SEE? WE AREN'T CHEAP BASTARDS AFTERALL!

ONE MORE DOWN (NIETO), CROW TO GO

Mr. Lerner handed over several suitcases full of cash yesterday, temporarily silencing legions of know-it-alls (*cough* *cough*) who have nothing better to do with their time than dream up new ways to spend his money. Thank you, Mr. Lerner. Good stuff: The Nationals agreed to terms with 5th round pick Adrian Nieto ($376K signing bonus is, NFA points out, more than 2X the slot recommendation). Now, get Crow done, and we'll never use the "c-word" here again (until next time).

Interesting note in the Washington Times: The deal was done a week ago, but it took some time to get the blessing of Stan and the Family to pay out above-slot money:

The Nationals actually finished negotiations with the catcher a week ago, according to a source familiar with negotiations, but the team had to OK the above-slot bonus with team president Stan Kasten and the Lerner family before confirming it with Nieto yesterday.

Of course, Brian @Nationals Farm Authority called this one on Saturday; he also linked up Joshua Kusnick's blog. Kusnick is Nieto's agent/adviser; he had this to say in the aftermath:

It's better late than never, however I am very happy to announce the signing of Adrian Nieto to the Washington Nationals Baseball Club. Adrian and his family would like to thank the entire front office of the Washington Nationals including but not limited to, Dana Brown, Bob Boone, Tony Arrango, Stan Kasten, Mike Rizzo and the Lerner Family for helping this deal come to fruition. 

...

I would like to commend Mike Rizzo on all of his hard work that went into getting this deal done and I look forward to Adrian and the Nationals having a long and fruitful relationship from here on out.

So, of the vaunted top 5, 2 down, 3 to go: Aaron Crow (RHP), Daniel Espinosa (SS) and left-hander Graham Hicks (LHP)...

(Photo by Reuters)

Comments

[Dave at Bottomfeeder Baseball]

it's beautiful that in his hand-crafted thank you to the Nats front office, Kusnick mentions "the entire front office", everyone except the guy that sweeps the floors...and Jim Bowden.

[The Nationals Enquirer]

Dave: yeah, I thought that was curious, too. Someone raised that over at NFA in the comments as well. I wonder how much he's even involved in these negotiations? Still, it seems odd that ol' Trader Jim would be omitted from the thank you list (and just lumped in with the general 'Entire Front Office')...