Bud Norris, RP – St Louis Cardinals
Our final potential waiver trade candidate for the Washington Nationals is a player who drew interest before the trade deadline. Bud Norris has excelled as a reliever after being a lackluster starter early in his career.
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In 2018, the right-hander has a 3.07 ERA to go along with 20 saves for the St Louis Cardinals. He held the closer role last season and has reclaimed it after the Greg Holland experiment flamed out.
The peripheral numbers back up the fact he’s having an excellent season too. He’s currently posting the joint-highest strikeout rate of his career with 11.3 K/9. He also currently has the lowest walk rate to with a 1.6 BB/9 figure.
Another factor for Norris is given his previous starting experience, he’s able to go multiple innings at a time. We’ve seen Davey Martinez utilize Kelvin Herrera similarly since he’s arrived, And Norris would be a similar proposition.
The Cardinals have been trying to do a tentative sell this summer, with the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs the divisional front-runners. So the Nats could pounce and get a useful reliever should he clear waivers.
There’ll be no shortage of competition for bullpen consideration. However, with a nice farm system, they could swing a deal that stops them taking on all of a big contract.
Just because we’re now into August, it doesn’t mean that more trades can’t happen. So we’ll see if the Washington Nationals are able to make anything happen.