Johnson won't accept backup role

Nick Johnson said recently that he will rather have a trade than accept a backup role. There are still five men (Dukes, Willingham, Milledge, Johnson, and Dunn) competing for four spots, which is the outfield and first base. I've decided that they have to get rid of either Lastings Milledge or Nick Johnson. Milledge would be hard to get rid of, considering Bowdon said he is in our long-term plans and Acta recently said Lastings would be our center fielder. Dunn and Dukes are already guaranteed a starting spot. Each of the five are too good to be a backup, yet Milledge is the worst. I hate how the Nats, to them, Milledge is a young, great slugger all-star, and Dukes is what? A nobody who's got arrested twice? Dukes is a stud, and they don't realize it. If nobody leaves, I can't imagine Lastings Milledge (below, on his check-swing) mis-playing another ball while a healthy Nick Johnson or Josh Willingham sitting on the bench. Also they're treating Austin Kearns as if he deverves to even compete to start? Kearns over Dukes?Kearns over Dunn??? Nick Johnson has a higher chance of getting traded, as for the second year in a row he said he will start or he will accept a trade. The Nats are starting to get really mad at him, as he has made eight major trips to the DL in his career. Reportedly, three teams looked at his medical record, including the Oakland Athletics, who have extreme interest in him. They also might actually mean it, because Jim Bowdon isn't their GM...

Even with that, it wouldn't be too bad to keep Milledge as a backup and if they keep all five, remembering that this is still a young team that is the most injury-prone in baseball. Not only if someone gets injured/traded in the outfield or first base, Milledge could step in but also at catcher. If Flores goes down, I don't see Montz or Nieves being able to be a starting catcher. Then, you could put Willingham at catcher and have a outfield of Dukes, Milledge, and Dunn. Although, Flores has never been injured in his career, excluding a cruel play by Chase Utley ( He dove into home, spikes up, on-purpose, after the game: "I didn't do anything").

That looks like it in the offseason for the Nats. Jim Bowdon said yesterday that they no longer had interest in Orlando Hudson. They still should have got a couple of stud relief pitchers. In the bullpen the nats are putting way too much pressure on Hanrahan, Shell, Mock, and probably Terrel Young. They need one more old (28-34 years old) relief pitcher, and maybe even Juan Cruz could help. You can tell that Chad Cordero is not coming back, because Dunn took his old number, 32. Dunn didn't say much while at his press conference, but some bad news is that you can tell Dunn is really disapointed that he came to Washington (59-102) instead of a contender. So pretty much the only other move this offseason for the nats would be a trade invlolving getting rid of Nick Johnson.