River Avenue Blues is pushing the idea of acquiring ‘home run or bust’ lefty slugger Adam Dunn from the Washington Nationals.
Scheduled to become a free agent after the season, Dunn is reportedly losing interest in signing a long-term deal with the Nationals. He’s a lock to be a Type-A free agent, and his $12M salary this year isn’t crazy enough to keep a team from declining to offer him arbitration. Even if he were to accept, there are worst things in the world than having a guy that productive signed for one year at $14-15M. It’s not like there are any age related concerns either, Dunn is still very much in the prime of his career at age 30.
Dunn’s credentials are well-known. In an era of baseball that suddenly features fewer homeruns and less offense in general, Dunn is arguably the best and most consistent longball threat in the game, whacking 38-40 homers in each of the last five years. He’s on pace for 39 this season, and that’s without the New Stadium’s short porch in right. All those homers are supplemented by a ton of walks (16.5% walk rate for his career), though he’s traded in some free passes this year in exchange for some more singles, kinda like Nick Swisher. There’s nothing wrong with that, a hit is always better than a walk.
I have heard this idea kicked around before. It has some merit, since Dunn would love the right-field porch at Yankee Stadium. But I think the Yankees need to try and help their bullpen first. It’s true that the Yankees don’t have an every day DH, but rotating Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher, Marcus Thames and Alex Rodriguez in there seems to be working pretty well so far.
The Yankees have also tried to get away from one-dimensional players like Dunn the past couple of seasons. I’m not sure this has a realistic chance of happening.
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