LAS VEGAS
The Washington Nationals executives had vacated the Bellagio hotel well before noon Thursday, leaving a quiet week of results behind and plenty of work ahead for the rest of the offseason. But the team may have fared quite well depending on their success in posturing and positioning for the weeks to come.
The Nationals made plenty of noise with an offer to free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira believed to be at least seven years and $150 million and reported by some outlets to be $160 million.
If nothing else, the offer signaled the Nationals are serious about winning in the near future, and while the Red Sox, Orioles and possibly the Angels offer strict competition for the Severna Park, Md., native, Washington could wind up with the prize of this year’s free agent market.
“We met with just about every club and many of the agents throughout baseball,” assistant general manager Mike Rizzo said. “We had a lot of proposals to a lot of clubs, and we’re waiting for the fruit to bear.”
The only acquisitions the Nationals made during the winter meetings were their two picks in the Rule 5 draft on Thursday morning. They took Cincinnati minor league pitcher Terrell Young with the first pick in the draft and later selected outfielder Ricardo Nanita from the White Sox minor league system in the Class AAA phase.
Rizzo said Young throws three pitches, including a fastball that ranges from 93 mph to 96 mph. The Nationals would have to keep him on their major league roster all of next season or work out a trade with the Reds to retain him. But given the number of unproven relievers in Washington’s bullpen, it’s feasible Young could find a home there.
“He’s strictly a reliever,” Rizzo said. “We’ve drafted him for him to compete for a bullpen job.”
The biggest worry with Young has been his ability to throw strikes. His 2-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio last season was the best figure he has posted in the minor leagues, and the Nationals are banking on further improvement in that area.
“He’s a young and athletic guy. We feel he’s really on the upswing,” Rizzo said. “He’s a power pitcher. He has a power arm, and the whole secret to Terrell is, will he throw enough strikes to compete in the major leagues? We like the way he’s trending that way.”
As for their higher-profile pursuits, those likely won’t shake out for at least another week. The Orioles have reportedly offered Teixeira a seven-year, $150 million deal, and there were rumblings that the Red Sox are closing in on a deal for the former Angels first baseman, who is believed to be Boston’s No. 1 target.
Teixeira seems to prefer playing on the East Coast, and the question is whether Boston - which is far more equipped than the Nationals and Orioles to win now - is close enough to home to keep him happy. Agent Scott Boras said Wednesday that playing close to home is a factor for Teixeira but cautioned that whichever team signs him would have to convince him that it can win.
“I don’t think most major league players are excited about anyone losing 100 games,” Boras said. “He may be excited about the fact that the team has the No. 1 draft pick when he wasn’t on it. That would be, I think, a point of light. All the clubs have presentations that they provide to free agent players that give them a landscape of, if they’re not winning currently, how they can win short-term, and if they are winning currently, how that’s going to continue.”
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