Written by Jamal Collier at MLB.com
After entering the Winter Meetings in position to make an impact move, the Nationals pulled off such a trade on Wednesday evening to acquire outfielder Adam Eaton from the White Sox while unloading three of their best prospects.
Eaton, who turned 28 on Tuesday, has been one of the most productive outfielders in the Majors during the past three years even though he has flown a bit under the radar. Since 2014, he has accumulated a 12.7 WAR (an average of about 4.2 per year), according to FanGraphs, which ranks 10th among all Major League outfielders. Combine that with an affordable long-term contract that has Eaton under team control until 2021, which includes two team options, and the Nats were enticed enough to veer from their normal trepidation to trade their top prospects.
In order to acquire Eaton, the Nationals traded Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning, three right-handed pitchers that were the club’s Nos. 1, 3 and 6 prospects as rated by MLBPipeline.com. Giolito is baseball’s No. 3 overall prospect and Lopez comes in at No. 38. General manager Mike Rizzo has normally been reluctant to trade his top Minor Leaguers, so this marks his most aggressive unloading of Minor League talent in his Nats tenure.
This was a statement that the Nationals are trying to capitalize on their championship window now after winning 95 games in 2016 and their third National League East title in the past five seasons. But they have yet to advance past the NL Division Series.
Couldn’t be more excited to join a very talented @Nationals team! Should be a heck of a 2017! See you at #NatsWinterfest
— Adam Eaton (@AdamSpankyEaton) December 8, 2016
“We feel comfortable with the deal,” Rizzo said. “We got ourselves a good, young skillful player that we can control at below market values for five seasons and, again, you got to give to get.”
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