The Morning Briefing: July 29

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, July 29.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: Winker Becomes Second National Traded

During Saturday's 14-3 beatdown of the Cardinals, manager Davey Martinez pinch hit righty Harold Ramírez for lefty Jesse Winker in what turned out to be a monster inning for the Nats. The move made perfect tactical sense at the time, but shortly thereafter a deal fell into place to send Winker to the Mets, so it turned out to make strategic sense also. We learned yesterday that in return for Winker the Nats are receiving 6'9" right-handed pitcher Tyler Stuart, who had been pitching for the AA Binghamton Rumble Ponies. He should slide right into the Harrisburg rotation and somewhere in the 18-25 range of the Nats' prospect rankings. He's kind of like another Jackson Rutledge, only he's not Rule 5-eligible until next winter. That's a pretty good pickup for a rental outfielder/DH.

Last Game Out

The Nats entered Sunday with a chance to sweep the Cardinals after having swept the Reds and gotten swept by the Padres in their first two series out of the break. DJ Herz went five strong innings, allowing a first-inning moonshot to Willson Contreras and an RBI triple to Pedro Pagés but otherwise striking out eight and allowing one other hit and a walk. The Nats held a slim 3-2 lead, but Robert Garcia coughed that lead up in the seventh, and then Dylan Floro, who had cleaned up Garcia's mess in the seventh and pitched all of the eighth, came back out for another inning of work (he had only thrown ten pitches to record four outs) and surrendered a walk-off homer to Paul Goldschmidt for a 4-3 Cardinals win. It was the first homer Floro had allowed all year, but it just came at the worst possible time.

Nationals Headline of the Day: Might the Nats and Orioles Complete a Trade?

Since moving to Washington prior to the 2005 season, the Nationals have made at least one trade with every other franchise save their Beltway neighbors to the north. That was the result of beef between Peter Angelos and the Lerners (who didn't Angelos have beef with among fellow owners?), but now that David Rubenstein owns the team, a change in relations could be possible. Over at the Washington Post, Chelsea Janes examines the situation. The first-ever Nats-O's trade would make a lot of baseball sense now; the Orioles have a clear need for a high-leverage bullpen arm along the lines of Kyle Finnegan, and have a surplus of quality bats in the upper minors that could bolster the depth of the Nats' farm system while providing them with someone close to the majors who could help a Nats team that hopes to jump into the playoff race in 2025.

Down on the Farm

The biggest week in the minors belonged to Wilmington catcher Max Romero, who homered three times in four games against Hudson Valley (after homering last Sunday against Aberdeen), resulting in a .421/.400/1.053 slash line (he did not walk but did have a sacrifice fly, which is why the OBP was lower than the batting average).

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com has a dozen bold predictions for the trade deadline, one of which is that Lane Thomas will end up with the Dodgers. He doesn't make any specific guesses for Kyle Finnegan or Dylan Floro.

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