David Huzzard: Nationals shouldn't deal top prospects for bullpen help

There is some irony in the demands that the Nationals cave in to the Yankees' high asking price for Andrew Miller. Not because Lucas Giolito is untouchable, but because Miller was once the 10th best prospect in baseball. It was also at this time he was traded to the Marlins, along with Cameron Maybin, for Miguel Cabrera. Maybin was listed as the sixth best prospect in all of baseball. If Miller and Maybin had lived up to even half their projected potential with the Marlins, the Cabrera trade would not be remembered as the disaster it turned out to be. Cabrera turned out to be the best hitter of a generation and Miller eventually became a reliever while Maybin took a long circular journey back to the Detroit Tigers.

The point of this isn't that the Nats shouldn't trade Giolito and/or Victor Robles at the deadline, but that they shouldn't do it for a reliever. The trade deadline is a negotiation and obviously the Yankees, Royals, Brewers, or any other team with a closer to deal's price hasn't been met or those guys would have been traded. Unfortunately for them, the price never goes up because none of those guys are going to clear waivers and if teams are going to trade them they're going to do it by Monday or wait until the offseason. It may very well be that the Nationals can put an offer on the table that beats the next best offer without ever even having to mention the names Giolito or Robles.

But there's a part of me that wants to see Giolito and Robles offered up because of what the Nats could get for them. Prospects ranked higher than 25th on the top prospect's list are rarely made available. Those are the untouchables in an organization. The Royals were soundly mocked when they traded Wil Myers for James Shields. It turned out to be a great trade for the Royals, but the thought was they could have gotten more for Myers. If Giolito and Robles are available, the Nats can do much better than Miller or Wade Davis.

There's also ace Chris Sale, or a position player no one is expecting to be traded, like Andrew McCutchen or Paul Goldschmidt. It's crazy to bring those names up but it would be a disaster to trade Giolito or Robles for a reliever. Mike Rizzo is in a tough spot. If the Nats don't make it to at least the National League Championship Series this year he very well could be out of a job and the Nats need better relief pitching. Maybe they can get by with what they have. Maybe instead of trading Joe Ross for a reliever they simply use Ross as a reliever. We've all seen him geared up throwing in the high 90's early in games.

The Nats have to improve the bullpen and the internal options are all unproven, but that doesn't mean there are worse options than a trade. At last year's trade deadline the Nationals traded for a closer to improve the bullpen and it was a disaster. If Giolito and/or Robles is the price that Nats are going to have to pay this deadline, perhaps the best solution is to strengthen the lineup or starting rotation instead of the bullpen. Make the bullpen irrelevant by either blowing teams out or shutting them down. Imagine a rotation headed by Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer and Sale or McCutchen hitting between Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper. It's fun to think about, and those are the types of players the Nats should get for Giolito and Robles. Paying that for a relief pitcher would be like going to McDonald's for a hamburger and paying the price for a Morton's steak.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.