Nationals Among Leading Candidates For Capps

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ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick spoke with the agent for pitcher Matt Capps, who said the Nationals, fresh off their signing of Jason Marquis, are a strong contender to land Capps' services.

Crasnick writes, "Agent Paul Kinzer said the Nationals weren't a factor when Capps began considering his options as a free agent. But Washington is now among the leading candidates to sign Capps because of the efforts of general manager Mike Rizzo."

The idea of Capps is a good one for the Nationals, whose record was much worse than the other talent on the field due to a ludicrously bad bullpen. With Capps' strikeout rate right around his career norms, it would be surprising not to see him post an ERA closer to his career mark of 3.61 than his 2009 mark of 5.80. Of course, even a little improvement from Capps would help- the Nationals posted a bullpen ERA of 5.09 last season.

Bill Ladson of MLB.com tweets,"I spoke to Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett today. They want the Nationals to sign Matt Capps."

MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

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ESPN - The Nationals have agreed to a one-year deal with reliever Matt Capps.

Capps will be Washington's closer.

The deal is for $3.5 million for 2010, with a chance to make another $425,000 in performance bonuses.

"He's very confident in his ability," agent Paul Kinser said about Capps. "He knows next year he will go to arbitration and he's extremely confident that at that point that Washington will want to offer a one-year deal at that time. Matt is very happy with his decision. Although the conversation with the Cubs and Mets made it difficult, he decided this was the best way to go."

RealGM Baseball: Wiretap Archives: Capps, Nationals Agree On One-Year Deal