With less than an hour remaining until the trade deadline, the Washington Nationals were able to pull off a deal to acquire Asdrubal Cabrera. In order to acquire Cabrera, the Nationals sent SS Zach Walters to the Cleveland Indians.
While not a blockbuster trade by any means, the 28-year-old switch hitter should be a solid acquisition for the Nationals. Cabrera is a career .270 hitter and .246 with 9 home runs and 40 RBIs so far this season. The Nationals will have to pay Cabrera the remaining $3.3 million of this year's contract and he will become a costless agent at season's end.
The question now becomes, where does Cabrera fit in to the Nationals lineup. He has played shortstop the last five years for the Indians, but Ian Desmond already occupies that space for the Nationals. It is most likely that Cabrera will see a lot of time at second base, where Danny Espinosa has been underwhelming so far this season. However, it will be interesting to see what happens when Ryan Zimmerman comes back from injury. Currently, Anthony Rendon is playing third base on a full-time basis while Zimmerman is out, but we may see Rendon move back to second base when Zimmerman returns. However, Nationals manager Matt Williams did successfully experiment with Ryan Zimmerman playing left field earlier this season. Cabrera is certainly capable of playing second base, as he did so early on in his career with the Indians. However, he has not started a game at second base since 2009.
Asdrubal Cabrera was definitely a good addition for the Nationals. It will be interesting to see where he gets his play time as the season moves forward and also how that affects other players in the Nationals lineup.