They've Kicked the Tires.

"Unless we got to a point where the price makes sense to us, we're very satisfied with what we've got in our rotation. It's really young, but we think it's got a lot of upside...That (Martinez) would give us depth at the right number. We've kicked the tires a few times. But it hasn't really gone anywhere past that."
(Mike Rizzo, via FOXSports.com, 4/23/2009)

Pedro in DC: sure why the heck not! But...

Ken Rosenthal reported yesterday that the Nationals had 'mild' interest in Pedro Martinez, and Mike Rizzo admitted as much. Rosenthal says:

Martinez, 37, is looking to join either a contender or a rebuilding club that would want him to lead its staff and serve a mentoring role.

Off days are good for floating stuff like this, but to our eyes it seems highly unlikely that Pedro could land in DC. Among just a few of the many reasons we can think of:

• The price won't ever be right. Can't see Pedro coming down from his $5 million price tag. This is an extremely proud guy, a future Hall of Famer, and he's already taking a massive pay cut to get one last shot. We're fairly certain Ted Lerner won't pony up that sort of cash for such a risky proposition - unless you could work out some sort of incentive-laden deal.

• At the moment, the only spot in the rotation you could slot him into is Daniel Cabrera's - and we don't see Ted Lerner saying OK to kicking Daniel and his $2.6 million contract to the curb to take on another big (relative to the Nationals) contract - even if it's only a 1 year. Kristen over at We've Got Heart floated the idea yesterday of making Pedro into the Nats closer, but we don't see Pedro going for that; at least not for a last place team. (and we still like the idea of trying to develop either Hanrahan or Mock as a long-term solution for Closer).

• The Nationals would be a last resort for Pedro. If a contender (say, the Angels or Dodgers) has interest, and Pedro IS willing to come down on price, you'd have to think he'd choose to ride off into the sunset with a team that has a shot at the playoffs rather than a team that will spend the year with a view from the basement.

With all that said - if by some act of God Pedro ends up in DC, we'd welcome him with open arms.

Meanwhile...
When Nationals dot com posts a headline like "Acta realizes club needs improvements in every aspect", it's implied that that includes the Manager, too, right?

Onward. A sweep is in order this weekend in NY. We're feeling it.

(Photo by Reuters Pictures)

Comments

[Harper Gordek]

"A sweep is in order this weekend in NY. We're feeling it."

For who?

[The Nationals Enquirer]

Come on Harper, do you even need to ask?

By late afternoon on Sunday, oh say 4:30 PM, the Nats will have company in the NL East basement. It's onward and upward from here - anonymous, unnamed sources tell us they're about to make a little run the next week...