Nationals Farm Authority

While most teams announce their minor league signings all at once, the Nationals have decided to spread it out 5 at a time over a couple of weeks.  Yesterday, the Nationals announced the signings of OF Kenny Kelly and RHPs Kyle Denney & Santiago Ramirez on 2006 minor-league contracts that include invitations to big league Spring Training. The club also agreed to terms on 2006 minor-league contracts with RHP Beltran Perez and IF Melvin Dorta.

Kelly returns to the Nationals after being released on 11/16.  The 27-year old OF made a brief appearance for the Nats in 2005 after being claimed off of waivers mid-season.  With the overabundance of OFs coming to spring, Kelly is likely headed to New Orleans. 

The 28-year old Denney is recovering from a fractured skull suffered when he took a line drive off of the head in a 6/25 game for the Indians AAA team.  Denney is also renowned for being grazed by a bullet while on the team bus (he escaped serious injury thanks in part to the cheerleader boots he was wearing as part of rookie hazing).  He possesses an average fastball with a solid changeup and sharp curve.  His control in the minors has been very good (8.4K/9 vs 2.8BB/9).  At 28, his days of projectability are over.  If he can recover both physically and psychologically from his 2005 injury, he has the ability to be a back of the rotation SP (which may be a possibility … wait for the Darrell Rasner news) or middle RP.  He is also likely to start 2006 in New Orleans.

Ramirez is a 27-year old RHP who spent the 2005 season in AAA Omaha (Royals) after 5 seasons in the Astros organization.  His minor league career has been a combination of the promising (three reliable pitches with movement; 9.2K/9 over 370+ minor league IP) and the discouraging (4.8BB/9 over that same time period).  He was looked at as a potential bullpen arm for the Royals last year but did not perform well enough in Spring Training to earn a roster spot.  He is likely ticketed for Harrisburg (based upon the numbers game).

Perez is a 24-year old RP coming off of an average season in relief with A/AA Dodgers farm teams.  Much like Ramirez, Perez has strikeout stuff (8K/9 over 400+ minor league IP) but seems to battle control issues (his BB/9 have increased each of the last 3 years).  I don’t see Perez as much more than an organizational guy if he sticks with the Nats, perhaps in Harrisburg.

The 24-year old Dorta returns for his third season in the Nats organization.  It would not be surprising to see Dorat return to Harrisburg for a third straight season.  He has not shown the signs of development that a major league team look for.

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Additionally, the news came out that the Nats lost RH SP Darrell Rasner on waivers to the New York Yankees.  Rasner was placed on waivers to make room for backup catcher/DH Matt LeCroy who was signed on Wednesday.  While Rasner didn’t offer a high ceiling (potentially no more than a #4 or 5 SP), it’s troubling to see a team that ran into so many SP problems late in 2005 allow a serviceable arm to be lost without any compensation.  With an overabundance of bench guys (Fick, Anderson, Jackson, Castro, Godwin, Tucker, etc), it would have made more sense to place someone who did not pitch on waivers to make room for LeCroy.  Hopefully, one of the NRI SP named over the past couple of weeks will provide the Nats something they dearly lack … SP depth in the minors.