Nats' Trade Causes a Sudden Loss of Faith in Baseball

To recap, Daniel Murphy, playing for the New York Mets, set a baseball record in 2015 by hitting six home runs in consecutive games. He rejected the offer the Mets made for the next season and agreed to play for the Nats. In 2016, he hit. .347, homered 25 times, and drove in 103 runs. He won a silver slugger award and was named the National League's best offensive second baseman. In 2017, he batted .322, homered 23 times and drove in 93 runs, despite a knee injury that took him out of the lineup until June 2018. Meanwhile, the Nats were thought to have a stellar batting lineup and a magnificent roster of starting and relief pitchers. But injuries and poor performances cooled the high expectations. When Murphy returned, he brought his batting average up to .300 and had an 11- game hitting streak through August 18. On August 19, the Nats lost 12-1 to the Miami Marlins. Everyone played poorly. Murphy was hitless and committed two errors. On August 21, General Manager Anthony Rizzo announced that he was trading Murphy to the Chicago Cubs. This move was quickly interpreted to mean the Nats' management were giving up on entering the playoffs this season, otherwise they wouldn't have given up a hitter of Murphy's caliber.

I asked myself, what else did Murphy have to do--coming back without spring training and in less than two months hitting .300--to convince the team of his value. It reminded me of a very small scene in Otto Preminger's 1964 war epic In Harm's Way. John Wayne plays an admiral anticipating an attack from the Japanese fleet. His second-in-command, played by Kirk Douglas, has raped a young nurse who kills herself. Realizing his career is over and that he has broken the trust of his commanding officer, Douglas takes a plane and searches on his own for the Japanese fleet. He radios in the fleet's location to a group of officers that includes Wayne before he is shot down. One of the officers says to Wayne that Douglas should be recommended for a medal, perhaps even the Congressional Medal of Honor. Wayne, who knows why Douglas went up, says, no, no medal. And, for just a second, the other officers, who don't know what Wayne knows, look at each other as if to say, "He sacrifices his life to locate the enemy fleet and no medal! What do you have to do to get a medal in this outfit!"

When I said this to some people, they noted that Murphy, along with a good many other Nats, will become a free agent at the end of the season. I was told that the management had decided not to make Murphy an offer for next season and so they made the move to get what money the Cub offered for him. I told my John Wayne story and said that given what Murphy had done for the Nats the Nats' action was a cold one. My friends and family agreed and said, "It's a business. That's baseball!"

Is it baseball? Baseball of fair play and loyal fans? I mean, if the Nats needed a pitcher or catcher to make the playoffs and traded Murphy for one or both, that would make sense. But to do it for what little money they'd get for Murphy for the time he will play before he becomes a free agent! That's not only cold, it's disloyal. Fans have a right to feel that management is on their side.

Using another film analogy, I remember the 1949  movie The Stratton Story about a pitcher who loses his leg in an accident and works and works to use his artificial leg to play again. He convinces a minor league team to give him a chance. The opposing team decides to play to his weakness. Knowing that Stratton would be slow to get off mound to field a ball, the manager tells his team to bunt. Two times, Stratton almost kills himself to field the ball, and the runners are safe. The third time, he is able to throw the runner out, and the opposing team abandons its bunt strategy. But the film makes it clear that we are to admire Stratton's courage and that, while the opposing team's job is to win the game, targeting a player's physical handicap is villainous. And it's also villainous to have someone play his heart out for the team and for the team to treat him so shabbily.

I also think that Rizzo has shown a tendency to act out of pique. On July 31, the Nats' traded relief pitcher Brandon Kintzler to the Cubs. There were rumors that Kintzler had been vocal about the Nats' poor showing, although, after the trade, a number of players came forward about how supportive the veteran pitcher had been to them. There were also rumors that the Nats' believed Kintzler was the source for an article about strife in the Nats' dugout. The author of the article reported later that he had never spoken to Kintzler. On August 5, the Nats' traded relief pitcher Shawn Kelley to the Oakland Athletics because he threw down his glove in disgust after giving up a grand slam home run. Rizzo said that this showed disrespect to the team and its manager. And then, after Murphy makes two errors, he trades him.

I was also disturbed that after the trade the Nats' management said that, while Wilmer Difo, Murphy's replacement at second base, cannot match Murphy's hitting (Difo is hiting .240), he will be much better fielder. An analysis of the Nats' stats on its website don't support this. 

I've lost some interest in the Nats, not because they haven't won enough, but because of how they treated Murphy. As for Murphy, he behaved like a gentleman, went to the Cubs, and, scored at least one hit in every game he's played including two home runs through August 27, bringing his average up to .313. The Cubs had lost six straight games, and once Murphy joined them they won six straight.

We don't know how the season will end up. But as for who behaved best in all this, it's Murphy.