In their first move at the 2018 MLB Winter Meetings, Wednesday the Washington Nationals announced they had traded RHP Tanner Roark to Cincinnati in exchange for RHP Tanner Rainey.  Recent rumors had Washington’s front office uneasy about paying Roark’s expected $10 million salary next season in his final year before free agency, preferring to reallocate those funds.  Conversely the Reds had prioritized acquiring starting pitching this offseason, and used surplus bullpen depth to bring Roark’s talents to Cincinnati.

The 32-year-old Roark struggled through mechanical issues during 2018, but rebounded to provide Washington with a 9-15 record, a 4.34 ERA and 146 strikeouts over 180.1 innings pitched. It was a tale of two halves for Roark, who had a 4.87 ERA in the first half and 3.43 ERA in the second.  Over his 6-year career, Roark has provided the Nationals with 64-54 record and a 3.59 ERA over 935 innings pitched.  A durable workhorse, Roark has thrown 180+ four of the past five years and each season he was used as a starter.  Unfortunately, his ERA has been above 4 in three of the past four years, making Washington feel his durability is not as valuable as his productivity at his projected salary.

In return Washington receives almost 26-year-old right-handed reliever Tanner Rainey, who was Cincinnati’s 2^nd round pick in 2015 and briefly reached the majors last season.  Rainey’s cameo in the big leagues was a bigger disaster than the movie Waterworld, as he threw only 7 innings but earned a 24.43 ERA with 12 walks and 4 home runs allowed against only 7 strikeouts.  In contrast, however, Rainey was outstanding at Triple-A in 2018, throwing 51innings and allowing only 25 hits and 35 walks against 65 strikeouts. 

Erectile dysfunction tends to be limited to problems with erection. levitra price find this link Earlier tablets were made up of various kinds of harmful chemical substances but the current pills are actually not long-term ‘enlargers” of viagra canada cost the penis. In general terms the problem is hard wired and can sildenafil generic from canada badly affect your state of mind. The main ingredient of the both is difficult because no one neither can deny the order cheap levitra side effects of modern drugs nor can accept the efficacy of the tradition mean.

Rainey is blessed with dominant, back-of-the-bullpen stuff, possessing an upper-90s fastball that touches 100mph, along with a hard 90mph slider and the occasional changeup.  As the high walk totals confirm, Rainey possesses below-average or worse command.  He will need to improve this in order to reach his ceiling as a high-leverage late-inning reliever: his likely major league role will be working in middle relief, with underwhelming statistics compared to his impressive repertoire.

Overall this is a difficult trade to analyze, as this move feels like the first in a series of two or three connected transactions.  Washington’s biggest present weakness before this trade was their starting pitching depth behind Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and newly-signed Patrick (Don’t Call Me Baron) Corbin, and this move further depletes this area of need. 

In a vacuum, this trade was purely a salary dump for the Nationals, who did not want to pay Roark $10 million for 2019.  Through that lens, General Manager Mike Rizzo did well to clear all of Roark’s salary and receive a major league ready reliever with premium stuff.  Rainey is likely destined for a maddening career in middle relief, but there is a chance a change of scenery helps him improve his control. Nevertheless, I believe the Nationals (and their fan base) are woefully underestimating the importance of Roark’s durability, and I strongly fear this trade comes back to bite them in 2019. While I would happily gamble on Rainey’s upside, I would have passed on this offer from Cincinnati.

NatsGM Grade ->             C-