| Mischa Nachtigal. 10th September, 2007 - 7:10 pm
 It’s about time. Major League Baseball has not been kind to the former-Montreal-now-Washington franchise. Bud Selig and company began an evolving process of stripping the team of any chance for success after purchasing it from Jeffrey Loria. When Washington finally inherited the franchise, it had a completely depleted farm system and Brad Wilkerson was the biggest star in the lineup. Enough said.
At last though, a real ownership group has decided not to take it anymore. On Wednesday, August 15th, the Lerner-Kasten-Bowden triumvirate decided to hand southpaw Jack McGeary a $1.8 million signing bonus and agreed to plans that will have the Nationals pay his college tuition at Stanford. By the way, McGeary’s a sixth round pick, and his contract is the richest ever for that round.
By signing McGeary, Washington stole the draft spotlight with a unique kind of deal for a unique kind of prospect. In his last year of high school, McGeary went 6-1 with a 0.88 ERA in seven starts. He also averaged 2 Ks per inning pitched. McGeary fell in the draft (despite being a recognized top-20 talent) because he was supposed to be unsignable. Headed to Stanford to play for a legendary coach in Mark Marquess, most major league teams thought this was a deal that couldn’t be closed. The Nationals delivered a statement by committing to getting him signed. Even after the team itself put a notice on its official site claiming that McGeary would not be signing, Stan Kasten still had his gears churning.
Once the Lerners were awarded ownership control, they brought in Stan Kasten to execute what has come to been known as The Plan. Bringing in young prospects, growing them in the farm system and extending the National’s presence overseas are all key aspects of The Plan. Signing McGeary especially, along with fellow lefties Ross Detwiler and Josh Smoker, makes up for not signing Alfonso Soriano who had quickly become a crowd favorite. Most fans of the Nats may not realize it now, but not signing Soriano gave the Lerners the gall (not to mention the cash) to make this kind of maneuver with McGeary.
The deal that McGeary signed allows him to attend Stanford, he will play for the Nats’ minor league affiliates in the summer. Something similar was arranged for Chris Young of the Padres, who pitched in the minors during the summer and still went on to finish his thesis at Princeton. It is an alternative contract, brought on by the persuasive appeal of The Plan, a solution that keeps both parties happy and secures another pitching gem for an under-construction farm system.
The Plan is not meant for this year, or even next year necessarily, it is a system that has been designed to build the Nationals up and be synonymous with such large-thinking teams as the Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers. These are all teams that have overpaid for their draft picks in the past. No objections have been raised because there can’t be any, the current collective bargaining agreement does not allow for enforceable draft slotting. Doubtful as it is that Selig would try and institute some kind of measure, he sure does not want to see this slot busting become the trend and have baseball’s draft turn into the contract circus that is the NFL draft. But that’s his problem.
The McGeary deal proves that the Nats can look after themselves. Why respect some unwritten economic tradition that MLB casually insists upon? Especially when Selig almost took the franchise away after it had moved to DC and basically forced the city to put up an entire publicly funded stadium (all $611 million of it). The Expos never got a fair shake either and the McGeary signing shows that the Lerners decided that they were going to stop this franchise from being baseball’s whipping post.
Let’s not get carried away though and face some facts, not all hyped-up draft picks turn into stars. Jack McGeary starting for the Nats in game one of the 2013 World Series is far from a sure thing. But even if this particular signing doesn’t pan out, it hints that more will follow. That’s the beauty, that this isn’t the end |
