21 Mondays to go: Wondering about Scott Olsen

Posted by Mike Henderson on Nov. 9, 2009 at 8:35 AM
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There are a lot of Mondays between today and Opening Day 2010.  Even so, the first full week of the major-league offseason would seem a good time to start to tie up some loose ends from the season just completed.

Several of those loose ends have to do with the Nationals' starting pitching, where the news isn't all bad.  The keeper of this Hutch caught up with John Lannan and Craig Stammen at Sunday's Bethesda Big Train Base Ball & Auction and both were in good health and spirits.  Lannan and Stammen as well as Garrett Mock are strong candidates to carry over from the 2009 rotation.

Still, absent an expensive and unlikely foray into the free-agent market, the rotation's reconstruction isn't going to be completed at the beginning of the 2010 season -- and probably not at the end of it either unless Steven Strasburg is deemed ready for the Show and Jordan Zimmermann is fully rehabilitated from his Tommy John surgery.   As there'd seem to be little benefit to rushing either of those pitchers along, it's likely best to bookmark Spring Training 2011 as the time to bring their accounts fully up to date.

That doesn't mean the front office and the Hot Stove League aren't thinking right now about who should be in the Opening Day 2010 rotation.  At this distant vantage point, it's not even possible to guess how many will be current members of the organization and how many will be offseason pickups through trade or free agency.

Complicating matters in part is the uncertain status of would-be rotation stalwart Scott Olsen.  Acquired with Josh Willingham in the November 2008 trade (one year ago tomorrow, in fact) that sent Emilio Bonifacio and a couple of prospects to Florida, Olsen struggled through much of the first half of the 2009 season before finally being shut down at midpoint with shoulder woes.  Nonetheless, the success of his surgery in July offered some hope that the rangy left-hander will be healthy and ready to pitch at the beginning of training camp in February 2010.

Whether he'll be doing it under the curly W is another matter.  Should the Nats elect to make Olsen a contract offer, they'd be on the hook for at least $2.24 million under arbitration rules.  So it's reasonable to think that the team might consider non-tendering Olsen and testing the free-agent waters.

On the other hand, Olsen's a competent pitcher when healthy and at full strength, and if available -- whether or not at an injury discount -- is at least a somewhat known quantity to Nats pitching coach Steve McCatty.  And a few weeks of Spring Training would give the team a chance to estimate Olsen's value before his full 2010 salary commitment is activated in late March.

So we're fairly sure we'll see Olsen in Viera; from there it's anybody's guess.