As the trade deadline nears, the Buckos put away the rumors of a Melancon trade by in deed dealing him. However, in return, Pittsburgh did acquire two premier power left handers who throw upwards of 97 MPH. Despite Melancon being arguably worth more than what Pitt got from the Nats, the deadline is very close, and the two trade partners needed to hustle.
With Pitt struggling all year to keep up with the Cards and Cubbies, and being 3 games out of a postseason slot, the Buckos figured that even if they were buyers instead of sellers, they may not be able to go deep into the playoffs, as they have never been that team to acquire big names. With young studs like Josh Bell, Adam Frazier, Tyler Glasnow, Chad Kuhl, Steven Brault, and Jameson Tallion not quite ready to make a big contribution to a championship run this season, why not trade for more young guys, better yet two major league ready southpaws.
Felipe Rivero and Taylor Hearn are 23 and 21 years of age, with a good portion of minor league playing time. But, the big highlight about these two arms is that they both are throwing the ball 95+, while Hearn has hit 100 on the gun several times. Both have good motion on their off speeds and breaking balls as well. In all, the Pirates are loading up on young, major league ready arms to pick from to lead them to the promise land in 2017, while the leftovers who don’t make it in the rotation during Spring Training will find their way into the pen to help replace Melancon. On the other hand, the Nats are obviously have the opposite thinking for their squad.
Firstly, in order to make this trade successful for the Nats, Dusty Baker has to make sure he addresses the elephant in the locker room and make a decision on the bullpen roles, as there are now two elite closers at Nationals Park; and everyone knows how Papelbon has a temper. Bulking up the bullpen to win championships hasn’t been this big since the A’s in the 70’s, but the Royals made it seem key (obviously) when they won in 2015. There is no point going into detail about how good Melancon has been the last 4 years (led the league in saves in 2015 with 51), and how important it is to have Pap in the pen for the postseason, but the originization of Washington’s bullpen will be very important to utilizing this trade to get out of it what Mike Rizzo is hoping for, a championship. The acquisition of Melancon could make or break this Nats team.
