With Whispers of Adam Jones Availability, What Would The Baltimore CF Cost The Nationals?

The Washington Nationals came to Dallas intent on signing a veteran pitcher capable of both leading and teaching their youthful starting rotation.

Mark Buehrle was "Plan A" and team GM Mike Rizzo was so confident that a deal could be reached that he really didn't have a "Plan B."

In most years, Washington would have signed the 32-year-old with relative ease, but this isn't most years. With the Miami Marlins working feverishly to stock talent to play in their new stadium, they swooped in and offered more money--and more years--and now Mark Buehrle is a Marlin.

Both Rizzo and manager Davey Johnson have repeated this evening that the team is content to head into next season with the rotation they now have. Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, John Lannan, Chien-Ming Wang and probably Ross Detwiler, they believe, should be enough to help the Nationals contend in 2012.

And they are probably right.

But for that to happen--for the Nationals to be able to rely on that rotation--they must come up with a proven center fielder. Names like Denard Span, B.J. Upton and Peter Bourjos are most often mentioned and any of them would fit the bill nicely.

But if the Nationals can't strengthen their rotation, their new center fielder needs to be really special, someone who can be a difference-maker every time he steps to the plate.

Someone like Adam Jones.

New Orioles' general manager Dan Duquette has been saying all week that he is not looking to trade the talented center fielder, that he would have to be "blown away" to make a deal.

General managers say that a lot, don't they?

Jones is the kind of guy a GM would be willing to trade multiple prospects for. He came to Baltimore from Seattle in a multi-player trade that sent Eric Bedard to the Mariners. 

Over the last three years, Jones has averaged .281/.326/.455 with 25 home runs and 86 RBI. He's been an All Star and has won a Gold Glove.  

And he is only 25.

Normally, this is the kind of player a team would want to build a team around. But the Orioles won just 69 games in 2011. A once promising young rotation has shown itself to be far more young than promising and their few decent everyday players have shown themselves to have gaping holes in their game.

Mark Reynolds, for example, hit 37 home runs last year but struck out 196 times and batted just .221.

They remind me a lot of the Washington Nationals of three or four years ago. 

Other than center, only shortstop (J. J. Hardy, .269-30-80), right field (Nick Markakis, .284-15-73) and catcher (Matt Weiters, .269-22-68) seem manned by players that are part of the Orioles' long-term plan.

Adam Jones is a tremendous player. If the Orioles are willing to trade him, it is going to take some real prospects to land him.

What would it take?

1--Stephen Lombardozzi, who has a career minor league slash line of .298/.369/.411 and won a minor league Gold Glove last year.

2--Brad Peacock, who was named Double-A Pitcher of the Year in 2011 after going 15-3, 2.39 for Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse

3--Roger Bernadina, who though he averaged .245-9-37 the past two seasons still has the talent to be an everyday player

4--A medium level prospect, someone like Tyler Moore who has averaged 30 homers over the past two seasons, or a better prospect who is younger and still in the low minor leagues.

The Nationals are ready to contend beginning in 2012, and the addition of Jones will give the team a formidable outfield with Michael Morse in left and Jayson Werth in right. Morse will likely move back to first in 2013 with Bryce Harper replacing him in left.

Obviously, there is much to look forward to for Nationals fans.