If Aroldis Chapman is acquired, who pitches eighth inning?

The Nationals bullpen has been knocked around a couple of times in the last week. Fortifying this concern is the ongoing issue of not having a fireballer eighth inning setup man following the departure of Tyler Clippard to the Athletics last season.

Casey Janssen is a veteran reliever that certainly works fast, but is more of a finesse pitcher. He has done a good job as the eighth inning guy recently. Manager Matt Williams has mentioned him in that spot a few times in the last week. Janssen has not allowed a run in his last four appearances.

Blake Treinen brings the heat, but was having trouble locating recently and made an ill-advised decision to not dump a pitch 0-2 against Andre Ethier, who laced it into center field for a run-scoring hit last week. The Dodgers scored four runs in that inning Sunday and the next day Treinen was replaced by Abel de los Santos.

Left-hander Felipe Rivero can bring the velocity. But he does not have the experience yet to shoulder the eighth-inning responsibility.

David Carpenter can bring some heat but he is still dealing with right shoulder inflammation that hasn't recovered as quickly as the Nationals might have preferred. But he isn't considered a setup man per se, and is more of a specialist or innings-eater.

Reds closer Aroldis Chapman, he of the left-handed variety and the ridiculous 103 mph fastball, appears to have entered the picture again according to a few tweets yesterday from FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal.

It looks like Reds' scouts have been monitoring a certain Nationals first-round selection who just returned from Tommy John:

Two #Reds officials are watching #Nationals Class A RHP Erick Fedde tonight in Vermont.

-- Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 24, 2015

Fedde was #Nationals' first-round draft pick in 2014, 18th overall. Nats have expressed interest in #Reds closer Aroldis Chapman.

-- Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 24, 2015

Earlier in the season, there did not to appear to be any legs to the rumors that the Nationals were interested in Chapman. Maybe now with the Nationals' bullpen situation teetering a bit with depth problems, that interest in Chapman to D.C. could have been ramped up.

So where would Chapman fill in? Would he pitch the eighth inning to Drew Storen's ninth? Storen is having a career year and appears to be the most confident on the mound he has been since his arrival from Stanford. He is 1-0 with a 1.73 ERA in 38 games and has 29 saves, just one back of the Cardinals' Trevor Rosenthal and the Pirates' Mark Melancon's 30 for the National League lead. He has six saves in his last seven games without allowing a run.

Storen is not going anywhere. So maybe Chapman would be cool with an eighth-inning role for three months in pursuit of a World Series ring he likely wouldn't have with the Reds. It could be all-in, go-for-it moment for the Nationals. Nationals brass could guarantee Chapman that they would give him ninth-inning shots every once and awhile.

But ultimately with Chapman and Storen going in the eighth and ninth frames, it would be a one-two punch that no other team could offer. Plus Chapman on the Nationals would mean 10 other playoff hopefuls would not have him to use to beat the team from D.C. That's almost as important. Almost.

It will be interesting to see where Chapman ends up as July 31 approaches.