in my mind, bringing in someone who has been to DC and knows the nationals are a mlb team is a coup for the post...im fairly sure chico fit neither description when hired. words of wisdom for adam: dont take 1/3 of the season off...dont write human interest stories...dont become a stenographer for bill ladson
Too bad he'll be missing the first 1/3 of spring training...at least the guy has covered baseball before. I'm sticking with this site, though.
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