Washington Nationals: What impact will Kelvin Herrera have?
The Washington Nationals were one of the first to make a move as the trade deadline steadily approaches. How big of an impact will their new acquisition have?
The narrative that the Washington Nationals bullpen is weak has been told for a couple years now. It’s been better in 2018: Their bullpen has an ERA of 3.67 which is good for tenth in baseball. But now, the Nationals have added a real difference maker to the end of their pen.
Kelvin Herrera has pitched a 1.05 ERA in 2018. He has 14 saves in 25.2 innings in his 27 appearances. Perhaps his most impressive statistic is that he leaves 98.9% of base runners on base.
Is Herrera the difference that’ll push the Nationals into a deep postseason run?
Fitting into a slumping team
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The Nationals are on a bit of a skid: They’re on a four-game losing streaking and 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for first in the NL East. Key pieces like Bryce Harper are struggling and Daniel Murphy missed time with injury. But are they about to get hot?
What Mike Rizzo did in his trade for Herrera was like the boss at work investing big bucks out of his own pocket into the company. He’s saying he believes in the 2018 Nationals, and he’s willing to put his money where his mouth is.
That’s the kind of move a front office can make to jump-start his team into playing as well as they should. But not only that, now the Nationals can play the first eight innings with the security of knowing that, if they make it there with a lead, the ninth inning will rarely even be a contest for the opposition. Herrera has been that good in 2018.
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The Kelvin Herrera trade was early, bold and risky. But it might just be exactly what the Washington Nationals needed to get hot.