Colorado Rockies: The Washington Nationals could be a trade partner

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WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 06: Brandon Kintzler #21 of the Washington Nationals pitches against the Miami Marlins during the seventh inning at Nationals Park on July 06, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

The Washington Nationals were expected to run away with the National League East under the tutelage of rookie manager Dave Martinez. However, they enter Saturday only one game above .500 as they have dealt with managerial mishaps, injuries, and players who haven’t performed up to their standard.

With that, the Nationals may decide that before Tuesday’s trade deadline that they may decide sell, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic in this article (subscription required).

Sources: The Washington Nationals have started discussions with teams to gauge interest if they decide to sell. Of particular interest are Kelvin Herrera, Shawn Kelley and Ryan Madson, three free-agent-to-be relievers. Nats are telling teams they’ll know by end of weekend.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 26, 2018

It’s worth noting explicitly: The Nationals have not decided to sell. They’re doing what any prudent team in their position would: getting a sense of the market so if they do decide to sell, they can put together deals that normally take days in 24 hours. It’s the right play.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 26, 2018

If the Nationals do decide to sell before the trade deadline, they have some players that they may look to trade and many of which could be of interest to the Rockies.

Brandon Kintzler

Brandon Kintzler is a reliever that the Rockies have expressed interest in before. In fact, just last year on July 31, we discussed about the possibility of Kintzler coming to Denver in a trade and, this offseason, the team was interested in signing him as we discussed just before last Thanksgiving so it would not be a stretch to say that they would still be interested in trading for him.

In 2018, he has an ERA of 3.67 in 44 appearances with two saves. Her ERA+ is 117, his WHIP is 1.200, a 2.58:1 strikeout to walk ratio, and his FIP is better than his ERA as it is 3.38.

He is owed about $2 million for the rest of the season and his contract has a team option for next year for $10 million. If that is not exercised, though, Kintzler, who turns 34 on Wednesday, would have the option to exercise an option for $5 million or decline that to become a free agent.

Gio Gonzalez

Gio Gonzalez is a starter that the Rockies could be interested in for bolstering their starting rotation.

This year, Gonzalez is 6-7 with a 3.94 ERA in 20 starts. His FIP is 4.01, which is not great, nor is his walk rate (4.4 per nine innings). Last year, he came in 6th in the NL Cy Young Award voting with a 15-9 record with a 2.96 ERA in 32 starts.

His postseason track record is less than stellar as well in six starts.

Postseason Pitching Game Log
Year	Series	Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	Str	GSc
2012	NLDS g1	STL	W,3-2	5.0	1	2	2	7	5	0	3.60	110	59	55
2012	NLDS g5	STL	L,7-9	5.0	5	3	3	4	5	0	4.50	99	56	46
2014	Year	Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	Str	GSc
2014	NLDS g4	SFG	L,2-3	4.0	4	2	0	1	1	0	0.00	55	37	50
2016	Year	Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	Str	GSc
2016	NLDS g3	LAD	W,8-3	4.1	4	3	3	1	4	1	6.23	83	48	46
2017	Year	Opp	Rslt	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	Str	GSc
2017	NLDS g2	CHC	W,6-3	5.0	3	3	3	2	6	2	5.40	83	51	53
2017	NLDS g5	CHC	L,8-9	3.0	3	3	3	4	5	0	6.75	67	39	42
				26.1	20	16	14	19	26	3	4.78

Gonzalez is a free agent at the end of the season so he, in all likelihood, he would be rental option for the rotation if the Rockies were to trade for him but as you may see by the numbers, he would not be an ideal fit for the team.

Ryan Madson

Ryan Madson is another reliever in the Nationals bullpen that could be traded. Madson, who will be 38 in late August, has had a bit of a rough season in 2018 after an excellent 2017 season. This year, he has a 4.66 ERA in 41 appearances with four saves. His main issue is that he is allowing 10.3 hits per nine innings but he is also walking more batters as well. Just take a look at the difference in stats between his 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Standard Pitching
Year	W	L	ERA	G	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
2017	5	4	1.83	60	38	12	2	9	67	235	1.99	0.797	5.8	0.3	1.4	10.2	7.44
2018	2	4	4.66	41	42	19	3	15	33	92	3.74	1.555	10.3	0.7	3.7	8.1	2.20

However, he does have extensive postseason experience as he has pitched in 46 postseason games with an ERA of 2.85.

He would also be a rental as he is a free agent at the end of the season.

Shawn Kelley

Shawn Kelley is another arm out of the Nats bullpen that could help the Rockies but he has done very well this year. In 34 appearances, Kelley, 34, has an ERA of 2.59 (167 ERA+) in 34 appearances. His WHIP is also excellent (0.862) and he is walking only 1.4 batters per nine innings compared to 9.2 strikeouts.

The righty is yet another impending free agent on the Nats so he would probably be another rental option for fairly cheap, both on prospects going back and in money, as he is only owed about $2 million for the rest of the season.

Kelvin Herrera

The Nationals acquired Kelvin Herrera from the Royals about six weeks ago to help bolster their bullpen for the rest of the season but if they are selling, they very well might try to trade him away. The 28-year old reliever, combined with the Royals and Nationals, has a 1.83 ERA in 41 games, including 15 saves. He is walking less than two batters per nine innings while striking out just under eight per nine innings.

As we discussed in this article just before he was traded to the Nationals, he is former teammates with Rockies closer Wade Davis and one of their bullpen coaches, before becoming a special assistant for the team, is current Rockies pitching coach Steve Foster.

He is yet another impending free agent so, yet again, we are talking about another rental option.

Matt Adams

Matt Adams was originally going to be a bench guy for the Nationals but due to injuries, he has played much more and he has taken advantage of it.

The left-hander hitter, who will turn 30 in August, has played in 75 games for the Nats and he has 16 home runs, 43 RBI, and a .287/.363/.555 slash line.

If he were to come to the Rockies, he has played both first base and left field this season but he would probably either be used off the bench or in a platoon role at first with Ian Desmond or they could even move Ian Desmond to left field with Matt Adams at first and move Gerardo Parra (who has not played well lately) to the bench.

He is another guy who is a free agent at the end of the season so he is another rental. He is only owed about $1.3 million for the rest of the season as well so he is another relatively inexpensive option.

Jeremy Hellickson

After signing a minor league deal just a week before the regular season was to start this year, Jeremy Hellickson has proved to be one of the Nationals most consistent starters.

In 14 starts on the season, he has an ERA of 3.44 (124 ERA+) and a good FIP (3.96). He is only walking 1.7 batters per nine innings compared to 6.9 batters per nine innings. With the low walk rate, his WHIP is an excellent 1.088, which would be seventh best in the NL if he were to qualify (which he doesn’t since he started the season late).

With the contract he signed in Spring Training, he is a free agent at the end of the season so he is, yet again, another rental option to provide some depth for the Rockies starting rotation.

Mark Reynolds

Mark Reynolds has seen limited action with the Nats since leaving the Rockies after last season but the Rockies could look to bring him back for some bench help. In 47 games with the Nats (126 ABs), he has 10 home runs, 25 RBI, and a .278/.363/.540 slash line.

He is only owed about $500,000 for the rest of the season and he would be another rental as he is only signed through this season.

Bryce Harper

Here’s the name that you are probably looking for. The Home Run Derby champion Bryce Harper was an All Star this year but he has still had a down year for him, especially in the batting average department. He is hitting .219/.364/.476 with 25 home runs (which only trails Nolan Arenado for the lead in the NL) and 62 RBI.

He would obviously take the most to get in a trade but he could play either one of the corner outfield positions but he’d most likely play left field with Gerardo Parra moving to the bench. Like many of the others on this list, he is also a free agent at the end of the season.

WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 06: Sean Doolittle #62 of the Washington Nationals pitches against the Miami Marlins during the ninth inning at Nationals Park on July 06, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

Final Thoughts

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There were a few others that we considered on this list but either due to injuries this season and/or poor seasons, we did not include them. They include catcher Matt Wieters (injuries and poor season), second baseman Daniel Murphy (the Rockies already have their own injury prone second baseman who is having a down year who is also a free agent at the end of the season in DJ LeMahieu), and Nationals closer Sean Doolittle (stress reaction in his left foot and he’ll likely be out until September).

With the other players on this list, though, the Rockies could be one of the teams who are scoreboard watching to see what the Nationals do this weekend against the Marlins as they defeated them 9-1 on Friday on the back of an eight inning outing by their ace Max Scherzer.

If the Nationals do decide to sell, however, the Rockies really could have some interest in some of the rental options for the Nationals.

Next. What are the Rockies waiting for?. dark

Depending on the asking price, they could even make some moves with them to really make a dent in some of their needs and especially with the Dodgers trading for Manny Machado and the Diamondbacks trading for Eduardo Escobar on Friday, the Rockies may make a move in response…and it very well could be with the Nationals.

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