Nationals Acquire Troubled Dukes – The Post
It appears the relative calm of the last year and a half of Trader Jim Bowden’s tenure as Nationals general manager is over. Yesterday, on the first day of the winter meetings in Nashville, Bowden acquired OF Elijah Dukes from Tampa Bay. on the baseball side, Dukes is an intriguing prospect, but good luck finding out many details about his skills, as beat writer Barry Svrluga acknowledged in a Nationals Journal post. His rap sheet overwhelms the conversation:

An exceptional athlete with rare gifts, Dukes has been dogged by legal problems. Since 1997, he has been arrested at least three times for battery and once for assault, records show. This past summer, he also admitted to marijuana use, and, in the course of a bitter divorce, left a chilling voice mail on the cellphone of his former wife, threatening her and her children.

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Though Dukes’s temper and erratic behavior had long been an issue within the Tampa Bay system, his problems took on a different tenor last spring when the St. Petersburg Times first reported that his estranged wife, NiShea Gilbert, had sought a protective order against him. Gilbert had also received such an order in 2005, as had an ex-girlfriend of Dukes’s. He has at least five children by at least four women, two with Gilbert, and has been involved in several legal cases in which women have pursued child support.

His interactions with Gilbert played out publicly when Gilbert played a voice mail to the St. Petersburg Times she said was left by Dukes.

“You dead, dawg,” the message said. “I ain’t even [kidding]. Your kids, too.” She later said he sent a picture of a gun to her cellphone, which she took as a threat.

From The Wash. Times – Nationals trade for Dukes:

In the last four years alone, Dukes has been arrested multiple times and charged with assault and battery, suspended by both the Rays and their Class AAA Durham affiliate for various altercations with umpires, coaches, and teammates; accused of impregnating a 17-year-old, and admitted he smoked marijuana on a daily basis.

Yikes.

Third base coach Tim Tolman has been managing Dukes in the Dominican League, and says Dukes is not a problem, even though Dukes has not returned to that team since getting ejected and arguing with an umpire.

Dmitri Young, the reigning NL Comeback Player of the Year, has been tabbed as Dukes’ support system, which will hopefully help. Thus far, Dukes has failed as a man. I want him to succeed, but I’m not jumping up and down to cheer for him.

Thom Loverro of The Wash. Times wonders how Dukes will “fit in with the Washington Nationals’ community relations program?”

So, what did the Nats lose to get Dukes? LHP Glenn Gibson, who pitched for Vermont last year. More from Nationals Farm Authority.

Also, the Nats traded reliever Jonathan Albaladejo to the Yankees for starter Tyler Clippard (nationals.com). When we last heard from Clippard, he was a NY tabloids cover boy, but in a good way. Both pitchers are righties.

RF Austin Kearns may be on the block (nationals.com) as well.