He's Getting Worse, And We're Stuck

I'm not sure how many ways we can express this, nor how many times we can say it without driving ourselves insane. Cristian Guzman is killing the Nats. I mean, what does he have to do to get arrested for manslaughter in this town? Not only did he have a terrible April, he got worse in the just-completed month of May, putting up a .390 OPS for the month. At this point, it's fair to say that there's a decent number of minor league shortstops, waiver-wire guys, and beer-league softball players who would outproduce Guzman. Well, probably not this guy, though (wow, even the Nats' AAA shortstop is bad). (As an aside, the Nats do not have a single shortstop prospect above the low-A ball level. Not a single one).

Based on his performance, it is very easy to construct an argument for the semi-permanent benching of Guzman. Sure, the Nats made a $4.2 million per year commitment to him. But they've made a bigger commitment to the city of Washington - and Guzman is hurting the team too much to keep him in the lineup. One would otherwise hope someone at somepoint steps in and does something about this - benching Guzman for 3 or 4 games and giving Jamey Carroll a run at shortstop on a more than part time basis.

But that can't be done right now - Vidro's injury leaves Carroll as the only viable option at second base. So, absent a move outside the organization for a Willie Harris 2b-CF type player, the Nats will be stuck with Guzman at least until Vidro gets back.

Thus understood, the horse is dead and beaten. I doubt it's worth any of our breath to boo Guzman or criticize his performance any more. He's bad, but we are stuck with him until further notice.