The Washington Nationals continued their busy week Saturday, trading infielder Danny Espinosa to the Los Angeles Angels.
Baseball America’s Josh Norris first reported the news, which Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports confirmed.
The Angels officially announced the deal, which will bring Espinosa to Los Angeles in exchange for right-handed pitchers Austin Adams and Kyle McGowin.
Espinosa has not kept his unhappiness with the Nationals a secret. The team acquired outfielder Adam Eaton from the Chicago White Sox in a trade Wednesday, which will likely push Trea Turner to Espinosa’s normal position at shortstop.
With Daniel Murphy coming off an MVP-caliber season at second base, Espinosa became the odd man out in Washington.
Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reported Espinosa expressed his frustration over the move by skipping the team’s Winterfest event, which features fan and player interactions.
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo left the door open for Espinosa’s return during the winter meetings, however.
“Well, it leaves us with a lot of options,” Rizzo said, per Castillo. “We have positional flexibility, or we continue to have positional flexibility and we will make those decisions down the road as we see fit.”
Andrelton Simmons, one of the best defensive players in Major League Baseball, already mans shortstop for the Angels.
Los Angeles is, however, desperate to find an option at second base. The Angels got a collective .235/.275/.345 slash line with 10 home runs from the position last season, per Baseball-Reference.com.
Espinosa is an upgrade in the power department. He hit a career-high 24 home runs in 2016, though his .209 batting average marked the fourth time since 2011 that he’s failed to hit better than .240.
Despite those limitations, Espinosa addresses one of the biggest concerns for the Angels, and they didn’t have to give up anything of significant value to obtain him.
Adams is a 25-year-old who spent most of last season at Double-A, and he struck out 61 in 41.1 innings against younger competition. McGowin was rocked in Triple-A, posting a 6.11 ERA in 22 starts with 144 hits allowed and 46 walks in 116.1 innings.
Espinosa got what he wanted, for the most part, as the Angels will likely give him every opportunity to play each day. His ability to hit for power projects well in a lineup that features Mike Trout, Cameron Maybin, Kole Calhoun, C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols.
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