Mike Rizzo, the GM of the Washington Nationals, has given up on this season. Quit. Threw in the towel. Or whatever you want to say. Today he traded 2B Daniel Murphy to the Cubs and 1B/OF Matt Adams to the Cardinals. Murphy has been fantastic in his 2 1/2 years in D.C. and Adams has been stellar this year as well as an excellent bat off the bench and in the lineup whenever needed. I am stunned, ashamed, and disappointed. Yes, this year has been kind of a disaster.  The Nats were supposed to run away with the NL East and win the division, and were big favorites to not only win the NL Pennant, but to also win the World Series. But with the surprisingly early emergence of the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies turning back into contenders, along with multiple injuries and extremely inconsistent play, especially since the beginning of June, the Nats sit here on August 21st 1 game under .500, 7.5 games back in the NL East, and 6.5 games back of the 2nd Wildcard spot. So yes, there was slim hope at this point for them to make the playoffs. But that is no reason to just give up. Anything is possible.

Murphy is one of the best hitters in the game and has been fantastic this year coming off of his bad knee injury. In 56 games this year he has a .300 batting average with 6 home runs and 29 RBIs, and he’s hitting .340 since the All-Star break. The last 2 years he was an All-Star and in 2016 he finished 2nd in the NL MVP voting. He was been terrific as a National. But I guess as they say all good things to come to an end. The Nats traded him today to the Chicago Cubs for some ok-ish 21 year old minor leaguer Andruw Monasterio (.263 avg. with 3 home runs, 31 RBIs and 10 stolen bases this year for Class A-advanced Myrtle Beach) and a player to be named later or cash. So basically nothing.

Adams has also been good this year. He is hitting .257 with 18 home runs and 48 RBIs in 94 games (Although he is 0-for-21 dating back to August 5.). He’s now headed back to St. Louis, the city where he spent the first 5 1/2 years of his career. In return the Nats are getting cash considerations. So again, basically nothing.

So for one of the best hitters in the league and another good player, they got pretty much nothing. Surely you could’ve gotten better returns for those 2 guys Rizzo.

Also I know that they were both going to be free agents this winter, I get that. But that doesn’t mean give up. These moves along with trading away Relief Pitchers Brandon Kintlzer to the Cubs and Shawn Kelley to the Athletics (Those 2 moves did somewhat make sense though.), have just been frustrating for not just me, but for all Nats fans.

So now Nats fan, what do we do? And to Rizzo and the rest of the Nats front office, what are you going to do? There’s always next year, right? We’ll just have to wait and see.