As the Nationals have navigated their way through their current rebuilding efforts, general manager Mike Rizzo has often reiterated the fact he’s done this before. Upon taking the job in 2009, Rizzo tore down much of the 102-loss roster he inherited and spent the next three years building it back up before reaching the promised land with a 98-win division champion in 2012.
The comparisons of that rebuild timeline to this rebuild timeline have been plentiful. And though the 71-win Nats of 2024 didn’t come close to matching the 80-win team of 2011, there is a similar sense of optimism right now as there was back then, that this organization is ready to start adding significant pieces to the puzzle in an attempt to contend next season.
We tend to think of free agency as the primary method for adding those kind of major pieces. Who’s going to be this generation’s version of Jayson Werth? Of Adam LaRoche? Of Edwin Jackson?
Let’s not forget, though, the major piece Rizzo acquired last time around through an entirely different process: Gio Gonzalez.
On Dec. 22, 2011, the Nationals and Athletics finalized a trade that brought Gonzalez to D.C. in exchange for four highly rated prospects: Brad Peacock, Derek Norris, A.J. Cole and Tommy Milone. And, yes, all were considered highly rated prospects at the time, even if none ever realized their full potential. (Peacock and Norris ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the club’s farm system at the time, trailing only a couple of guys named Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon.)