Washington Nationals Rumors: Nats Making Final Attempt At Wade Davis
By Ricky Keeler
Jayson Stark of ESPN is reporting that the Washington Nationals are making one last push to trade for Royals closer Wade Davis
Update: (12/6/16 – 10:34 p.m) – According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports and MLB Network, the Cubs are once again close to trading for Wade Davis:
Sources: #Cubs close to acquiring Wade Davis from #Royals for Jorge Soler.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 7, 2016
After losing out on Mark Melancon to the Giants, the Washington Nationals have appeared to set their focus on trading for Kansas City Royals closer Wade Davis. After Buster Olney of ESPN reported that the Chicago Cubs were close to acquiring him, Jayson Stark reported that the Nats are making one final push:
Source: The Cubs are closing in on a deal for Wade Davis.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 7, 2016
The hangup in Wade Davis' reported deal to the Cubs? The Nationals have made a late push. https://t.co/OTdxiEYAmk
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) December 7, 2016
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Davis, who has made the All-Star team each of the last two seasons, had a 1.87 ERA and 27 saves in 45 games this past season. Injuries cut his season short as Davis was on the disabled list twice because of a right forearm strain in the month of July. Back in 2015, he made 69 appearances and had a 0.94 ERA.
When healthy, Davis is one of the best closers in the game. In his last two seasons as the full time closer with the Royals, he is 44-for-48 in save chances. During the Royals run to the World Series title in 2015, he threw 10.2 scoreless innings and had four saves. Plus, he has a career postseason ERA of 0.84 (23 games).
With the Royals having numerous players heading into the final year of their contracts, Davis can bring them back a good package even though he’s in the final year of his deal ($10 million). The Washington Nationals make sense for Davis if they don’t want to pay big money to free agent closers such as Aroldis Chapman or Kenley Jansen.
Back in July, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports wrote that top pitching prospect Lucas Giolito was a possible target for the Royals in a Davis deal. But, the Washington Nationals decided to trade for Melancon and they ended up making the right decision.
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If Davis is healthy, this would be a great move for the Nats, depending on how much they would have to give up in a deal. Plus, it would take away an option from the reigning World Series champions, who are arguably the biggest obstacle to the Washington Nationals achieving their goal of a World Series championship.