David Huzzard: Trea Turner is the first wave of improvement

In late July 2015, the Washington Nationals held a three-game lead over the New York Mets in the National League East. A couple of weeks later, they were eight games back. It was a depressing and shocking turn of events for Nats fans. Injuries played a role in the Nationals' struggles as several stars returned to the lineup and performed worse than those they replaced. But it wasn't just that the Nationals struggled. The Mets took advantage of the Nationals' struggles and it was partly due to a better trade deadline and partly due to being able to call up prospects.

The Nationals find themselves in a situation where they are technically a first-place team, but their hold on the division is tenuous, and if 2015 is any lesson, that lead can evaporate in a matter of days. There is one clear and obvious area where the Nats can improve quickly: Nationals shortstops have a .575 OPS and the Nationals' top position player prospect happens to be a shortstop, Trea Turner, who is hitting .315/.382/.461 at Triple-A Syracuse and was rated as the ninth-best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America.

The counter argument to bringing up Turner is it is uncertain how he'll hit at the majors, current shortstop Danny Espinosa has a great glove and Turner alone doesn't guarantee the Nationals win the division. A point-by-point breakdown of this would be if Turner struggles in the majors, say to the tune of a .575 OPS, it's no worse than what the Nationals are getting now. Espinosa will still be on the roster and can fill the role he did last season as a super utility player and defensive replacement, and nothing is guaranteed in baseball, but that doesn't mean you don't improve.

The pro-Espinosa/anti-Turner contingent do have some good points. Turner alone doesn't secure the division. That can only be done by having a better record than the Mets when the bell rings. What isn't helping the Nationals right now is getting little to no production out of the shortstop position and they happen to have a top ranked shortstop prospect sitting right there in the minors. The Nationals also could use upgrades at center field, first base and left field, but they don't happen to have prospects at those positions as ready or as highly regarded as Turner. Improvements there will have to come later, closer to the July 31 trade deadline.

The Nats are a first-place team and an imperfect team, but there is no such thing as a perfect team and there is no move that the Nationals can make that will make them a perfect team. That doesn't mean they can stand still and let the rest of the division improve around them while they refuse to commit to action. The Nationals will gain an extra year of service time for Turner this Tuesday, and if now isn't the time to call him up, then there never will be a time and the Nationals will be adding shortstop to their trade deadline shopping list.

The Nationals could use some breathing room in the division. Injuries can strike at any moment and while the Nats are going fine right now, they may not be in August or September and having a little cushion never hurt anyone. Turner may come to the majors and not hit or be able to field his position, and even if he does play like an All-Star, he doesn't fix all the Nationals' blemishes, but those aren't reasons not to make a move. The Nationals have several ways in which they could and should improve the team, and shortstop is the simplest to do. All it requires is a phone call to and a plane ticket from Syracuse.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.