David Huzzard: Trade for relief help puts Nats in strong position

The recent acquisition of Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson helps the Nationals bullpen. It added two much-needed proven, veteran arms to a 'pen that was lacking everything. Madson brings his 2.01 ERA and 2.39 FIP, and Doolittle his 3.63 ERA and 2.51 FIP. While these two are instantly the best relievers in the Nationals bullpen, all reports indicate the Nationals are far from finished in looking to add talent to a bullpen that has severely lacked it for most of the season. If the Nationals are successful in strengthening the bullpen, then they could be a very boring team to watch he rest of the season.

With Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper, the Nationals already have the two best position players in the National League as rated by fWAR. Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg are rated No. 11 and 3 for starting pitchers in the NL, with only Clayton Kershaw between them. Overall, the Nationals starting staff is third in the NL in fWAR and ERA. The Nats offense leads the NL in both OPS and runs scored. In other words, the Nationals earned their current record on the strength of their offense and starting rotation. Just imagine if they'd had a bullpen this entire time.

Madson and Doolittle are a good start, but the Nationals could use one more arm to take pressure off the starting pitchers and really shorten the game. Just about every day, another reliever has gone off the board, and there are several more still to go, but not all of them are closers. There are enough relievers now, though, that the Nationals' acquisition of Madson and Doolittle moves them from a place of negotiating weakness to strength.

While the Orioles will never trade with the Nationals, Zach Britton will fill another team's need and remove them from the closer market. Currently available closers are Britton, Trevor Rosenthal, A.J. Ramos, Justin Wilson and possibly Rasiel Iglesias. If the Royals fall out of it and decide to sell, Kelvin Herrera could be added to that list, and there are rumors the Yankees might be willing to move Dellin Betances. That is as many as seven closers that could be on the market and there aren't seven teams looking for a closer. Basically, the Nationals could make the same offer to all these clubs and wait until the last moment of the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31 until one accepts their deal. If no one does, then they can ride with Madson and Doolittle.

Not only did the acquisition of Madson and Doolittle help out the ballclub by adding much-needed bullpen help, it also helps by showing the current players that the Nationals are serious about winning. Remember 2015, when all the reports were that the Nats didn't want to add payroll to add a setup man and they were reluctant to part with any top prospects? The Nationals ended up making one small trade for Jonathan Papelbon. Drew Storen wasn't mentally tough enough to be a closer and Papelbon was clubhouse kryptonite. That deadline, the Nationals were more interested in saving money and hanging onto prospects than winning, and it had catastrophic consequences.

They have already shown a willingness to add payroll this season and there may not be a need to part with top prospects with the number of relievers still available - and none of them stand above the rest the way Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman did last season. Britton, Rosenthal, Wilson, Ramos, Iglesias, Herrera and Betances are all relatively interchangeable. The quality of prospects asked for in return will depend more on the amount of controllable years than talent on the field. Any one of them would improve the Nationals 'pen, set them up to be a boring team for the rest of the regular season and give them a real chance at playing deep into October.

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.