Even after acquiring Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson from the A’s yesterday, the Nationals remain interested in bolstering their bullpen, FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweets. Tigers lefty Justin Wilson is of particular interest to them, per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (also via Twitter), and Morosi notes that the Nats could also yet add a starting pitcher in the wake of Joe Ross’ season-ending injury.
The addition of Madson and Doolittle to the Washington relief corps undoubtedly strengthens the group, but with young righty Koda Glover on the shelf, Blake Treinen shipped to the A’s as part of yesterday’s trade, and Shawn Kelley’s health currently in limbo, the Nats have plenty of room for further reinforcements. Treinen, Glover and Kelley were counted upon heavily to anchor the ’pen headed into the season, but that group has clearly underwhelmed, as has offseason pickup Joe Blanton, whose ERA sits at 7.04 even after tossing 6 1/3 scoreless frames across his past eight appearances. The Nats reportedly had “substantive” talks with the Marlins about David Phelps and AJ Ramos before acquiring Madson and Doolittle, though it’s uncertain if they’ll circle back on either of those arms.
It’s also not yet clear exactly how much of a priority rotation help will be for the Nats. It’s worth noting, however, that two of their top internal options, A.J. Cole and Austin Voth, have posted an ERA north of 6.00 in Triple-A this season despite track records of vastly superior performance at that level. The struggles of both 25-year-olds may have factored into the decision to give Edwin Jackson the first look in Ross’ vacant rotation spot tomorrow. Beyond the injury to Ross, the Nats have watched Tanner Roark struggle to a 4.98 ERA through 106 2/3 innings this season, so the back end of the rotation is hardly a strength at the moment.
There should be a handful of rental options available — Marco Estrada, Jaime Garcia, Trevor Cahill, Clayton Richard, Jhoulys Chacin among them — but with Ross out for most of the 2018 season as well, the Nats could conceivably look a bit longer-term if they wish. Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg are locked up to guaranteed deals next season, while Roark is arbitration-eligible and Gio Gonzalez looks like a lock to see his $12MM option vest, barring injury. (Gonzalez is 58 1/3 innings shy of the requisite 180 frames he’ll need.) The Nats could look short-term for now and reassess their needs this coming winter, but Rizzo didn’t part with any of his top-tier prospects in landing Madson and Doolittle, so he should still have the firepower to think bigger and do some offseason shopping in advance (so to speak) — if there’s a longer-term asset that the Nationals covet.
clintwolfron
Jeanmar Gomez or Hunter Strickland could be good fits
mike.gordon34
Right, so we can do the Harper paplebon thing again. Clearly you are some other team fan hoping for implosion
Monkey’s Uncle
Gomez signed a minor league deal with the Brewers already.
willclarksgauchos
Beat (see what I did there) me to it.
goalieguy41
Jeanmar Gomez .,.,,..can I have some of what you’re smoking
kaido24
I still say they go after Lance Lynn and Rosenthal.
RedBirdsSwaff
Legit question.. as I am biased (cards fan) do you feel like those two combined would require pretty high end type of prospects?
timyanks
st louis should throw matt carpenter in for free.
Dad
I agree , he can only stand there and take two strikes, when he does make contact it’s warning track power, and when he walks he’s a hairclog on the bases.
natelowda
have you not seen his on base percentage?
timyanks
that obp would be better if his ba was .270 plus. the st louis depth chart doesn’t even list him as a starter.
majorflaw
Since BA is a component of OBP it is tautological to say that, if a player’s BA were to increase his OBP would also increase. Similar to saying that, if a pitcher’s hits allowed were to decrease his WHIP would also decrease. IOW, you aren’t adding anything there. Cheers.
timyanks
obp is raised one way by walking. opb and ba are products. rbi and runs scored are really what matter. carpenter leads cardinals in runs scored, yet he is consistently running into outs. dump him to whoever will take him. bottoms up
majorflaw
“obp is raised one way by walking.”
No fooling. But that ‘walking way’ is not reflected in BA.
“rbi and Ba are products.”
Not sure what you mean there. RBI, R, HR, etc are counting stats. OBP, BA, SLG, etc are rate stats.
“rbi and runs scored are what really matter.”
Where’d you get that from? RBI and R are both context dependent. A player won’t get as many RBI opportunities batting leadoff as he would hitting fifth. And even though the cleanup hitter will likely have many more RBI than the leadoff hitter it does not mean that he is better at driving in runs. That’s what rate stats are for. Same for scoring runs. The purpose of advanced metrics is to remove as much noise as possible from the signal.
mike.gordon34
Stevenson, Soto, and a couple others low level for verlander and Wilson.
bobbleheadguru
Part of me thinks that financially, the Tigers would do Justin and Justin for NOTHING. However, they can’t do that to their fans, so they won’t.
Verlander is still a big revenue generator for them. Miggy and JV are like Disney Characters in the Magic Kingdom.
fs54
I want to see Upton included in that deal. You know which Upton I am talking about.
mike.gordon34
Yup, not sure I agree though. We really don’t have a spot for Justin.
fs54
I meant Kate.
Ezzed Stun
Kate would veto a trade to anywhere but NYC or L.A. D.C. would not help her modeling career.
tbonenats
Nats owners would never let them add Verlander’s contract. To get Soto and Stephenson and to get the Lerners to sign off the Tigers would have to pick up like $50M of the $68M he’s owed.
rycm131
They didn’t have to give up much to get Doolittle and Madson so they could go after a big name if they chose too
thunder12k
I disagree that they didn’t have to give up much. They held onto their top few prospects but they still traded some high upside players that they really liked from last years draft
rycm131
They didn’t even crack the A’s top 10 prospect list and it’s not like the A’s have a loaded farm. They have a decent one, but we aren’t talking about the Yankees FS here
bobbleheadguru
I am good with a Nationals v. Rays bidding war for Justin Wilson.
Anyone else want to jump in?
kaido24
They are more likely to go after Britton or Brach of the Orioles I would bet.
TrumpisMyGawd
You think Angelos is gonna help Lerner win a WS? I love your optimism!!
Ezzed Stun
Angelos would rather walk to Tel Aviv with a pork chop in his mouth than to trade with Nationals.
TraderRyan9
astros are interested. dodgers are as well
bleacherbum
Justin Wilson to the Rangers. Just a gut feeling. Texas and Detroit have had a lot of recent history with guys pitching in the back end of the bullpen for one team and either getting traded or signing with the other to either setup or close games. From Joe Nathan to Joakim Soria, Neftali Feliz, Mark Lowe.
ahtigers
Soto and another top ten guy for Justin Wilson?
Priggs89
Too much. If it’s Soto, which I think is a little bit of a stretch, it’ll be a backend top 30 guy in addition to him. I don’t see Soto going for Wilson though.
Michael Chaney
Justin Wilson has legit value though, especially since he has an extra year of control…if you want him you’re gonna have to pony up (and I’m not a Tigers fan either). Something like Soto and McKenzie Mills could be a start though.
tbonenats
Nats are not trading Soto for a reliever unless he’s a stud or has 3+ years of control.
Wilson is legit but Nats owners love their most “promising” prospects….making Soto and Robles pretty much untouchable.
Could see Nats offering Antuna and Voth for Wilson which likely won’t be enough.
Michael Chaney
Those are all fair points…I couldn’t see them offering Soto but in this market they might have to if they want Wilson enough
Priggs89
If that’s the case, I don’t see them wanting Wilson enough… He absolutely has legit value, but there are enough really good options available where they shouldn’t have to give up one of their best guys (aka Robles/Soto) for anything less than an elite reliever (Chapman/Miller-type trade), which Wilson is not.
tbonenats
Right — Tigers may be able to land a nice haul for Wilson but with so many comparable arms available it may become a buyers market.
swartnp7
Why don’t they just bring up Felipe Rivero? Oh wait…
beersy
I wonder if the Nationals would be interested in a Hand and Cahill? I am not going to bother suggesting who would be going to San Diego in such a deal, as I do not want to have to defend myself for the rest of the evening. 🙂
TrumpisMyGawd
I’m sure Rizzo is interested but Preller’s currently supposed to be making unrealistic demands for Hand. I don’t see Rizzo overpaying,
johansantana17
Preller is also known for being shifty about player medical histories.
kingtopher
YOU DONT SAY?!
Houston We Have A Solution
Rea pitched 3 innings before getting hurt with the Marlins and Pomeranz hasn’t missed a start for the Red Sox.
But course 1 injured player (Rea) clearly gives Preller a bad rep despite the 10-15+ trades he’s executed since becoming GM.
Guess the Trea Turner and Joe Ross injuries are Prellers fault too.
majorflaw
Plus the Nats are already heavily LH in their bullpen. Perez, Romero, Grace and Doolittle. Need a RH reliever more’n a fifth lefty.
crazysull
NATS should look at bringing in Storen and Feldman from the Reds, they are both positions of need and won’t cost much to get either
Andrew Farrug
They want a closer
Andrew Farrug
Justin Wilson and Anibal Sanchez can be packaged together..Anibal is trash but has put together a string of quality starts giving the tigers their window to shed salary….
dazedatnoon
wonder if Nationals are involved in the DRob discussions Hahn is having with BoSox and the Yankees.
mike.gordon34
NO
buehrle5687
Eaton trade probably has left a bad taste in their mouth
Jeff Todd
They knew what they were giving up. The ACL injury was a stroke of poor fortune, but he was giving them what they hoped for before that.
majorflaw
Why would it leave a bad taste? Eaton is a very good starting outfielder who is controlled and cost controlled for several years. That has value, likely more value than you and other critics of the deal estimate. Were the Nats presented with a similar trade offer today I’d expect them to jump on it.
The Nats believe they are exploiting a market inefficiency: Cost controlled players are underpriced relative to value. The Nats may be proven right or wrong by the performance of the four players involved. Eaton when he returns from his injury, Giolito, Lopez and Dunning if they ever stick in the majors.
I’m not dismissing the value of highly rated prospects. But the Nats had the opportunity to see Eaton in action for about a month before his injury. While they are disappointed that he is hurt and out for the year its doubtful they have any regrets about making the deal. During his brief season Eaton performed exactly as had been hoped. The LH leadoff hitter and CF Rizzo thought he was getting in Span and then Revere. Nothing that’s happened since the trade would lead the Nats to conclude that it was a mistake and/or they got hosed by the Sox.
As of now the Nationals team in 2020 consists of Scherzer, Strasburg, Turner, Eaton, Romero and Glover. No guarantee they’ll have the ability or the desire to extend Harper, Murphy, Rendon, Zimmerman or Roark. Viewed in this context you are underestimating Eaton’s actual value to the Nats.
STL11in11
Cardinals should offer up some bullpen pieces to the Nats. At least Oh.
brettmar21
For me, the guy to look at would be Pat Neshek. He has been filthy and will likely not cost a lot. I would then like to see them go get a #5 type guy like Cahill or maybe Holland. If the Nats are going to go for a big name I would love to see them get Iglesias. However, Rizzo has a history of getting value for trades.
People want to bash the Eaton trade but he was playing great before a freak injury and has a steal contract for the next 4 or 5 years. So I really don’t think it was all that bad. Rizzo is a top 5 GM in baseball even though he get little credit from Nats fans
Priggs89
The Eaton trade wasn’t a bad one. He is severely underrated by most people that comment on here. He is an excellent offensive player, and he’s one hell of a right fielder. White Sox fans have seen it with the bat for years, and we finally saw it in the field last year. It’s unfortunate that he got injured because you guys were just starting to see it too. He was (is) a fantastic addition.