David Huzzard: Would the Nationals trade for Mike Trout?

There's a thin line between rumors and speculation. This is the time of year when everybody is trying to predict who will get moved where and for how much. The latest bit of speculation about the Nationals would be game-changing. While Reynaldo Lopez didn't get great results in his debut, his strikeout ability and velocity were on display and there were flashes of the promise. Trea Turner flashed his speed and stole home last night. Lucas Giolito had a good but abridged first outing with the Nationals and then a not-so-good second one. Joe Ross has had a year and a half of success in the majors before recently hitting the disabled list. And Victor Robles is still a promise that's years away.

Parting with all five of those promising young players would hurt unless it were for the best player in the game of baseball, and that is the latest bit of speculation and it is crazy. It's not that crazy though. There isn't a trade that doesn't make sense if the return is Mike Trout. There is no such thing as giving up too much or mortgaging the future or too steep a price. Anything outside trading the top of the current 25-man roster for Trout would make the Nationals better for years to come, and because this speculation came from the mind of a professional journalist, it is now a rumor.

I've always felt that some of the trades we see aren't from the minds of general managers. That every now and then a journalist will put out a crazy idea, and the teams involved will see that idea and not think it's so crazy and suddenly what was pure speculation becomes reality. The biggest question now is do the Angels want to be the team that traded Trout? No team wants to be the one that trades a great player away. It is why Troy Tulowitzki for years did nothing but lose in Colorado. It is why when you bring up the idea of trading for Chris Sale people call you crazy. Those are players you build around, but you can't build around them without the material.

The Angels built the roster that's around Trout. They went out and spent big in free agency on aging players. While trading Trout would bring in multiple prospects, it may not solve the bigger issues the Angels face. But keeping Trout and doing nothing also doesn't solve those issues. That is all part of the GM's job as risk manager, and when it comes to even thinking about something like moving Trout, the risk is huge. The prospects returned have to payoff and winning has to be on the horizon because otherwise you're the team that traded Trout.

From the Nationals' prospective, this is a no-brainer and it's too bad it's just speculation, but as I said before, it is my opinion that sometimes the wildest creations of writers' minds become reality because the right people hear them. Just imagine a Bryce Harper/Mike Trout outfield. Put Trout at the top of the Nationals order. It is all too exciting to think about. Speculation at this time of year gets the fan in me excited. I've always wanted the Nationals to be the team to pull off the crazy, out-of-nowhere trade. There is a close to 100 percent chance this speculation never becomes reality, but all it takes is that 0.001 pecent to give us hope.

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.