As the Washington Nationals look to keep their lead over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, the Nats acquired some more immediate backstop help as they have traded Class-A catcher David Freitas to the Oakland Athletics for catcher Kurt Suzuki, according to the Nationals official twitter feed.
Suzuki, the five-year veteran and native of Hawaii has spent his entire career with the Athletics, owning a career .254 batting average, 54 home runs and 302 RBI. His numbers have declined significantly in 2012, hitting just .218 with a .254 OBP in 75 games played this year for the Green and Gold.
As for Freitas, he was the Nats 15th round selection in the 2010 first-year player draft out of the University of Hawaii, and was batting .271 with five homers and 46 RBI for the Potomac Nationals of the Class-A Carolina League. He'll likely join Oakland's Class-A affiliate, the Burlington Bees.
Oakland will likely recall catcher Derek Norris from Triple-A Sacramento. He and George Kottaras will form the catching platoon for the Athletics now with Suzuki gone.
For more on the Oakland Athletics, make sure to check out Athletics Nation. For the Nationals side of things, head on over to Federal Baseball.
