It Is Enough

This is the theme for today.

Elijah Dukes, no matter his potential, is not a great player.  Last year, he wasn't even a good one.  He was, frankly, terrible.  His non-existent WAR didn't even reflect the horrific nature of his craptastic base-running.

He's injury prone.  He's a bit of a headcase.  He hasn't seemingly wanted to put the extra work in to become a great player.

And you know that one guy in the office that everyone's sort of afraid of?  The creepy guy who you think's kind of unstable, and who could lash out at any time, so you just kind of smile and nod at him, rolling your eyes and shaking your head once you're out of his vision?  (My coworkers certainly do!)  Well, that's Dukes.  While he wasn't an active disturbance, it's not like you're able to avoid that creepy guy in a small clubhouse, charter bus, or plane ride.

Elijah's definitely the guy you're hoping doesn't sit next to you on Metro.  Now imagine trying to live with him for six months.

He's a guy who, because of the nature of his previous instability/immaturity, required special treatment.  How crazy is it that the team had to have an employee to go with him anywhere and everywhere?  A full-time chaperon -- is he going to the Sock Hop after the game?

He's a guy who's stinking hard this spring, after a season where his head was so far up his butt, not even Manny Acta could see the upside.  He's a guy who once showed promising command of the strikezone, but who seemingly lost all control.  Dude used to dictate ABs in a way only Nick Johnson could; now he's a swing-first hacker with all the self control of Alfy Soriano.

He's regressed, and he hasn't shown the ability to make the kind of adjustments -- either in actual talent, or in work ethic -- to demonstrate that he's ever going to pull out of the spiral.  So why put up with the extraneous crap?

He's never shown the ability to be reliable, either in his personal life or in his ability to stay on the field.  His constant injuries -- particularly to his legs, which often turn into chronic injuries -- took huge chunks out of his last two seasons.

He's been a terrible defender.  His former decent defense, thanks to the leg issues, turned him into a joke in the outfield.  On a team that's emphasizing defense to help out its young pitching staff, his glove out there would be big trouble.

He's a horrible base-runner.  Just one bone-headed move after another.  Then another.  And then when you think you've seen the stupidest play since Milledge was traded, he does something even worse.

And here's the other thing:  Yes, he's got options.  But, really, how do you think that Elijah Dukes is going to take it when you tell him he's headed to Syra-feckin-cuse?  Do you really think he has the character and strength to learn a lesson, apply himself, and really improve?  Isn't it more likely he rages and spins out of control, yelling, screaming, and kicking now, and for the next few weeks?  It'd just piss him off, and whichever team officials would end up wiping his ass in the minors.

So what choice did they have?  Sure, they could've traded him to, say, the Pirates for a 27-year old A-baller, but what's the point?  I'm sure we could just sign Josh Labendiera as a minor-league FA if we wanted to.

Releasing him cuts the chain, and gives everyone a clean break.  It makes a whole lot of sense.

____

OK, that's what the team could've said.  But they didn't, at least in so many words.  So we're left looking at them dumping a 26-year old with decent talent potential because Rizzo didn't like his aura, and left reading this lame type of after-the-fact tea-leaf reading.

If Stan Kasten had spent half the time explaining the move in these sorts of terms as he did fighting Jim Bowden's twitter feed, there'd probably be quite fewer pissed-off Nats fans tonight.