Mark Melancon Traded to Washington Nationals

Pittsburgh Pirates closer Mark Melancon is heading to the National League East.

The Washington Nationals announced they had traded for Melancon in exchange for pitcher Felipe Rivero and minor league pitching prospect Taylor Hearn. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first reported the news.

Rosenthal reported Friday the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants had also been in the mix for Melancon.

Melancon has emerged as one of the league's most reliable bullpen weapons since the Pirates acquired him ahead of the 2013 campaign. He has posted a 1.80 ERA and an 0.93 WHIP across 267 appearances for the Pirates, tallying 130 saves and 41 holds in the process.

The 31-year-old reliever is in the final year of his contract, which is paying him $9.65 million this season, according to Spotrac.

Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald passed along comments Melancon made at the All-Star Game about understanding how quickly the outlook can change:

"

Nobody updates me because nobody really knows. [Pirates general manager] Neal Huntington probably knows and I don't even know if he knows every second of every day. Like I said, wild card dependency, need dependency and then injuries and all that stuff, those things can happen so quickly. [Craig] Kimbrel obviously and [Brad] Ziegler, that happened really fast.

"

The Nationals roster got much stronger with Saturday's addition.