A trade of Tanners: Nats send Roark to Reds for Rainey
LAS VEGAS — Tanner Roark figured he would be pitching in Washington’s starstudded rotation next year alongside Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and newcomer Patrick Corbin.
Instead, he found himself part of the majors’ first Tanner-for-Tanner trade, headed to the rebuilding Reds. Cincinnati acquired him for fellow right-hander Tanner Rainey on Wednesday during the winter meetings.
“I felt like we would have a pretty good staff over there in D.C. but they thought otherwise and I don’t know what their plans are,” Roark said in a conference call. “I’m just grateful to be a National. It was good times over there.”
As of now, Roark could lead a young Reds rotation — though president of baseball operations Dick Williams made it clear his last-place club is hardly done dealing. Righty starter Matt Harvey came to Cincinnati from the Mets last May.
There have been only a handful of big league players over the years with the first name of Tanner, and this was the first time two of them were traded for each other.
The 32-year-old Roark led the National League in losses last season, going 9-15 with a 4.34 ERA. He is 64-54 in six years, all with Washington.
Roark made $6,475,000 last year and is eligible for arbitration. He can become a free agent after next season.
“There haven’t been a lot of commitments to players making this kind of money. So this is a significant shift for us,” Williams said. “We’ve been laying in the weeds for a couple of years and focused on rebuilding, and now it’s time to add to the team. We’re in that mode now. And we fully expect to make more deals. This is the first of more to come.”
Washington boosted its rotation last week by signing All-Star Corbin to a $140 million, six-year contract. He will join the company of Scherzer and Strasburg on a team that 82-80 and finished second in the NL East behind Atlanta.