Adam Dunn Keeping the Nats on Hold

One of the biggest victims of baseball's newest trend of financial responsibility has been Adam Dunn. The home run and walk machine went into the offseason with aspirations of pulling down a deal in the $100 million range but instead finds himself teamless in February, just waiting for the phone to ring.

As it turns out, there just aren't many teams in the market for a high-priced designated hitter right now, but Dunn does have one offer waiting for him.

The Washington Nationals made Dunn one a while ago that's just been sitting on the table, but he keeps waiting for other things to develop. You know, because nobody actually wants to play for the Nationals as anything but a last resort, which is why Dunn was no doubt happy to see Manny Ramirez turn down the Dodgers' latest offer this morning.

According to ESPN's Jayson Stark in his Rumblings column last Thursday, Dunn is waiting out the Manny-Dodgers drama in hope that Ramirez will sign elsewhere and the Dodgers will move on to him as their backup plan. Stark's source went on to say that if Dunn wanted to play in Washington "he'd already be there."

The biggest problem for Dunn is that he really is nothing more than a designated hitter who has played in the National League for his entire career, and there aren't many American League teams looking for a new DH right now, particularly one as costly as Dunn is going to be. I think sooner or later he's going to have to swallow his pride and just sign a one-year deal with the Nationals and try again next winter.

I mean, if he could survive over seven seasons in Cincinnati, surely he could take one in D.C., right?