tireball.com

The Washington Nationals agreed to a deal with Adam Kennedy late Thursday night. The team had been in the market for a starting second basemen with Kennedy and Orlando Hudson being the teams primary targets.

In recent weeks it appeared that the club was heading towards a signing with Hudson but with his salary demands being at $5 million the club began to sour on him earlier this week. Hudson has since signed with Minnesota where he will take over at second.

It’s also more likely that Hudson will benefit the Twins then he would have the Nationals. The Twins are a contender for the AL Central while the Nationals are trying to climb out of the cellar in the NL East.

The result was the signing of Adam Kennedy, 34, who had a bit of a resurgence last season batting .289/.348/.410 with 11 homers and 63 RBI while playing with Oakland.

Kennedy is simply a solid veteran player who will buy the organization some time.

The biggest plus to signing Kennedy over Hudson is there will be no $5 million obstacle in the way of the team bringing up prized prospect Ian Desmond.

Desmond, 24, combined to hit .330/.401/.477 between Double-A and Triple-A last season while notching 7 homers, 24 doubles, 32 RBI and was 21-for-26 on the base-paths. While the Nationals hinted earlier this winter that they would entertain the idea of starting Desmond at second base, this buys the team some additional time to work on a smooth transition.

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The market is starting to develop for Adam Kennedy as the Washington Nationals have joined the Mets, A’s and Marlins as teams who have expressed interest in the infielder in recent days.

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