Baseball fans love the thrill of the trade deadline as players move from one team to another, sometimes in head-spinning fashion. One guy whose head may still be spinning from the flurry of deadline deals is former National Michael Morse, who was a member of three different teams, and went from East Coast, to West Coast, and then back east again, in a span of 48 hours.
Here’s how it all went down: Morse, who played for the Nationals from 2009-2012, started this season with the Miami Marlins. Hours after striking out on Thursday as the last out of the Nats’ 1-0 victory in Miami, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of the three-team 13-player blockbuster that also involved the Atlanta Braves.
The Dodgers immediately designated him for assignment, and the next day, he was traded again. This time, he went to Pittsburgh, for outfielder Jose Tabata – who had broken up Max Scherzer’s perfect game on June 20 when he was hit by a pitch with two outs in the ninth inning. Morse still hasn’t played for the Pirates. For all we know, he might still be waiting for a connecting flight in Salt Lake City or some other airport.
Nats fans fondly remember Morse for his hitting and musical taste during his tenure in Washington. Acquired in a 2009 trade with Seattle for outfielder Ryan Langerhans, Morse’s prodigious power earned him the nickname the Beast. After hitting 15 homers and slashing .289/.352./.519 as a left fielder in 2010, Morse’s breakout season came in 2011, although it didn’t start off that way. He started the season in a left field platoon with Laynce Nix, but 
did not hit well and was relegated to pinch-hitting duties by May.
But when Adam LaRoche’s season was ended by a torn labrum, Morse got a chance to be the team’s starting first baseman on May 22 and made the most of it. In his first four games at his new position, Morse hit three homers and drove in eight runs. Through July 5, he collected 13 homers and 35 RBIs, the most in the major leagues in that span. His bat helped the Nats win 16 of 21 games to move above .500. Morse finished at .303/.360/.550 with 31 homers and 95 RBIs as the Nats had their best season in years at 80-81, setting the stage for their future success.
Morse was injured during much of the Nats’ 2012 run to the NL East title, when he batted .291/.321/.470 with 18 homers and 62 RBIs, but he was involved in one of the most unusual plays in the history of the team, and maybe all of baseball. On Sept. 29 in St. Louis, Morse came up with the bases loaded. His shot to right field bounced off the top of the fence and back onto the field. It was initially ruled in play, and Morse, thinking he had a homer, slowed up, then put on the gas, but was tagged out at second. The umpires reviewed the play and called it a home run, but in order to make sure none of the runners passed each other on the basepaths, Morse was ordered to go back to first, then back home, then take a mock swing and round the bases to complete his grand slam.
Morse was traded to the Seattle Mariners before the 2013 season in a deal that brought the Nationals pitchers A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen. But his legacy with Nats fans lived on a while longer. Morse’s walk-up music, the 1985 synth-pop hit “Take On Me” by Ah-ha, was the Nationals’ seventh inning stretch song in 2013. Fans sang along joyfully, and the Nationals Park crew obliged by turning off the music in mid-chorus, as the crowd finished it, complete with falsetto high notes.
Morse went on to collect a World Series ring with San Francisco last season, hitting the go-ahead single in Game 7. He has not had the same consistent success he had in Washington, but Nats fans will always remember him as the Beast.
