Steve Mears: The annual September roster shakeup draws near

It is August 30th and many teams will be doing the roster shuffle in a few days to make room for their September call-ups, which also means that any player not on the 40-man roster is not eligible for a call-up. There are strong indications that Mat Latos and Sean Burnett could both be called up if Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo can make room for them on the 40-man roster. Both Latos and Burnett signed minor league contracts, and could both prove to be valuable in September and beyond.

There are creative ways to open up spots on the 40-man roster, such as moving a player to the 60-day disabled list or the traditional way of just removing a player from the roster via the designated for assignment (DFA) if there are expendable players. A general manager could also make a last-minute trade, shipping out a 40-man player to open up a spot if they do not bring in another player who needed a 40-man spot.

Rizzo has probably already made a dozen phone calls this morning before he had his first cup of coffee as he tries to figure out how he can pull this off. The Nationals have already added several players recently to the 40-man roster such as Marc Rzepczynski, Mark Melancon, Reynaldo Lopez, Koda Glover, and Lucas Giolito. When the Nationals traded for Rzepczynski, they traded Max Schrock, who was not on the 40-man roster, which meant Rizzo would lose the one spot he opened up when he released Jonathan Papelbon.

Each time you move a player off the 40-man roster, there is a chance you lose a player you did not want to lose. You have to think Rizzo would like to get Sandy Leon back, whom he gave away in a cash deal to the Red Sox last year in spring training when Rizzo was opening up 40-man spots at that time.

Keep in mind there is also the waiver trade deadline tomorrow for postseason-bound teams to acquire a player for them to be eligible for the postseason roster. Rzepczynski was acquired just that way, and Rizzo has gone that route in past years when he acquired Matt Thornton and Kurt Suzuki. There are still some intriguing names floating around out there who can help this team via a waiver deal.

Steve Mears blogs about the Nationals for Talk Nats. Follow the blog on Twitter: @TalkNats2. His thoughts on the Nationals will appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. 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.