Washington Nationals: Four possible trades at the Winter Meetings

Even though the Washington Nationals have gotten a lot of their business done early, they could still look to make a deal at the MLB Winter Meetings.

One of the biggest days of the MLB calendar is slowly drawing closer. The annual Winter Meetings begin on Monday December 10th and while the Washington Nationals have done a lot of business, it would be foolish to rule out another trade.

General Manager Mike Rizzo has been keen to get a lot of his business done early by filling all of the team’s major needs already. Bringing in Patrick Corbin on Tuesday afternoon was the fifth move the team made this offseason, but it was easily the biggest one yet.

However, the $140 million pitcher has put a bit of a strain on costs as the team’s payroll now nears the luxury tax threshold. So now to help fill some of his secondary needs, he could look to trade for cost-effective options instead of bringing in free agents.

Rizzo is no stranger to doing deals at the Winter Meetings, with Adam Eaton likely the most high-profile trade in his tenure back in 2016. However, if he does a deal during this year’s meetings, it will likely be on a much smaller scale than he’s been known to do.

Some of the needs that the Nationals could look to fill out the rest of the way are second base, another starting pitcher, a final relief pitcher, and a left-handed hitting first baseman. While not high priority, these are holes they can fill to truly make their roster fearsome heading into the 2019 season.

In this piece, we take a look at possible trade packages which would fill each of these needs, that could be worked out in the coming weeks. First up, we have a high-risk high-reward starter who could round out the rotation.