There’s nothing wrong with protecting your prospects. If the Washington Nationals hadn’t held on to Trea Turner, they wouldn’t have beaten the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday.
The Nationals have Turner, Lucas Giolito and a whole bunch of other guys they wouldn’t trade for Aroldis Chapman.
They also have enough needs that they’re going to have to trade for someone before August 1’s non-waiver deadline. If not Chapman, then someone else.
If not now, when?
Heard that before? Maybe so, because Cubs president Theo Epstein used exactly those words in explaining why he traded big prospects for Chapman this week.
“We feel like we have a chance to do something special, but there’s a lot of work ahead,” Epstein told reporters, including Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. “It was tough to give up what we gave up, but if not now, when?”
The Nationals may not have 107 years of failure, the way the Cubs do, but the Cubs came closer to the World Series last year than the Nationals ever have. The Nats have had a 96-win season and a 98-win season, and they have a team that can win 95-plus games again, but one of these years, they need to turn talent into October success.
If not now, when?
The Nationals can be creative. They turned Turner into an outfielder because their infield was full and they needed another way to fit his speed and ability into the lineup.
On Wednesday, in his second day as a center fielder and still in his first month as the Nationals’ leadoff hitter, he drove in three runs in their 4-1 win in Cleveland.
He gave the Nationals a lead their bullpen could hold, and that’s not a simple task. This is a team that gave up six runs in the final two innings of a 10-6 loss to the San Diego Padres on Sunday, and three runs in the ninth inning of a 7-6 loss to the Indians on Tuesday night.
The Nationals didn’t absolutely have to get Chapman, but they do need to be creative enough to get someone.
Maybe that means coming up with the package that tempts the Kansas City Royals to part with Wade Davis, or one that could tempt the New York Yankees to deal Andrew Miller. Maybe it’s David Robertson, although he has four blown saves and a 4.35 ERA with the Chicago White Sox.
Maybe it’s even something different, like what Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post tweeted Wednesday night:
That is crazy, and it seems highly unlikely, but what would be crazier and probably even unlikelier would be to do nothing between now and Monday.
The Nationals weren’t comfortable with Drew Storen as their closer last year, so they traded for Jonathan Papelbon. There was no chance they were going feel comfortable with Papelbon, even before his four-run ninth inning on Sunday or his collapse Tuesday night.
Stats can be deceiving with relievers, but Papelbon’s 4.18 ERA and 1.423 WHIP aren’t. It’s time to go find something else.
Remember this past winter when the Nationals lost out to the Cubs for Ben Zobrist, they reacted by signing Daniel Murphy to play second base. Murphy hit his 20th home run of the season Wednesday, and in a season when Ryan Zimmerman and Jayson Werth have struggled and Bryce Harper has hit .222 since April, Murphy has kept the Nationals on top in the National League East.
With Stephen Strasburg (who won again Wednesday) and Max Scherzer, the Nationals have a rotation built for October. They have a four-game lead over the Miami Marlins and a 5.5-game lead over the New York Mets, and according to the playoff odds on Baseball Prospectus, they have a 94.8 percent chance of making it to October.
Unlike last year, they have a manager who can get them there and win once he’s there. True, Dusty Baker doesn’t yet own a World Series ring as manager, but he’s taken seven teams into the postseason.
He took the San Francisco Giants to the World Series in 2002, and a year later, he brought the Cubs as close to the World Series as anyone else has since 1945.
For the record, you have to go 12 years further back to find the last time a Washington team made it to the World Series.
It’s been a long, long time, and it’s about time the Nationals did something to end that drought.
If not now, when?
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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