NL East: Nationals sign Joe Blanton to 1-year deal

The Nationals have signed RHP Joe Blanton to a one year, $4M contract. Last year, the veteran posted a 2.48 ERA and a 3.33 FIP over the course of 80 innings pitched. This gives their bullpen a little more depth and their late game relievers some room to breathe.

Here’s what else is happening around the National League East:

• Can Odubel Herrera improve at all next season?
• For the next few weeks, David Wright will be suffering a should impingement. Let’s hope this is actually just a few weeks.
• Dee Gordon wants to bunt more in 2017 and honestly we’re here for it.
• Joe Blanton was an absolute steal for the Nationals. They’ve been a very sneaky team this offseason, will that translate over to the regular season?
• Kurt Suzuki is likely to be R.A. Dickey’s exclusive catcher this season.
• Real talk: is Pete Rose worthy to be on the Phillies’ Wall of Fame? Based on his coverage of last season’s World Series alone, I say yes.
• PSA: Lucas Duda swung a bat today. I know. Groundbreaking.
• Baseball America listed the Marlins dead last in their talent rankings. That’s going to be so embarrassing for them when Miami wins the World Series next year.
• If your plan is to draft Bryce Harper in your fantasy team this year, you may want to think again.
• Is Dansby Swanson setting himself up to be the Mike Trout of the Braves?
• Maikel Franco hit an inside the park home run a few games ago and no, this is not a super early “April fools!”, we’re serious.
• Fangraphs has released the Mets top 20 prospects and the future looks bright, my friends.
• On a more pleasant note for the Marlins, Wei-Yin Chen had a promising spring training debut.
• The Nationals are allegedly interested in Angel Pagan.