David Huzzard: Trea Turner's time has come

It's time to have a talk with Mike Rizzo and Ted Lerner. This isn't about Rizzo's option. With how last season played out, I don't blame them for waiting until as late as possible to pick up the option of a general manager that is, deservingly, on the hot seat. This is about the Nationals offense, Kris Bryant and Maikel Franco. Your first thought might be, "Yes, the Nationals offense would be better if they had either of those two playing third," but this isn't about that either. This is about service time and the game teams play with it.

So far this season, Danny Espinosa is hitting .182/.324/.200. If you're scoring at home, that isn't good. It is downright bad. Espinosa is great with the glove and has occasional power, and there is a place for him on a major league roster, but that isn't as a starting shortstop. Trea Turner is currently in the minors hitting .357/.430/.529. The Nationals' offensive strategy so far this season appears to be to wait until Bryce Harper does something. That has worked so far, but now teams are starting to intentionally walk him every chance they get, and aside from Daniel Murphy and Wilson Ramos, no other Nationals hitter even has a league-average OPS.

Both Bryant and Franco found themselves in similar situations as Turner last season. Bryant should have never been sent to the minors out of spring training and the Phillies decided to play a bunch of retreads at third instead of calling up Franco. The Nationals did a good job of controlling the story that this is Espinosa's homecoming to his natural position and his shot to be a major league shortstop, but that was a fabrication. Espinosa is and has always been a placeholder for Turner and with Turner's play rattling the hinges and Espinosa unscrewing them, it's time for the Nationals to make a move.

Like the Cubs and Phillies last season, the Nationals want that extra year of service time, but the grievances that were filed and that are still unresolved show that players and agents are tired of teams playing this game. When Turner comes up, it won't be past the Super Two date. He's going to get four years of arbitration and that isn't going to be cheap. If the Nationals believe Turner is worth sacrificing part of the 2016 season to get an extra year of service time from him, then they believe he's going to get paid in that final year of arbitration. And if they're prepared to pay him, then they should pay him.

If the Nationals want that extra year of service time so badly, then put a seven-year offer on the table. Make it simple: $500,000 for all his non-arbitration years and then $5 million, $10 million, $15 million, $20 million for the last four. If Turner is an All-Star level player or even just below, then $20 million seven years from now is a bargain for a major league shortstop. The Nationals shouldn't be sacrificing part of this season in order to get an extra year of Turner. If they really think he's worth that extra season, they should sign him for it and call him up now. The Nationals are about to begin a brutal road trip and need all the help they can get. They are going to get Ben Revere back shortly and they need Turner over Espinosa.

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.