Washington Senators acquire 3B Ken Caminiti and a 1998 5th-round pick from the Milwaukee Creams for OF Mike Greenwell, OF Jeff Abbott, SP Jim Niedlinger and a 1998 2nd-round pick.
The Washington Senators, owners of the second-best record in the league at 16-4, have looked at their roster, looked at their pitching staff, looked at the standings and apparently reached the following conclusion:
You know what we’re missing? A 35-year-old hitting .161.
Enter Ken Caminiti.
Yes, Ken Caminiti.
The man currently slashing .161/.198/.218.
The man with a -0.9 WAR.
The man with three RBI.
The man who has apparently spent the first month of the season conducting a detailed study into how little offensive production one can provide while still being allowed to bat third.
And Washington gave up a second-round pick and more for him.
Sure.
Why not.
They’re 16-4.
They’ve earned the right to make terrible-looking decisions.
That’s the beauty of being good.
When you’re 6-14 and trade a second-round pick for a 35-year-old hitting .161, your fans demand the general manager’s resignation.
When you’re 16-4, it’s called “aggressively pursuing a championship.”
Same trade.
Different standings.
Washington is absolutely going for it.
And honestly, why wouldn’t they?
They’re 16-4.
Second-best record in the league.
Their pitching staff has been bullying opposing hitters for weeks.
They don’t need to rebuild.
They don’t need to develop.
They don’t need to think about 2001.
They need to figure out whether they can make themselves even more annoying.
Apparently the answer was yes.
Let’s talk about Caminiti.
He’s been awful.
Not “a little cold.”
Not “due for some positive regression.”
Not “the hits just aren’t falling.”
Awful.
.161 average.
.198 OBP.
.218 slugging.
Three RBI.
Minus-0.9 WAR.
You could put a traffic cone in the batter’s box and at least it wouldn’t ground into a double play.
Milwaukee was batting this guy third.
Third.
That’s not a lineup decision.
That’s an intervention that never happened.
And yet—and this is where Washington gets to be clever—Caminiti wasn’t this player last year.
He hit .287/.361/.593.
He has 15 contact.
He has 16 power.
He has enough offensive ability that you can squint at the numbers and convince yourself that the current version is an elaborate prank.
Washington is betting on the squint.
They’ve decided that the guy hitting .161 is the aberration and the guy who slugged .593 last season is the real Caminiti.
That’s a reasonable bet.
It’s also a hilarious one.
Because if Caminiti goes 0-for-4 in his Washington debut, somebody is going to write “CHANGE OF SCENERY FAILS TO HELP.”
If he hits a home run, somebody will write “CAMINITI COMING ALIVE.”
If he goes 2-for-4, he’ll be “BACK.”
If he goes 0-for-12, the word “CONCERN” will appear.
This is baseball.
We are all very serious people.
The best part is that Washington doesn’t even need him to be great.
That’s what makes this trade potentially nasty.
They don’t need 1996 Ken Caminiti.
They don’t need .300.
They don’t need 30 home runs.
They don’t need an MVP.
They just need him to be better than the guy Milwaukee had.
And, frankly, the bar is currently lying on the ground.
If Caminiti hits .240 with some power and doesn’t actively damage the lineup, Washington has probably won the trade.
If he remembers how to hit like last season?
Oh, that’s a problem.
Because now the 16-4 team just added a legitimate middle-of-the-order threat.
That is the part everyone should be paying attention to.
Not the .161.
Not the -0.9 WAR.
Not the three RBI.
The 16-4.
Washington isn’t trying to rescue Caminiti.
Washington is trying to weaponize him.
There’s a difference.
And somewhere in the United League, an opposing general manager is looking at this deal and thinking:
“Wait. They’re already 16-4.”
Yes.
They are.
“And they just added a guy who slugged .593 last year?”
Yes.
“Why?”
Because they can.
Welcome to being a good team.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee has to be thrilled.
Because let’s be honest: they weren’t getting much from Caminiti.
They were getting three RBI.
That’s it.
Three.
The man had three RBI while batting third.
I have leftovers in my refrigerator older than some of Milwaukee’s offensive production.
So the Creams did the sensible thing.
They cashed out.
Mike Greenwell comes back in the deal, and while he’s not exactly destroying the league, he’s hitting .259/.326/.370 with positive WAR.
Which, next to Caminiti’s line, looks like Barry Bonds in a steroid documentary.
Greenwell can slide into DH.
He can hit.
Well, relatively speaking.
He can also leave after the season as a free agent, which means Milwaukee isn’t pretending this is some grand ten-year rebuild around a 35-year-old.
It’s a rental.
A useful rental.
Then there’s Jim Niedlinger.
A starting pitcher.
Immediately useful.
Not spectacular.
Not someone we’re engraving on a plaque.
But a starter.
For Milwaukee, that’s important.
Jeff Abbott gives them another outfield option.
And then they get the second-round pick.
That’s the piece I really like.
Because Milwaukee has taken a player who was actively hurting them and turned him into multiple things they can use.
A bat.
A pitcher.
Depth.
A second-round pick.
And Washington gets a fifth-rounder back.
That’s basically Washington saying:
“Here, take this coupon for later. We’re going shopping now.”
The contract situation makes the deal even more interesting.
The league has shown plenty of sensitivity to large contracts, and Caminiti is exactly the kind of player who should be difficult to move when he’s producing like this.
But Washington didn’t care.
Because Washington is 16-4.
If you’re 16-4, you don’t spend your evenings worrying about whether a contract looks bad in 1999.
You worry about whether the guy you’re playing in October can hit your fastball.
This is a contender move.
Not because Caminiti is currently good.
He isn’t.
He’s currently terrible.
But because Washington has the luxury of betting on the possibility that he’s not actually terrible.
And that’s a very dangerous luxury.
Milwaukee had to look at the player they had.
Washington gets to look at the player Caminiti could be.
Those are very different things.
So who won?
Well, obviously both teams get an A.
Which is deeply unsatisfying.
Washington gets a former star at a bargain price and doesn’t sacrifice anything remotely close to irreplaceable.
Milwaukee gets a useful bat, a starting pitcher, an outfielder and a second-round pick for a guy who had a -0.9 WAR.
That’s a win-win.
Unless Caminiti suddenly turns into a monster.
Then Milwaukee will spend the rest of the season explaining that they had to make the trade.
And Washington will spend the rest of the season saying, “We knew.”
They didn’t know.
Nobody knew.
But if Caminiti hits .280 over the next three months, everyone will absolutely pretend they knew.
That’s the real value of baseball transactions.
You don’t have to be right.
You just have to survive long enough for the outcome to make you look right.
And Washington has given itself a pretty good chance to do exactly that.
They’re 16-4.
Second-best record in the league.
They have one of the best teams in baseball.
And now they’ve decided to take a flyer on a 35-year-old third baseman who currently looks like he’s forgotten which end of the bat to hold.
This is either a brilliant move or the dumbest thing I’ve seen all week.
Fortunately, Washington is 16-4, so they’re allowed to call it brilliant.
Washington Senators: A
They traded from depth, took a chance on a former star, added upside, and didn’t mortgage the franchise.
They’re 16-4.
If Caminiti hits, they’re terrifying.
If he doesn’t, they remain 16-4 and everyone goes home.
That is an obscene amount of margin for error.
Milwaukee Creams: A
They got actual assets for a player who was hitting .161 with a -0.9 WAR.
A second-round pick alone makes this interesting.
Adding Greenwell and Niedlinger makes it downright respectable.
Milwaukee basically turned a burning couch into a used car, two hundred dollars and a coupon.
That’s good business.
So now we wait.
Caminiti gets to Washington.
Washington gets to find out whether the .161 is real.
The rest of the league gets to find out whether the Senators are somehow even better than their 16-4 record suggests.
And Milwaukee gets to sit back and hope Caminiti continues hitting .161.
Because if he doesn’t?
If that .593 slugging percentage from last year suddenly comes wandering back?
Well.
Congratulations, Washington.
Because apparently 16-4 wasn’t enough.
Good lord.