The Nationals remain open to upgrading their rotation, but their main priority now is the bullpen, and they’re especially interested in lefties Zach Britton, Justin Wilson and Brad Hand, FanRag’s Jon Heyman writes. Of the three, Britton might be the highest priority, Heyman writes. There appears to be considerable interest from other clubs, however (the Astros and Dodgers have both been closely connected to Britton), and it’s unclear whether the Orioles would trade Britton to a local rival.
We noted the Nationals’ strong interest in Wilson earlier today. The Tigers lefty has attracted plenty of interest from other clubs as well in a season in which he’s posted a 2.75 ERA, 12.6 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 while throwing his fastball at a career-high average of 96.1 MPH.
The Padres have said that they might hold onto Hand, who isn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2019 season, and Heyman added in a tweet this afternoon that the Padres haven’t been overly impressed with the offers they’ve received and could consider keeping Hand. He’s in the midst of a second straight dominant season, however, with a 2.00 ERA, 11.7 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 over 54 innings, and his value might never be higher.
The Nationals have already bolstered their bullpen with the additions of Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle, and have at least one big hole in their rotation due to injuries to Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross. (The team recently promoted Erick Fedde, who might be able to capably fill one of those vacancies, but they still have Edwin Jackson in the other.) It appears they could be counting on a relatively quick return from Strasburg. As Heyman notes, they don’t want to trade top prospects Juan Soto or Victor Robles. Focusing on bullpen rather than rotation help, then, might be a way of limiting somewhat the prospect price they’ll have to pay for upgrades — while, of course, increasing the chance of avoiding some of the high-profile late-inning troubles they’ve had in recent playoff runs.
Doolittle, Romero, Perez and the possibility of Solis coming back. How many LH relivers do they need?
It’s about getting an elite reliever, not just a LH one.
Why are they prioritizing in Britton? He’ll cost the most and has been the least effective and has injury concerns. I realize when he’s on he’s one of the best in the game, but that’ll be a huge risk for them, especially since it’ll likely cost the few remaining trade chips they got left.
@JDGoat That’s a great argument. Teams that are contending have to be interested in his upside if the price is appropriate enough.
Does anyone know about his medicals? He had a forearm strain at the beginning of the season right? Were there reports of him having an MRI on his arm? Just asking because it seems to me he should be pitching better than his stats suggest he is (must admit I also haven’t watched him pitch this year) if he is fully healthy, not that his stats are bad or anything, but I would never have guessed they belonged to Britton if his name weren’t right next to them.
Forearm strains are a huge red flag. The odds aren’t in Britton’s favor that he’ll avoid Tommy John surgery.
To take the competition away. Buy a World Series.
I would love to see Wilson or even better Rosenthal.
I don’t think the nationals have enough top elite guys left to get Wilson or hand
They have enough elite guys to get anyone they want. The question is if they are willing to give them up
As a Cubs fan, I hope not! They are already scary!!
As a Cub fan also, I wouldn’t be concerned with the Nats. It’s probably the Dodgers year.
Unfortunately I agree. This Nats lineup is good but rotation and bullpen has serious holes.
Don’t sleep on the Nats. Deadline isn’t over and Doolittle and Madson are quality relievers.
They do. Robles is rated really high. So is Fedde and Soto have pretty high ceilings for prospects. IDK about their floors. Robles and especially Soto are pretty far away.
The prospect sites have raved about robles though.
They wont trade frede
I know Robles
I think they could land either with Soto straight up. Maybe a couple lower end prospects packaged but Soto would be a great return for Detroit or San Diego
Hand to the Nats would have to include Robles or Soto coming back. Hand probably isn’t enough to get Robles unless the Padres throw in some of their own prospects but Soto and a lower guy would definitely be fair. I’d prefer to see the Padres get a shortstop for Hand tho. They have enough OF’s as it is.
It will be interesting. There have been reports of a split between Soto and Robles in the scouting department. There is a contingent of Nats evaluators who see Soto above Robles. Baseball Prospectus ranked him as 12 overall in midseason top 50. I would be interested in how other teams view the situation
Don’t see Nats trading Soto or Robles for a reliever. My guess is they offer one of their two high upside 17 year old SS prospects (Antuna or Garcia), Stephenson, Voth and an emerging arm like Watson. Not sure if Pads will take that but the market this year for arms isn’t paying as high a prospect price as last year.
Should say market for relief* arms
lolz?
They do. All they have to do is offer Robles for one of those guys straight up and the deal is done.
Whether or not Rizzo will, or should, do that is a story for another day.
i think Dodgers should do the same im fine in playoff if Maeda throw 3inning come Ryu for 2 and from 5-9 with the bullpen
Angelo’s will never trade with DC unless it is an absolute fleecing of their system. Fair or not, it will take 2 of their top prospects as a starting point.
LOL he can keep Zach.
Yeah right, Heyman. As if Angelos would ever allow a trade to happen with the Nationals. Not happening.
If they offered Robles or Fedde, he would listen no matter what his personal feelings were. Pretty short sighted if he lets personal/regional beef get in the way of business. That being said, it’s not happening because the Nats aren’t gonna move either guy.
If his baseball “people” all told Angelos that the proposed trade would make the organization stronger why would he object? I know all about the Os/Nats feud, particularly the MASN issue. Still doubt that Angelos would block a trade which would help his team just to spite the Nationals. Wouldn’t have gotten to where he is with that sort of self destructive, petty nonsense. Guess we’ll see.
Angelos would rather walk to Tel Aviv with a pork chop in his mouth than to trade with Nationals.
Hand’s value certainly can go higher.
Elite setup man to elite closer definitely increases the price.
Padres risk Hand getting injured, but letting him close all of august and september will increase his trade value in the off season as any team acquiring him can pencil him in as a set up man or closer.
Plus, the off season might be better timing cause right now teams cant deal draft picks from june. After the world series they can be included in a Hand deal which works for the Padres getting most from Hand and teams keeping other pieces.
Twins could include Royce Lewis, Blue Jays can include Logan Warmoth, Rangers could include Christopher Seise, etc.
Maybe but hand will certainly get more than A -Ballers I would say
The Twins aren’t trading Royce Lewis for a reliever anytime soon.
I think he was just making a point vs saying they’re trade bait
The point was every player drafted in June becomes trade eligible and with most playing short season you get a peak at them.
I’m thinking that if they don’t get a deal now that they really like, Hand won’t be traded until the offseason. If he can keep closing, his value will only go up.
Padres should sell Hand now, however, I would understand if they kept him due to underwhelming offers and waited until winter.
Why won’t the nationals trade Soto or Robles? Their time to win it all is now. Right now. Theyll never have a better chance to win it all than this season. This really is their year
If you guaranteed that trading them would win a world series, maybe, but in baseball, acquiring improvements doesn’t increase your odds all that much. Which is why we see many instances where the best team doesn’t win a world series.
Trading off a bunch of future value for minimal current improvement just doesn’t make sense. They also still have a pretty decent outlook after this year, so I’m not sure why you think their time to win it all is right now.
“They’ll never have a better chance to win it all than this season.”
What a silly thing to say. If you know what the future holds don’t waste your time here, go speculate on the commodities markets.
Why can’t they can’t be just as good next year? The same players now plus more of Turner and Eaton will be back if they can afford it . Zim’s year and good health is the only real outlier. The issue is the money to keep that together and it’s the same issue holding back a big deal this year, although taking on Madson’s money is encouraging in that regard.
If the nationals make a solid offer the Orioles better not let that petty crap hold up any potential deal.
I don’t think padres would take a offer without soto/robles. I thought Kieboom would have been possible if he kept up his start to year and stayed healthy but unfortunately that hasn’t happened. I’d be shocked if Nationals offered either Soto/Robles for them.
Trade Britton get some quality prospects or even 1 quality prospect and a number 3 pitcher to be our Ace lol đ đ
Nats don’t need Britton! Get Reed and Wilson instead. Interchangeable closets at that point. Backend solidified.
*closers