It is official in Washington, Jonathan Papelbon will be the closer for the Nationals after Drew Storen was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for outfielder Ben Revere after much trade talk throughout the day centered around Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez.
This trade gives the Nats an extra outfielder to go with the trio of NL MVP Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth and Michael A Taylor fresh off of an outstanding rookie season. The Blue Jays get a player who was plucked and raised by Washington as Drew had been with the Nats since they used the 10th overall pick on him in the 2009 amateur draft. Storen has 95 career saves to go along with a 3.02 ERA and 21 wins. Storen dropped the ball however in the Nats two playoff series with a combined postseason ERA of 8.44 over 5 ⅓ innings.
For Revere, Washington is nothing new as he is a former member of the Phillies before being traded to Toronto last season. Revere provides speed on the base paths with a career 176 stolen bases and is an outstanding contact hitter with a career .328 Avg and in the outfield he has a career .990 fielding percentage. With Taylor fresh off of a 63 RBI, 14 home run rookie season in the outfield, I expect Revere to be a valuable piece of the Nats bench and give Jayson Werth days off as needed and become a DH in interleague play. With the addition of former Met Daniel Murphy and former Yankee Stephen Drew, the Washington Nationals will have a different look come April when they hopefully start to rack up curly w’s.
Beyond The Grandstand 