No Coco for the Nats in 2011

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Coco Crisp will not be a part of the Washington Nationals 2011 OF.

Today, Crisp announced via his Twitter account that the Oakland A’s had picked up his option for the 2011 season.

Coco_Crisp

I'm happy, I just found out today that the A's are picking up my option for 2011.

Crisp, a switching hitting CF’er would have been very tempting for the Nationals; he gets on-base at a decent clip (.344 in 2008, .342 in 2010), plays stellar defense (73.7 UZR – Career) and uses his speed (32 SB’s in 2010) appropriately (3 CS in 2010).

Besides losing out on a great nickname, the Nats will also miss out on what would have been one of the top OF’ers available in the 2010-2011 FA class.

Now that the talent pool has been thinned a bit, it will be interesting to see where Mike Rizzo turns for that extra OF bat. Do the Nats pony up the money it will take to sign a Jayson Werth or a Carl Crawford, or will they go dumpster diving and hope they can fix the approach of someone like Rick Ankiel?

Only time will tell. So pull a chair up to the stove and get comfy, things are about to get hot, and in a hurry.