Matt of Matt's Bats: Hoping for a big splash from Nats at trade deadline

The trade deadline: baseball's most frantic and exciting time of the year. Already, Johnny Cueto, Scott Kazmir and Juan Uribe have been dealt to the Royals, Astros and Mets, respectively. There are probably a lot more deals coming before July 31 as teams that are postseason contenders are buying, and teams that probably won't make it to October are selling. The first-place Nationals are probably buyers this year because they have a few holes that need to be fixed to be playoff-ready.

Last year, the Nats made a trade deadline deal to acquire shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for prospect Zach Walters. This year, the Nationals need to focus on relief pitching, which has been the Nats' weak spot in the post-season. The Nats' starters - Max Scherzer, Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez-- and injury-fill-ins Tanner Roark and Joe Ross have done well enough to keep the team at the top of the National League East. But the bullpen needs to be improved if the Nats are going to make it deep into the playoffs.

The Nats have been trying to figure out the bullpen all season. During the first half of the season, lots of rookies came and went from the farm teams. The Nats also acquired David Carpenter (now on the DL) from the Yankees for shortstop prospect Tony Renda earlier this season. As of now, the bullpen contains right-handers Drew Storen, Roark, Matt Thornton, Casey Janssen, Aaron Barrett, and left-handers Felipe Rivero and Sammy Solis. Adding a high-quality relief pitcher will improve the bullpen and give fans a lot more confidence.

There are several teams who are out of contention that have elite closers, so it is possible the Nats could obtain one of them. I'm thinking about the Phillies (Jonathan Papelbon), Padres (Craig Kimbrel) and Reds (Aroldis Chapman) as obvious examples. Kimbrel is still owed a lot of money on his contract, and Papelbon's name is always bounced around during the deadline, but he never seems to get traded. Chapman is a free agent in 2017 and is an amazing talent. Adding a guy like Chapman could prove huge to the team down the stretch and in the World Series run. Chapman has had a little postseason experience with the Reds, in 2010 and 2012, and he kept Giants hitters to a mere .182 average during the 2012 National League Division Series. If the season ended today, the Nationals would be playing the Dodgers in the NLDS. Amazingly, no Dodgers hitter has ever gotten a hit off Chapman.

While the Nationals need bullpen help, they don't necessarily need to replace Storen as a closer. So another option could be to acquire Brad Ziegler from the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has experience closing, but also could be a good set-up man. Some of the Dodgers' best hitters, like Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig, have had little or no success against him.

Another player I could see working for the Nationals whose name doesn't come up as often is Darren O'Day. The sidewinder is in the last year of his contract with the Orioles, and has a 1.51 ERA for the Birds this season, and I think he fits with the team. Other names that the Nats could explore include John Axford of the Colorado Rockies and Francisco Rodriguez of the Milwaukee Brewers.

So my prediction is that the Nats will make a big splash and acquire Aroldis Chapman. There are reports that Reds scouts watched Nationals minor leaguer Erick Fedde of the short-season Single-A Auburn Doubledays pitch against the Vermont Lake Monsters last week. Since the Reds just traded their best starter, Cueto, to the Royals, they are obviously willing to deal their best players to build for the future. Hopefully, the Nats can pull off one blockbuster trade and make a strong push during the second half.

Ten-year-old Matt blogs about the Nationals at Matt's Bats. Follow him on Twitter: @MattsBats. He shares his views weekly as part of MASNsports.com's initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. 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 roster of writers.