Nationals Rumors: Nats linked to Cardinals Outfielder following Lane Thomas trade

After a splash deal last night that saw starting Right Fielder Lane Thomas traded to Cleveland for a trio of prospects, the Nationals are seemingly looking for additional outfield depth prior to the MLB Trade Deadline later today. According to John Denton of MLB.com, the Nationals are interested in Cardinals' outfielder Dylan Carlson, who St. Louis is looking to move.

It is a bit of an interesting fit for the Nationals as outfield depth is not the most pressing need for the organization and while the team hopes to be competitive next season, typically a team selling at the deadline desires younger, more controllable players in return. However, Carlson is still just 25 years old and was a former 1st round pick back in 2016 out of High School. The upside is there.

The Nationals re-called outfielders Alex Call and Travis Blankenhorn to replace Lane Thomas and Jesse Winker, who was traded to the Mets over the weekend, but perhaps they are viewing this as an open competition and are willing to see if they can help Carlson turn his career around the same way they did with Thomas, who was also a St. Louis castaway.

It is pretty easy to see Carlson as a change of scenery candidate as things could not be going much worse at the moment. Carlson is currently hitting .198 with a .515 OPS through 138 plate appearnaces. He has never quite be able to build upon, let alone replicate his strong full rookie campaign from 2021 when he hit .266 with a .780 OPS. The Cardinals are currently two games back of a Wild Card spot and with one of the older rosters in baseball, they do not have the luxury of being patient with underperforming players, which leads to Carlson's name being floated around as trade bait.

For a potential deal, Denton goes on to say that the Cardinals have their eyes on a Nationals' reliever, but not the 2024 All Star.

Dylan Floro has been everything the Nationals could have hoped for and more after signing him to a one year deal this past offseason. Floro has appeared in 51 games this season pitching to a 2.06 ERA over 52.1 innings. He has been the most steady reliever in the Nationals bullpen and undoubtedly has garnered a ton of interest in trade talks. He had gone over 50 innings without allowing a home run this season before he allowed a walk off home run to Paul Goldschmidt in St. Louis the other day while in his second inning of work.

While you would hope to maximize a potential return, Floro was unlikely to return a huge haul of prospects anyways, which makes betting on a bounceback from a once highly ranked prospect like Carlson a worthwhile gamble, though the Nationals could potentially leverage this in other talks with teams interested in acquiring Floro's services.

While Carlson would not be the biggest potential prize in a return for Floro, the Nationals should acquire the best players possible regardless of position as opposed to strictly shopping for need. So if that means acquiring an underperforming outfielder who you think you can turn around, then that is what you do. After all, the last St. Louis castaway the Nationals acquired turned out pretty well for the team.