Free agent first baseman Adam LaRoche had been on the market for a long time. That all changed yesterday.  LaRoche resigned with the Nationals.

At about 5:15 pm last night, my my mom picked me up from an after-school activity and showed me the tweet by @Nationals announcing LaRoche’s comeback. The tweet was maybe 7-8 words, but it said a lot. Adam LaRoche was a Nat!! I screamed “Yes! Yes!” for the next 5 minutes.

As excited as I am, that means there probably isn’t room on the team for Michael Morse.  Morse is a fan favorite because of his Beast Mode attitude, and his famous “Cobra Samurai” pose, and his “Take On Me” walk-up song that the fans love to sing along with.  Morse is excellent offensively (he hit the only 2 grand slams for the Nats in all of 2012) and he could probably make a good DH for an American League team in a trade.

But here’s another idea– he may still have a role on the Nats.  Every month, the Nats will face off against an American League team.  When they play on the road at an AL team, they will need to fill the DH role.  Due to his big bat, Morse is a natural fit for the Nats in this role, and he also is a good utility man for the Nationals to keep around.  (He can play OF, 1B and has played middle infield too).  His contract is not too expensive.  Maybe if the Nats need to open a roster spot, the better move is to trade Tyler Moore or Roger Bernadina (who already gave up his #2 jersey to Denard Span).  But in all likelihood, the Nats will trade Morse who lots of teams want, and they should be able to get some good pitching talent.

So good news for the Nats in LaRoche, and bad news for fans in what we expect to happen to Morse.

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