The Nationals received great news yesterday with reports that Adam Dunn was classified as a Type A Free agent http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2010/10/adam_dunn_will_be_a_type_a_fre.html . Now if he leaves in free agency as expected, the Nationals will receive two top draft picks as compensation. Despite being one of the most premier hitters on the open market, Dunn was a boarderline case and almost ended up being classified as a Type B free agent (which only gets one draft pick in return).
While none of these are really surprises, the list also showed that four of the Nationals top replacement targets (or at least guys who should be) are Type B guys, meaning the Nationals won’t lose a pick (though their team will get a pick in the supplemental 1st round. My order of preference would be Aubrey Huff, Lance Berkman, Adam LaRoche, and Carlos Pena. Of course most reports have the Nationals most interested in Pena, so we will see what happens.
While the best move would have been trading him over the summer, now knowing that they are getting two top picks is a nice consolation prize, if Dunn ends up walking.
