The Nationals have five free agents this winter and they will likely let them all walk. Josh Bard, Dmitri Young, Austin Kearns, Livan Hernandez and Julian Tavarez will all be getting paychecks from different cities next year. The Nationals really need to sign three veteran starting pitchers to give them a legit pitching staff and money should not be an object. John Lackey, Tim Hudson (if Atlanta lets him go), Andy Pettitte, Randy Wolf, Jon Garland and Joel Pineiro should be the top targets of the Nationals this winter. The other starting pitchers on the Nationals’ radar should be Braden Looper (if the Brewers let him go), Jason Marquis, Vicente Padilla, Carl Pavano, Brad Penny, Erik Bedard, Doug Davis, Jarrod Washburn, Rich Harden, Brett Myers, Justin Duchscherer and Jose Contreras. The Nationals need to rebuild the bullpen from the right side so look for them to have interest in signing guys like David Weathers, Danys Baez, Rafael Betancourt (if the Rockies let him go), Octavio Dotel, LaTroy Hawkins, Bobby Howry, Brandon Lyon, Guillermo Mota, Chan Ho Park or Russ Springer. The Nationals also need an upgrade at backup catcher behind Jesus Flores. They should consider bringing in one of the following: Henry Blanco, Jason Kendall, Jason LaRue, Jose Molina, Mike Redmond, Yorvit Torrealba or Gregg Zaun. It’s time for the Nationals to get into the game and try to contend…..and that costs money so it’s time to pony up.
