What are the chances that the Washington Nationals are one of the 15 of 30 teams in Major League Baseball that Kansas City right-hander Zack Greinke would leave open as a possible trade partner for the Royals should they ultimately decide to deal their 27-year-old '02 1st Round pick? Greinke's contract, according to FOXSports.com's Jon Paul Morosi's article entitled, "Greinke will be popular topic this offseason", allowed him to block 20 teams up til the end of the 2010 season and now he can only block 15 teams as he heads into the next-to-last year of the 4-year/$38M dollar extension he signed with KC in January of 2009. Greinke will make $27.0 M ($13.5 M per) of the $38M deal in the next two seasons.
Minnesota Star Tribune.com columnist Jim Souhan, in an article about a week back entitled, "Here are 6 things the Twins need to do to retool", proposed the idea that a package of 24-year-old outfielder Delmon Young, (who hit .298/.333/.493 with 46 doubles, 21 HR's and 112 RBI's for the Twins this year) and 26-year-old '05 2nd Round pick, RHP Kevin Slowey (4.41 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 6.86 K/9 in 82 career starts), "plus a prospect" could get a deal for Zack Greinke done for Minnesota? What's the talent equivalent from the Nats' roster? MLB.com's Bill Ladson's was talking about a potential deal for an Adam Dunn replacement a few weeks back when he wrote, in an article entitled, "If Dunn doesn't return, Nats have options", that, "...whenever a trade is involved, look for opposing teams to ask for shortstop Ian Desmond or right-hander Jordan Zimmermann."
Though Mr. Souhan and Ladson are both speculating, and Desmond and Zimmermann are younger than Young and Slowey, is that the sort of deal the Nats would have to make to bring a starter like Greinke to the nation's capital. Anyone want to make that trade for Grienke? How about a deal for Tampa's Matt Garza? What would it take to get a deal done with the Rays? D.C. GM Mike Rizzo's got some work to do this winter...