The resurgent Nationals have won eight of their past 10 games and reached the .500 mark at 40-40. The Nats’ season looked to be completely unraveling in May, but they’re now within seven games of the division lead and just two and a half games back in the Wild Card chase. While the team’s recent play is encouraging, general manager Mike Rizzo isn’t making any proclamations about his team’s approach to the July 31 trade deadline. “We’ve got time to continue to evaluate before we have to make a decision, before the trade deadline, and we’ll do so,” Rizzo tells Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. “…We’re going to see what the needs of the team are. We’re going to see where we’re at, what opportunities we have to make any kind of changes. This is our time to evaluate.” Rizzo also discusses the team’s bullpen, addressing the unsuccessful Trevor Rosenthal signing as well as the recent pickups of Fernando Rodney and Jonny Venters. The ’pen would clearly be a primary area of focus for Washington if the team does indeed operate as a buyer next month, though it sounds as if they’ll take some time before setting a course.
More from D.C….
- The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli takes a look at the logic behind the Nats buying and behind them turning into sellers next month (subscription required). Notably, she writes that even the Nats do sell there “remains almost no chance” that Max Scherzer would be traded. Scherzer would surely be in high demand, sizable contract notwithstanding, given his continued dominance at the front of the Nats’ rotation, but he’s also under control for another two seasons. The Nats will find themselves in a tough spot if they continue to hover around this mark; as Ghiroli points out, the team’s rotation and starting lineup are excellent, but the glaring lack of depth behind its stars would make an injury or two to a key player even more detrimental than it would to many other teams.
- Ryan Zimmerman is making good progress on a Double-A rehab assignment and could rejoin the Nationals as soon as this weekend, writes Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Zimmerman, 34, has appeared in five games with Harrisburg and has played a full nine innings at first base on multiple occasions. He’s been limited to just 22 big league games this season thanks to a bout of plantar fasciitis, but his return would add another solid bat to the Washington lineup. Zimmerman didn’t hit much when on the active roster earlier this season, but he slashed .264/.337/.486 in 323 plate appearances last year and hit a combined .289/.350/.542 in 2017-18. The Nats have received strong production from Howie Kendrick and the red-hot Matt Adams of late, so Zimmerman may not step back into a full workload right away.
Mets are going to go for zim and rebound. He is being wasted on the “nationals:”
Wasted as in constantly injured?
An apple a day …
Scherzer is going nowhere. It would take a huge haul to get him.
Really …… ZIMMERMAN IS A DH AT BEST
Zimmerman would actually be an excellent DH candidate and his glove can still play as a backup at 1b. I love the guy and he’s an incredible community/team guy. He just cant stay healthy and has a burdensome contract the Nats need to be done with.
Why do you think the Mets have a better chance to rebound than the Nationals? At least the Nationals are 500 and won 8/10. It makes more since to say DeGrom is wasted on the Mets so the Nationals should go for HIM.
Zimmerman won’t play for any other team.
Anyone to Queens is wasted, eh?
Got nothing for Harper and now they’ll repeat the error with Rendon.
argggh…I hate that your probably correct
Agreed…they probably need to make a final extension offer to him in mid-July and if he doesn’t take it….deal him
Nats will probably sell, lose 90 games and blame the manager
based on what history we only fire managers that get us to the playoffs
So you really think the Nationals are going to go 32-50 for the rest of the year?
Look, I’m a Braves fan. My business is hating the Nationals and wishing they make every wrong decision. I love tapping into how much they have underperformed but that is just silly.
This franchise is so short sighted.
Should be: Notably, she writes, that even IF the Nats do sell, there “remains almost no chance” that Max Scherzer would be traded.
Ugh this stuff has to stop. No one needs to read commenters correcting the writers. At all. Please stop already.
Why would you not point out the errors? Never lower your standards – force others to elevate themselves. I have a four year old that gets corrected everyday (and not just by me). My wife corrects me when I don’t use adverbs correctly (she’s a West Point graduate). If you’re a professional writer, you should be held to a higher standard.
Have you ever wonder why certain people say “ax” instead of “ask”? What about people that pronounce words with the letter “f” instead of “th”? My daughter says “nufing happened” vice “nothing happened”. Instantly gets corrected? Why, because you don’t lower standards.
Bravo for feeling entitled to treat an adult stranger the same way you treat your 4 year old daughter.
Do you feel better now?
Like I said previously, why lower our standards?
Dude, this is a free site where the writers do not even get paid a livable wage; they do it out of love for the game and are required to pump out multiple articles per day. There is no editor at MLTR and the writers barely have a chance to proof read their own work before they are on to their next article. So you SHOULD cut them some slack. I quite sure everyone knows what was inferred in that sentence; no need for grammar police to point it out. Just be happy we have such an awesome site for up to the minute baseball news and they don’t charge us anything to read it. They could post in Ebonics and I’d still be grateful for their hard work and dedication!
I read right over it as IF it was there.
Tediously boring to correct something like that.
I salute you for correcting your four year old daughter.
But this is a waste of time and effort.
I too acknowledge this site as being a wonderful one to read every day.
You do not have to be a slave to your perfection tendencies.
You can ignore them.
Just not having that “if” in the sentence really confuses the whole article. Pointing out the errors was not to embarrass anyone or come off as self-righteous, just trying to help out.
So you’re that guy!
Sad…..
The Nationals may be only 7 games back of the Division Championship, but it’s not like that’s a good position and there are 2 teams ahead of them.
Being 2.5 games back from the Wildcard certainly makes things interesting, but the Rockies, Phillies, Brewers, Diamonbacks and Cardinals are all still ahead of the Nats, and considering Washington’s payroll cap issues, this has to be a tough spot.
Sched is pretty sweet til break. Will be 5 games over .500, in 2nd and 5 back of ATL.
Oh and nats have winning record against the Phil’s and Braves this season.