If someone had suggested the Washington Nationals would be sellers before the season started they likely would've been called crazy, but here we are on July 30th and the Nationals are 52-53 and 6 games behind the Phillies. An article written by Jeff Passan on Yahoo! Sports suggests the Nationals clubhouse is a "mess" and along with their offensive struggles makes them candidates to sell off.
Obviously the first name that pops into mind is star outfielder Bryce Harper, but the prospects he would cost would make a trade hard to justify with free agency looming after this season. One name that I personally haven't seen mentioned in rumors is Jeremy Hellickson, the veteran righty has had a very solid season and likely wouldn't cost too much.
Hellickson, 31, has quietly had a very solid season with the Nationals with a 3.59 ERA in 15 starts and 72.2 innings pitched. This follows up an awful 2017 campaign where Hellickson had a 5.43 ERA in 30 starts split between the Phillies and Orioles.
The advanced stats back Hellickson up as well, he has an xFIP of 3.92 and a left on base percentage (LOB%) of 71.6. A part of Hellicksons success seems to be an increase in curveball usage and a decrease in four seam usage. This season hitters are hitting just .216 off his curveball compared to .325 against the four-seamer. Hellickson has been having much more success putting the ball on the ground and reducing the amount of hard contact against him which may work in his favor with the Cubs strong defense behind him.
The Cubs rotation has been a question mark all season as Jose Quintana and Tyler Chatwood have been incredibly disappointing and while Mike Montgomery has been solid his numbers have been trending in the wrong direction. The addition of Cole Hamels helps supplant the problem, but the Cubs should still be looking for an extra arm and I think Hellickson is who they should target.
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