Last night I sat down to read and thought I would just check my phone real quick to see if Adrian Gonzalez was going to be traded or not, and boom. Jayson Werth is a National. Very, very surprising. --Peter Gammons from mlb.com
Opposing GMs are not happy about this deal as the Nationals just blew up the market. --Jeff Passan at yahoosports.com
The most important item from this column on Werth is the Nationals might have another surprise move up their sleeves. Suddenly this week got a lot more interesting. --Mark Zuckerman at natsinsider.com
Could the surprise move be Beltre? --Mike Harris (he did break the Werth story) from natslosser.com
Don't discount the Nationals close relationship with Scott Boras. --Ben Goessling from masnsports.com
Even if you don't like the contract you have to admit it is fun to take something from the Phillies. --WFY at yurasko.net
Don't expect this to be the last big contract the Nationals ever hand out. They would like to keep Zimmerman past 2013 and Harper and Strasburg will come up for free agency some day. --Adam Kilgore from washingtonpost.com
This was already posted once here, but if you didn't see it this contract is an overpay, but not as bad as some people are making it out to be. --Dave Cameron at fangraphs.com
With Werth in the fold it is now even more likely that Willingham is on the move*. --Bill Ladson from nationals.com
*I had a thought the other day that whatever the Nationals get back for Willingham could be flipped as part of a deal for a starter.
Very sad news about a player a lot of people still like. I know I still hope for Chad Cordero to come back and do well and I hope we can all agree that our thoughts and prays are with the Cordero family with the recent loss of their 3 month old child. This is a terrible time of year to lose a loved one, and the fact that this is a child just makes it that much worse. --Cheryl Nichols at natsnewsnetwork.com
One thing I am curious about from other fans is does the loss of Dunn still hurt? Also if Dunn didn't make sense for right now then does Werth simply make sense because he is more of a complete hitter and plays defense? I don't have the answers for this, but before the Nationals signed Werth letting Dunn go might have been the right call for the franchise. --Byron Kerr from masnsports.com
All the issues with Adam Dunn the player explained. --Dave Nichols at natsnewsnetwork.com
Letting Dunn go wasn't that hard to understand, but many people didn't understand why Peralta was non-tendered. --Dave Cameron at fangraphs.com
It turns out that Peralta wanted a two year deal and the Nationals said see you later. --Adam Kilgore from washingtonpost.com
The Nationals beat out the Cubs last off-season for Matt Capps and are trying to do it again for Brandon Webb. --Aaron Gleeman at nbcsports.com
Ian Desmond is being asked about in every trade and with Danny Espinosa the Nationals have the freedom to make a move. --Reed MacPhail at fangraphs.com
As far as a replacement at first goes the Nationals have plenty of options. I would prefer LaRoche, but if they get Pena I will hope for a rebound. --Mac from section409.com
Around the NL East
Domonic Brown struggles in Winter League. --csnphilly.com
General Baseball
Adrian Gonzalez might not have a new deal as of yet, but he is still headed to the Red Sox. --Jon Heyman from si.com
Wow this weekend was busier than expected. I wonder what the Winter Meetings hold. Crazy thought. Can Beltre play second? Maybe signing him would be part of an even bigger deal involving Desmond.