Nats Acquire Willingham, Olsen

The Washington Nationals last night struck a trade that satisfied two of their largest needs, fulfilling much of their offseason agenda while wasting little time.

By sending second baseman Emilio Bonifacio and minor leaguers P.J. Dean and Jake Smolinski to the Florida Marlins, Washington acquired outfielder Josh Willingham and pitcher Scott Olsen, a pair the organization will count on to provide, respectively, power and innings. A news conference is scheduled for today in Washington to announce the deal, which several sources confirmed last night.

The team is hoping that Willingham, 29, best suited as a corner outfielder, can fill the power void; he hit 15 home runs in a 2008 season shortened by back problems, but in the two previous years, he totaled 47 home runs.

"He told me that he's been working out hard every day, and his back is 100 percent now," Willingham's agent, Matt Sosnick, said. "I think he feels like his back is under control. I think he's going to be great" in Washington.

The Nationals entered the offseason hoping to acquire not just a power hitter, but also a front-end pitcher. The team will give Olsen, 24, a left-hander who last year went 8-11 with a 4.20 ERA, a chance to grow into such a role. Olsen is big (6 feet 5, 215 pounds) and durable; he's topped 30 starts and 175 innings in all three full major league seasons. But he's also been maddeningly inconsistent, with periods of ineffectiveness -- in one 22-start span last year, he had just two wins -- and a history of confrontations with teammates.

Willingham and Olsen were both part of the young nucleus that Florida is now deconstructing. Both are arbitration-eligible this offseason, entitled to significant raises.

By trading Bonifacio, Washington parted with a player it had acquired just months earlier from Arizona in exchange for relief pitcher Jon Rauch. Management had hailed Bonifacio as the second baseman of the future -- a regular and a leadoff man. But just weeks into his time with the Nationals, he was platooning at second and often hitting seventh or eighth. Anderson Hernández, who hit .333 in 81 at-bats with Washington in 2008, likely will enter 2009 as the starting second baseman.

The Nationals also added three prospects to their roster, protecting them from next month's Rule 5 draft: outfielder Leonard Davis, 24; pitcher Luis Atilano, 23; and shortstop Ian Desmond, 23 -- all of whom were coming off successful seasons in the system.