Courtesy of the latest from LEN3, our good friend and former Nationals GM Jim Bowden thinks that "Twins and Nationals have a trade match-up that makes too much sense..Twins need a SS (Desmond or Espinosa) & Nats need a CF (Span or Revere)."

Would any of those trades be good for us? More after the jump.

Quick refresh on the players involved (2012 baseball season age, last 3 years fWAR and PA, notes):

Denard Span - age 28 - fWAR 10 - PA 1692 (roughly 2.5 seasons)
 - Under contract through 2014 at reasonable rates (escalating to $6.5M in 2014 with a $9M club option in '15)
 - Well-rounded player, high OBP, good defense, good baserunning, little/no power
 - concussion/injury recovery red flag

Ben Revere - age 24 - fWAR 1.8 - PA 511 (a bit under one full season)
 - Less than a year of MLB service time, so very cheap
 - Excellent defender due to extreme range, plus baserunning, serious questions about bat transitioning to MLB
 - Really better suited to LF due to low arm strength

Danny Espinosa - age 25 - fWAR 4.0 - PA 770 (a little more than one full season)
 - Just over a year of MLB service time, so quite cheap indeed
 - Has only played two games at SS; UZR likes him as a roughly league-average defender at 2B
 - The kid can hit and run; 21HR / 17SB in 2011 and MiLB stats to suggest it was no fluke. 104 wRC+ last year despite .292 BABIP

Ian Desmond - age 26 - fWAR 3.2 - PA 1302 (roughly two full seasons)
 - Roughly two years of MLB service time, so pretty cheap
 - UZR dislikes his fielding at SS; 2010 had awful error/good range but 2011 was both bad range/bad errors
 - Mediocre bat so far in MLB (88/80 wRC+ in full MLB season) but showed promise in minors
 - Fangraphs stats <3 his baserunning like it stood outside their window blasting Peter Gabriel; 3.6 BsR score is elite

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No big surprise here: I lurv Espinosa, and would gladly trade Span for him. He's got the glove to stick at 2B (and maybe SS; I haven't seen him play so I couldn't tell ya but UZR likes his range), and he's cheap as free, and holy god do we need MI help. I'd give Span and a C-level prospect for him, I like him so much. Revere? Hell yes. Heck, I'd do Revere + Casilla or a B prospect.

Desmond...eh. I'm not massively high on Revere, but even so I probably wouldn't do Revere-Desmond straight up. I wouldn't let Span go for him at all. I just don't see that much upside in Desmond, and he's had 2 full seasons to show he can hit in MLB with few results. A serviceable SS at serf rates for one year plus his arb years...sure, that has value, but not *that* much of it. Now, if they wanted to throw Ramos in, I'd listen...

Don't get me wrong: I like Span, and to a lesser extent Revere, and I'm not champing at the bit to trade either of them. OTOH, if the Nats want to send us some Espinosa I'd be all ears.