Nationals Snatch Herrara Away from Royals (and Braves?)

[BeanieAntics]

Shouldn't pen problems be better fixed from within? Why not be careful with Gohara/Fried/Allard/Wright's innings during the second half and keep all of them rather than wasting prospects on a rental? You'd also have them all as rotation candidates down the stretch with a shift of McCarthy and Sanchez to the pen.

The later this gets (and after listening to that DOB podcast, it certainly doesn't sound like AA's in ANY hurry), the more I like waiting things out so long as no one has stepped up for Beltre. You can keep playing Camargo somewhat regularly to stay sharp and keep Beltre healthy and use him as a serious weapon off the bench on days he doesn't play and minimize the prospect cost even further than trading for Machado or Donaldson.

Always hard to translate GM-Speak correctly, but it sure sounds like he's high enough on Riley to expect him to be seriously considered above all other options for 2019 IF he finishes the season strong after he comes back.

The longer Strasburg's down and Harper struggles, the longer AA can wait, and at this point I'd like to hold onto everybody we can - if he wants to make an acquisition of anything bigger than Beltre, wait until this winter.

We are fortunate enough to have a winning team with some minor flaws that can be fixed cheaply. Acquiring a LOOGY like Claudio wouldn't cost us anything close to the names that you mentioned. We could probably acquire him for Wisler (or maybe even less than that). I don't think that puts a dent in our future at all and it helps us out right now. Its pretty clear that the bullpen would benefit a good bit from a lefty specialist. 3rd base might be a little more expensive to improve, but its also less concerning to me than patching up the bullpen. If we do decide to upgrade at 3rd, we are once again fortunate in the fact that it seems like it could end up being a buyer's market. There are numerous guys out there who fit both the rental/longer term mold pretty well. We have plenty of options to choose from. While I don't think its 100% necessary and I'm not sure we have enough money to do it anyway, but if the right deal for a 3rd base upgrade appeared we should definitely entertain the idea, even if the price is a tad higher than we would like.