The NL East is a two-team race, just not the two teams anyone predicted.
As the young Phillies and Braves run away atop the division, the Nationals, along with the Mets, are among the surprising teams on the outside of the playoff race looking in right now.
Expected by many to win the division for a third straight year and fourth out of five, the Nationals instead are seven games back of the first-place Phillies and 5 ½ behind the Braves for the second wild-card spot.
This has put them in the previously unthinkable position of possibly being sellers at the trade deadline, according to Yahoo’s Jeff Passan, who reported Kelvin Herrera, Shawn Kelley and Ryan Madson, who will all be free agents after the season, would particularly interest contenders.
The Nationals still have a few days before Tuesday’s deadline, and a dip or surge could decide things. This weekend is a four-game series with Derek Jeter’s dumpster-fire Marlins, who nonetheless have won five of their past seven. If the presumed East front-runners can’t handle business against the Marlins, though, that might be a good enough indication they should sell.
The Nationals won’t have star pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who was placed on the 10-day DL with a pinched nerve in his neck, or third baseman Anthony Rendon, who is on paternity leave.
All this of course is a backdrop for the biggest move the Nationals could make: Trading superstar Bryce Harper — which, still, is probably a fantasy, but one no longer as ridiculous.
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo was predictably circumspect when asked if he has entertained offers for Harper but seemed to indicate the face of the franchise would stay put.
“My first response is [Harper] is part of the furniture, a superstar who we drafted, signed, developed and had blossom into a star with our uniform on,” Rizzo told The Post’s Joel Sherman on Wednesday. “Something extreme would have to happen for us to consider moving him.”
Losing a series to a team that barely bothered to put a product on the field this season would certainly be extreme. We’ll know by Tuesday if it would be extreme enough.
