Center Field Gate

Frank Rizzo pulled the trigger on a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates that has brought fleet-footed outfielder Nyjer Morgan and left-handed reliever Sean Burnett to Washington. Morgan is hitting .277 in 71 games for the Ahoys, while Burnett, a former first round draft choice sports a nifty 3.06 ERA out of the bullpen. Washington sent minor league outfielder Lastings Milledge and hard throwing late-inning reliever Joel Hanrahan to the Pirates in the swap. A handful of baseball analysts, including the New York Post’s Joel Sherman and Baseball Prospectus writer John Perrotto, adjudged the Pirate clear winners in the trade: “Still trying to comprehend how Pirates got two such high-end guys for, nothing personal, two spare parts type players. Wow. Wow. Wow,” Perrotto wrote.

But Pirate veteran shortstop Jack Wilson — already disheartened by the trade of centerfielder Nate McLouth to Atlanta –disagreed, taking aim at Pittsburgh’s ownership: “The bottom line is, even if this trade does work out, it’s not going to matter to 80 percent of the people here,” Wilson told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “And over the years, these trades haven’t worked. Show me the ones that have worked.” Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen was also critical: “Yeah, man, you almost want to cry. This [stinks] man. You know it’s a business. It’s a great loss to lose someone like this. Not just on the field, but off the field as well. It’s great to have someone like that beside you. There’s nobody who can replace what he can do off the field.” MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds was shocked by the Wilson tirade: “I would say that Jack is gone,” Reynolds opined. That’s probably right — along with second baseman Freddy Sanchez.

While analysts focused on the straight-up Milledge-for-Morgan swap, the key to the deal may turn out to be Sean Burnett. The former first round draft pick has impressive numbers: 1-2, 3.06 ERA, 1 save, 6 holds and 23 Ks in 32 1/3 innings. Burnett has held leftie hitters to under .200 and righties to under .220 — which would stand as the best numbers in the Nats’ bullpen. Pittsburgh tended to use Burnett almost exclusively against lefthanded hitters, but that  won’t be the case in Washington, where the Nats hard-pressed underachievers sport the worst bullpen numbers in the majors. Bleacher Report has this to say about Burnett: “He has excelled so far this season as a leftie out of the pen. In 38 appearance, covering 34.1 innings pitched, his splits have been very good (.189/.254/.396 vs. LHB; .211/.357/.298 vs. RHB) and has a 3/1 K/BB rating against lefties.”

Put another way, as soon as Burnett shows up in Washington he’ll be the best reliever we have.

Nyjer Morgan is a flat-brimmed, floppy pants, slap hitting, good glove, base stealing Juan Pierre type, with the added attraction that he is good in the clubhouse — which could never be said of Milledge. Morgan will be put in centerfield and bat leadoff and the Nats expect him to add spark to the team. He is a top-notch defender, leading the majors in total chances and he has good range. This has been his best season: he has taken a career high number of walks (29), and hits well to the gaps (he’s third in the majors in triples, with five). He hits the hell out of righties (.322) and has an accurate arm. But he’s not the second coming. Despite his speed, Morgan has been caught stealing 10 of 28 times.

It’s hard to see the downside of this trade. After a slow April start and two missed meetings, Milledge was sent to triple-A where, in mid-May, he underwent surgery resulting from a broken finger on his right hand. He has been rehabbing since. But there were no plans to recall Milledge and put him back in the line-up and clearly the Nats front office had tired of him, ever as much as Nats fans tired of Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan was given a chance to succeed and couldn’t. A portion of the blames goes to the Nats coaching staff — who could never figure out how to give Hanrahan’s  fastball some movement. Steve McCatty won’t have the same problem with Burnett, who is not a work in progress, while the job of straightening out Hanrahan is now the task of Pirates pitching coach Joe Kerrigan. Good luck.

The central symbol of the trade, though, is Milledge. The bad-boy former Met was “Exhibit A” of the Jim Bowden era — when Washington readily traded for plus-potential in the hope that second chances would yield winning results. The shift in trade philosophy is now palpable. Mike Rizzo is starting to remake the team, favoring (to use Chico Harlan’s phrase) ”reliability over high-yield potential.” In essence, Washington sacrificed Milledge’s unknown upside for Morgan’s known maturity and Hanrahan’s breathtaking but inconsistent fastball for Burnett’s steady presence. The trade shoves “Kentucky” further down the depth chart, sends a signal to the fanbase that change is on the way, puts production pressure on Elijah Dukes, and might just shove another reliever (Julian Tavarez?) out the door.

This was a good trade:  the Nats off-loaded two problems, inherited none and gained immediate help. The gamble here was taken by Pittsburgh, not Washington.