MLB trade rumors: Nationals wants closer

A year after trading for Mark Melancon from Pittsburgh and after failing to land a reliever at the Winter Meetings, the Washington Nationals are fishing for late inning relief yet again.

Quick, can you name the team with the best winning percentage in the National League? If you said the Washington Nationals, you would be correct. It then would beg the question, why would the best team in the National League be looking, already, for late-inning relief help? The answer is fairly simple. Making the postseason isn’t enough; the Nationals need to make some noise.

According to Jon Heyman of Fanrag Sports, the Nationals have had five different relievers record a save during this season. Washington is in the process of completely running away with the National League East, holding an eight-game lead over the second-place team, Atlanta. Any trade then is not a move to simply make the playoffs, but an effort to help ensure the Nationals make the World Series.

Washington acquired Pirates closer Mark Melancon at the deadline last season, and had hoped to keep Meloncon, but the Giants made a monster offer for the relief pitcher, and he headed out west to San Francisco. There was a much-reported and discussed effort to acquire White Sox closer David Robertson before and after the acquisition of outfielder Adam Eaton. As the July trade deadline, a move of Robertson could still make sense.

Much has been made about the Nationals and their lack of playoff success. In 2012, the Nationals drew headlines when they shut down Steven Strasburg due to exceeding a predetermined innings limit in Strasburg’s return from Tommy John surgery. In retrospect backfired drastically as the Nationals fell apart in Game 5 of the Division Series against the Cardinals, and the Nationals have yet to advance past the first round of the playoffs since their move to Washington.

An interesting team to look out for is the Royals. Past Herrea possibly being available, center fielder Lorenzo Cain is set to be a free agent after this season. With the Royals scuffling (currently, by winning percentage, the worst team in the American League) Cain could go a long way in filling the void left when Adam Eaton was lost for the season to a knee injury.  The Nationals could perhaps fill two holes with one move.

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This much is for sure, the Nationals are in win now mode. Bryce Harper is under club control through 2018, and National’s president Mike Rizzo knows this is the time for the Nationals to make a move and advance in the play offs. While it remains to be seen just what the Nationals do at the position (Heyman indicates David Robertson may make the most sense) fans in the nations capital can expect their club to turn over every rock in an effort to get better and make the World Series.