Report: Nationals Trade for Daniel Hudson, Roenis Elias to Bolster Bullpen

The Washington Nationals strengthened their bullpen with hours remaining before Wednesday's MLB trade deadline.

MLB Network's Jon Heyman reported the Nationals acquired Daniel Hudson from the Toronto Blue Jays for minor league pitcher Kyle Johnston.

According to the New York Post's Joel Sherman, Washington also landed Roenis Elias in a deal with the Seattle Mariners. Minor leaguers Elvis Alvarado and Taylor Guilbeau are going to Seattle, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.

General manager Mike Rizzo didn't stop there. MLB.com's Mark Feinsand reported the Nationals traded minor league reliever Aaron Fletcher to the Mariners for Hunter Strickland.

This has been a general theme for the Nats in recent years. They traded for Mark Melancon ahead of the 2016 deadline and then got Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson a year later after Melancon had left in free agency.

Washington relievers are 24th in FIP (4.80) and leaving runners on base 65.2 percent of the time, worst in the majors. Doolittle has been excellent in the ninth inning. Bridging the gap to the closer has been the issue for the Nationals, which is what Strickland, Hudson and Elias will address.

Strickland has missed most of the season after suffering a lat strain in March. He returned to the mound Sunday, holding the Detroit Tigers scoreless over one inning in a 3-2 win. 

Strickland obviously carries some risk based on his injury and the fact that his ERA in 2018 (3.97) was over a full run higher than the year before (2.64).

Hudson is averaging 11.71 strikeouts per nine innings and has a 3.19 FIP this year against right-handed batters. Despite being a southpaw, Elias has fared much better against righties as well, sporting a 3.97 FIP and 8.42 strikeouts to 2.23 walks per nine innings.

Although the Nationals are 5.5 games back of the first-place Atlanta Braves in the National League East, they have a half-game advantage on the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card race.

Instead of getting another elite closer to pair with Doolittle, loading up on more cost-effective relievers was a smart way for Rizzo to shore up one of the team's biggest problems.

Stats are courtesy of FanGraphs unless otherwise noted