Upton Ripple Effect: Nationals, Denard Span

My first question is, "Did the Nats have a shot of acquiring Upton? How much of a chance did they think they could sign him?"

Almost exactly after B.J. Upton was signed, the Nationals acquired Denard Span from the Twins for top prospect Alex Meyer. Span is the leadoff man that the Nationals have been looking for ever since Nyjer Morgan left. He is what they needed. But, why wait until after Upton was signed. Did they not even talk until Upton was signed? We don't know, but I can tell you what I do.

The Nationals were said to be giving B.J. Upton offers to be their lead-off hitter. We just don't know how serious they were, but they way this played out I think the Nats thought there could be a chance that B.J. could come to D.C. I think they just wanted to be sure that they were not getting Upton. But, I think that they could get him and that he may have expressed some interest of coming to the nation's capital.

But, I think the ultimate winner from this is Denard Span. He gets to come to a young, hungry team. He just adds youth and hunger for the title. Everyone has a bad taste in their mouth from 2012, but this year they'll be better than ever. Span comes from a seriously bad Twins team to a team that has a shot to win it all. Congrats to him.