Written by Patrick Reddington at Federal Baseball.com
When the Washington Nationals were in the market for a new closer last July/August, Washington Post columnist Barry Svrluga, among others, wrote that General Manager Mike Rizzo, while interested in big names like Aroldis Chapman, was unwilling to part with the Nationals’ top prospects to get a deal done.
“Best Nats trade info,” he wrote on Twitter on July 22nd. “They want in on Chapman. Others very interested. Won’t give up [Lucas] Giolito, [Trea] Turner, [Victor] Robles, [Reynaldo] Lopez.”
Best Nats trade info: They want in on Chapman. Others very interested. Won’t give up Giolito, Turner, Robles, Lopez.
— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) July 22, 2016
As Svrluga noted in a follow-up tweet, however, the Nats still had plenty of depth to deal from outside of those four, mentioning names like, “[Erick] Fedde, [Austin] Voth, [Michael A.] Taylor, [Blake] Treinen, [Wilmer] Difo [and Felipe] Rivero.”
The Nationals did, of course, end up trading Rivero to the Pittsburgh Pirates (along with minor league lefty Taylor Hearn) in return for Mark Melancon, after finding the asking price for Chapman and others like Andrew Miller too high.
Earlier this month, FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal reported that before the Nats and Bucs made that trade, they discussed another potential blockbuster deal.
Citing “major league sources”, Rosenthal wrote that, “The teams also talked about a separate blockbuster involving Pirates center-fielder Andrew McCutchen,” but, “talks broke down due to the large number of moving parts,” and were, “unlikely to revive because of differences in McCutchen’s perceived value.”
“The Nationals’ top outfield prospect, Victor Robles, 19, was one Pirates target,” Rosenthal added.
“But the Pirates wanted more than just the Class A outfielder for McCutchen, and a number of other players would have been involved.”
Signed out of the Dominican Republic for $225,000 in 2013, Robles entered the 2015 campaign as the top-ranked outfield prospect in Washington’s organization according to Baseball America, coming off a .352/.445/.507, 11 doubles, five triple, four home run campaign split between the Nationals’ Gulf Coast and New York-Penn League affiliates.
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