Fire Jim Bowden notes that Mike Rizzo stole Mike Morse from the Seattle Mariners. He also notes the downside of Morse:

Now it’s time for me to do what I do and splash some cold water. First, let’s remember that Morse is not young. He’s 29 years old, which is usually at or just a bit past most players’ peak years.

Second, we need to remember why this guy toiled around mostly in the minor leagues in three organizations for basically a decade having the career of Jason Michaels. He’s been injury prone for his entire career. He’s not a very good defender, even playing on the extreme end of the defensive spectrum (errorless streak and comps to Adam Dunn notwithstanding).

And most of all, he rarely if ever takes a walk, which until this season has prevented his 5 o’clock power from ever actualizing in game situations. And that’s a part of his game hasn’t improved at all this season–his unintentional walk rate is a Guzman-esque 4.7%. It’s just incredibly rare for any player to be able to be as productive as Morse has been this year while drawing so few walks.

This type of steal would be more important in the next couple of years, when the Nationals are more likely to be serious contenders for a playoff spot. Morse’s contribution this year was to move the team in that direction. The Nationals competed for a couple of months. They are not going to come close to losing 100 games, and may very well finish over .500. That’s a big improvement. They’ve held attendance steady without Stephen Strasburg bringing in sell-out crowds. The team moved in the right direction, and Morse was a big part of that. The team just can’t depend on that kind of performance in the future.