Nationals Urged to Turn Offseason Signings Into Package Deal at Trade Deadline

The Washington Nationals have had a knack for turning offseason signings into trade deadline deals in recent years, which is probably the plan again this season.

In 2024, it was players like Jesse Winker and Dylan Floro. They got some valuable pieces back like Jose Tena and Andres Chaparro.

Both are young players who have shown flashes of potential at the big league level already.

Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller came up with an interesting idea for this year's deadline when he suggested that the Nationals trade both Kyle Finnegan and Paul DeJong to the Detroit Tigers as a package deal.

The idea is that the Tigers need pitching help and a third baseman, making Washington a perfect place for them to browse when it comes time for a trade.

Detroit isn't the only team that fits that bill, though.

The New York Yankees are another example of a team that could use both.

There is a chance the Nationals could end up getting even better returns for the veterans given that they could fix two birds with one stone.

Finnegan is going to be the much more valuable of the two trade pieces and is someone who could realistically help out any team in the league.

The 33-year-old is off to a hot start again with a 1.35 ERA and five saves in his first six outings. The one outing that didn't end in a save was not a save scenario, and it was a scoreless outing.

He has made the interesting move to become a very splitter-heavy pitcher this year, He has slowly been incorporating it, but now it is much closer to even in his mix with his fastball.

Washington should keep an eye on him, though.

He had a very strong start to last year, too, but ended up taking a step back as the season went on.

They may want to trade him when he is on a hot streak and is maximizing his value.

DeJong is much more variable case. He shocked everyone with a 24 home run season last year and set himself up to be traded to a contender after signing with the Chicago White Sox.

He hasn't been as impressive this year, but he had a nice spring and should have plenty of opportunity to build himself a nice resume for a potential playoff team again.

The 31-year-old has a .182/.217/.273 slash line through the first 13 games of the season.