The Nats completed their trade for New York Yankees reliever Brian Bruney earlier this week by selecting Jamie Hoffman with the No. 1 pick in the Rule V Draft on Thursday morning. They immediately sent Hoffman, an outfielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers, on to the Yankees to complete that deal. They also selected three players in the minor-league portion of the draft – RHP Arismendy Mota (Chicago White Sox), LHP Michael Wlodarczyk (Tampa Bay Rays) and OF Nicholas Moresi (Houston Astros).
To make room on the 40-man roster so they could select Hoffman, the Nats released RHP Zach Zegovia. The team also lost a player in the Rule V Draft. RHP Zech Zinicola was chosen by the Toronto Blue Jays, where former scouting director Dana Brown is now employed. Brown drafted Zinicola for the Nationals and has always been high on the closer. Zinicola, 24, finished last season at Triple-A Syracuse. But in 26 games he had a 7.56 ERA. The year before – in 24 games in AAA – Zinicola had a 7.53 ERA. Brown may love him. But there’s no chance Zinicola sticks all season on the Blue Jays’ major-league roster with those numbers. In that case, Toronto would have to offer him back to the Nationals for half of the $50,000 drafting price or the teams could work out a trade. Zinicola was Washington’s eighth-round selection in the 2006 draft out of Arizona State.
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