{"id":16076,"date":"2018-12-13T09:02:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T14:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=16076"},"modified":"2018-12-13T09:02:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T14:02:16","slug":"nationals-deal-tanner-roark-reds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2018\/12\/13\/nationals-deal-tanner-roark-reds\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Nationals Deal Tanner Roark to Cincinnati Reds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/washington-nationals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Nationals<\/a> made a move to clear up a roster space and a bit of cash Wednesday. Washington sent pitcher\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roarkta01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tanner Roark<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/cincinnati-reds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Reds<\/a> in exchange for reliever\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/raineta01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tanner Rainey<\/a><\/strong>. The Tanner-for-Tanner swap does bring a reliever with potential to the Nationals, but the deal appears to be more about finances and roster space for Washington.<\/p>\n<p>The team confirmed the deal on Twitter:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Nats?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Nats<\/a> have acquired pitcher Tanner Rainey from the Reds.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd17 \/\/ <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5pq2fyS6o2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/5pq2fyS6o2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TdFXwzUOxf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/TdFXwzUOxf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Washington Nationals (@Nationals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nationals\/status\/1073009849133342720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Washington Nationals Deal Tanner Roark to Cincinnati Reds<\/h2>\n<p>Roark debuted with the Nationals in 2013 and has been a steady, two-way pitcher since then. He made 93 starts from 2016-18 and 141 total over his six-year career, but he has been unable to reach the same numbers he posted in 2016. During that season, Roark made 33 starts, posting a 2.83 ERA over 210 innings with 172 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>Roark still made 60 total starts over the last two seasons, but his effectiveness took a hit. Along with his climbing ERA, Roark was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2018\/10\/mlb-arbitration-salaries-2019.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">projected to make $9.8 million in arbitration<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Though Roark was a consistent member of the Nationals rotation in the past, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2018\/12\/04\/report-patrick-corbin-signs-nationals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the signing<\/a> of\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/corbipa01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Patrick Corbin<\/a><\/strong> significantly changed the outlook moving forward. Washington now has three very formidable but high-priced pitchers in Corbin,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strasst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Strasburg<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Scherzer<\/a><\/strong>. Paying Roark his potential arbitration money just didn&#8217;t make sense.<\/p>\n<h3>Return<\/h3>\n<p>In exchange for Roark, the Reds sent Tanner Rainey to the Nationals. Rainey was fantastic at Triple-A in 2018, appearing in 44 games with a 3.18 ERA and 65 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched. He did appear in 8 MLB games, but he was largely ineffective. Rainey allowed 19 earned runs, 12 walks, and four home runs in just seven innings at the big-league level.<\/p>\n<h3>Cincinnati Outlook<\/h3>\n<p>For the Reds, they improve a rotation that was a big reason for their struggles in a 95-loss 2018 season. No Reds starter with a minimum of 20 starts posted an ERA better than 4.30. Roark&#8217;s 4.34 ERA last season would have been second-best on the team, trailing only\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=castilu02,castilu01,castil018lui,castil014lui,castil015lui&amp;search=Luis+Castillo&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Castillo<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s ERA of 4.30. Roark is a notable improvement to Cincinnati&#8217;s biggest weakness and should slot in nicely to the Reds rotation.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Yc2-q6z4SONk3o1Tz8ky6A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1038361166\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Yc2-q6z4SONk3o1Tz8ky6A',sig:'yZRIxf53rO-YTXKDYI9g49vBuiZQy53fT_yyHFnMR-U=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1038361166',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Nationals made a somewhat surprising move Wednesday, sending pitcher Tanner Roark to the Cincinnati Reds for Tanner Rainey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":16079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,926,1071,35,19],"tags":[68,69,978,2300,334],"class_list":["post-16076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","category-milb","category-mlb","category-news","category-nationals","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-trades","tag-tanner-rainey","tag-tanner-roark"],"modified_by":"Paul Harvey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}