The non-waiver trade deadline is set for 4pm at the commissioner’s office in New York City. Every aspiring playoff team is looking for the success the Mets enjoyed last year when they acquired Yoenis Cespedes last July, and Cespedes seemingly transformed their team.
The issue is not all trades reap the rewards of transformative players. By trading prospects, general managers trade off pieces of their future with the hopes of short-term gain as many of the acquired players like Mark Melancon become free agents after the season ends.
Mike Rizzo and staff are looking for impact players and covet another set-up man with good hi lev stats. The Nationals could be looking for a player like Steve Pearce who can play outfield and 1st base, and ranks high on the value chart with a +2.1 WAR in only 204 at-bats compared to Ryan Zimmerman at a -0.8 WAR as you can see on this chart: 1st Basemen Ratings by WAR. Pearce would be the 2nd highest WAR at 1st base in the MLB if he played the full season as he would be a +3.9 WAR if he had 375 at-bats with the same production.
Mike Rizzo could also be looking for an outfielder who can play off the bench like Carlos Beltran or could go for a starter like Josh Reddick or Jay Bruce as unlikely as that seems. Beltran as you will see on this chart is the 30th most valuable outfielder this season with an .890 OPS that would rank him 3rd on the Nationals trailing only Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos. If you measure, Beltran strictly by OPS, he is the 9th highest rated outfielder in baseball.
For relief pitchers, Mike Rizzo is looking for a set-up man and another impact lefty reliever. They are in high demand as are all of the players mentioned.
Unfortunately, the mis-information adds to what almost becomes tabloid fodder like this Tweet sent by Jon Morosi:
Sources who have spoken with #Nats believe they would trade Lucas Giolito to #Yankees for Andrew Miller, straight up.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 29, 2016
We responded back to this as there was no truth to a singular one-on-one trade:
This becomes problematic when mentioning players based on rumor because a Tweet can lead to a story, and this writer went off on Giolito, even calling into question an incident he claimed happened in Harrisburg, with all of his information coming from an un-named scout: NJ Advance Media
Don’t fret if nothing big happens today as at 4:01pm today the waiver-trade deadline will start where teams can make waiver trades up until August 31st to include an acquired player on a post-season roster.
We will make updates throughout the day, and as always, “In Rizzo We Trust”
Photo © Win McNamee/Getty Images
