AL West Contenders Named Best Trade Fit for Nationals' Kyle Finnegan

The Washington Nationals are one team that people will be keeping an eye on in the coming days given they are one of the franchises who are surefire sellers ahead of the MLB trade deadline.

Well under the .500 mark, there isn’t much to get excited about when it comes to the Nationals, who already fired general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez a few weeks ago.

It will be interesting to see how those moves impact their dealings ahead of the deadline, as the decision to fire them was warranted but the timing was peculiar.

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Despite their underwhelming results on the field, Washington has a few trade chips that are going to garner interest on the market.

Arguably their most valuable chip, outside of making ace MacKenzie Gore available, is closer Kyle Finnegan.

There are a number of contending teams that will show an interest in him given his extensive history late in games.

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He has 106 saves in his career and would come at a much more reasonable price than some of the other relief pitchers who are going to be available.

After being non-tendered by the Nationals last winter, he returned to the franchise on a one-year, $5.38 million deal after his market never materialized.

Likely a rental for whichever team trades for him this summer, Finnegan is going to have a robust market with how many franchises around the league are on the lookout for bullpen help.

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Who could end up acquiring him ahead of the July 31 deadline?

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report believes that the Texas Rangers are the best landing spot for the veteran righty.

“The Rangers rank fourth in the majors with a 3.37 ERA from their relief corps, but they have converted just 25 of 42 save opportunities. If they are going to hang around in playoff contention, they will need to do a better job slamming the door,” he wrote.

It could be argued that the Rangers aren’t true contenders and likely shouldn’t be buying ahead of the deadline. But their play the next 10 days will determine what they do.

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Acquiring someone such as Finnegan would address a major hole on their roster for an affordable price.

They wouldn’t have to break the bank to pay him and the prospect package it would require to land him shouldn’t be too substantial either.

Currently on the outside of the AL wild card race, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Texas make a few additions on the margins just as they did last year despite having a losing record.

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