MySportsRumors.com

The Washington Nationals are actively pursuing trades for infielder Felipe Lopez and possibly 1B Dmitri Young. Over the past week or so, Lopez has done quite a bit of complaining that he doesn’t want to be with the team if he’s not starting. He’s retracted the statements at times, but then later goes back to his originally thinking. The Nats who are opening up a new ballpark this season, don’t want to deal with all that non-sense, so you have to believe they’ll look to make a move. Well today, team GM Jim Bowden sent a message to players who were formerly starters.

“We certainly are going to have compassion for players on this team that are everyday players that are not going to get to play every day [from] the get-go,” Bowden said. “I have compassion for that. … If we could make a move to give them an opportunity to play every day and make our organization better, we’ll do it. But we’re not going to make a deal that we don’t think is going to make our organization better, because we’re all about winning. We’re all about the team. We’re not about individuals.”

The two players he’d be talking about are clearly Lopez and Young. Both players are in danger of losing their starting jobs to Ronnie Belliard and Nick Johnson, respectively. Johnson is no surprise as he’s coming off injury, and the injury is the only reason he lost his starting job. The team has always been fond of him and as long as he’s performing they won’t even think twice about letting him go. Young has stayed relatively quiet and been a team player throughout the whole spring competition. If he’s with the team come opening day, he’ll most likely get a majority of the at bats against left-handed pitchers.

Belliard well he’s just simply outperforming Lopez, and its not by a small margin either. Belliard is batting .383 with 3 homers and 8 rbis, while Lopez is batting a paltry .236 with 1 homer and 3 rbis. Lopez has also received more of the at bats in spring training then Belliard. The problem is most teams are more interested in Belliard and its not just cause he’s out playing Lopez. Belliard is a cheaper alternative as he’s only making $3.5 million for the next 2 years, while Lopez is making $4.9 million for 2008 alone.

This situation could still get pretty ugly if Lopez isn’t dealt and in that respect I believe the Nationals will just dump him for a box of cracker jacks if they have to. Bowden said they won’t make a deal just to make a deal, but if Lopez is truly going to be a pain in the ass, then sometimes you just have to do it.