Washington Nationals trade options for closer

David Robertson, RHP, Chicago White Sox

After seemingly emptying the team’s top pitching prospects in their trade this winter with the White Sox, the Washington Nationals have now seen their acquisition in that deal, outfielder Adam Eaton, lost for the season to injury.

That could leave the team somewhat snake bit to call White Sox GM Rick Hahn, but the White Sox present an opportunity to possibly not only get a closer with experience, but even to add in a second reliever as needed with a fairly elite group of bullpen pitchers in Chicago currently (third best bullpen ERA in all of baseball in 2017).

Robertson would be the primary target, and the White Sox are another team that asked about Robles only to be rebuffed, though they were also known to be interested in Neuse and minor league righty Austin Voth, who has not had a great start to his 2017, but has a solid 4+ pitch mix that would work at the back of a rotation.

An interesting thing to note with a White Sox deal is that the White Sox could spike up their end of the deal to get a better prospect as Hahn has stated that their rebuild is targeting quality over quantity, so if Robertson alone wasn’t going to bring back Carter Kieboom or Juan Soto (whomever was the major desire), to get that one guy, the White Sox could add Anthony Swarzak, Michael Ynoa or Tommy Kahnle to sweeten the deal and lengthen the Nationals bullpen, all of whom would be an upgrade to the middle relief options in Washington (outside of Glover).