Nationals unwilling to include Victor Robles in Andrew McCutchen trade

Now that they’ve missed out on Chris Sale, the Nationals are unwilling to include top outfield prospect Victor Robles in other trades, including for Andrew McCutchen, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes.

The context of this bit of news, by the way, is the aftermath of the Sale deal, in which the Nationals reportedly offered Robles and Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, a completely bonkers offer that still couldn’t top the Red Sox’ even-more-ridiculous offer of Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and two other good prospects. The takeaway here is that both the Red Sox and the Nationals really, really liked Chris Sale, and the Nationals clearly don’t like McCutchen nearly as much. Oh, and the other takeaway is that White Sox GM Rick Hahn is either extremely lucky or a tremendous negotiator.

It’s unclear what the Robles news will mean for the Pirates’ ability to negotiate a McCutchen trade. Robles is a tremendous prospect, and if the Nationals won’t include him, my bet is that they won’t include Giolito either. Perhaps the Nats will change their minds; perhaps the two sides will be able to negotiate a deal built around someone like Lopez or Joe Ross, plus a bunch of other talent; perhaps the Pirates will trade McCutchen to someone else; or perhaps they won’t trade him at all.