One of the men who was on the field when baseball returned to Washington in 2005 for the first time in 34 seasons will be back in a Nationals uniform this spring.
The Nationals signed 40-year-old Jamey Carroll to a minor league contract last week, a deal that included an invitation to spring training.
The journeyman infielder will compete with Danny Espinosa for the utility infield spot vacated when Steve Lombardozzi was traded to Detroit. However, a person familiar with the situation tells The Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore that Carroll will have “a really good chance of making the team.”
Known for his defense and versatility, Carroll became popular with fans and a favorite of manager Frank Robinson during the Nats’ improbable run to the top of the National League East, where they stayed for almost two months before faltering down the stretch and finishing 81-81.
A patient, unselfish contact hitter, Carroll batted .251 with a .333 on-base percentage and led all position players in sacrifice hits with 13. He also was fifth on the team in runs scored with 44 — despite not being a regular starter — batted .400 as a pinch hitter, and regularly advanced base runners, stranding just 11 percent on the season.
Despite reported protests from Robinson, former general manager Jim Bowden sold Carroll’s contract the next season to the Colorado Rockies. Since then, he has also been with Cleveland, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota, playing every position except catcher and first base. Carroll made his major-league mound debut last August, throwing a perfect eighth inning for the Twins in a 13-0 loss to Kansas City.
Now he is back with the organization that gave him his start in the majors, with a chance to fill the versatile role that Lombardozzi played the past two seasons. If he does earn a spot on the bench, he’ll likely join another newcomer in Nate McLouth, signed as a free agent from Baltimore.
The move was part of a fairly busy week for the Nats, who also agreed with Stephen Strasburg on a one-year, $3.975 contract, thereby avoiding arbitration with their 2009 top draft choice. The deal represents a slight raise for Strasburg, who is under team control until 2016, but Kilgore reports he could earn as much as $4.1 million if he hits all incentives in the deal.
Strasburg will anchor a rotation that includes Doug Fister, acquired in the deal that sent Lombardozzi, bullpen lefty Ian Kroll and minor leaguer Robbie Ray to Detroit.
