Report: Guzman clears waivers; next stop Boston?

Buster Olney of ESPN reports that Cristian Guzman has cleared waivers, meaning that no teams were willing to risk being left holding a contract that pays him $8 million next season. However, the Nationals are now free to explore trades for Guzman and there should be a decent market assuming that they’re interested in eating some of his remaining salary. Guzman doesn’t have much power and has drawn a grand total of 12 walks in 407 plate appearances, so he has one of the emptiest .317 batting averages that you’ll ever see. On the other hand, even an empty .317 is plenty valuable from a shortstop with a decent glove, and Guzman has batted .328, .316, and .317 in the past three seasons for a combined .318/.348/.443 line in 277 games. By comparison, the average MLB shortstop has hit .268/.325/.392, which is about 10 percent worse. Boston is rumored to be interested in Guzman, which makes plenty of sense given that Red Sox shortstops are third-worst in the AL with a .622 OPS and would-be-starter Jed Lowrie is back on the disabled list with more wrist problems. Nick Green is manning the position for now, but he’s a career .240/.308/.353 hitter and current backup Chris Woodward has a .242/.298/.370 lifetime mark.