Steve Mears: How can the Nats roster change after the non-waiver trade deadline?

In-season trading hit a new high this year as teams made 48 trades from June 1 to the deadline yesterday. It broke last year's record of 43 trades. Trades are best judged in hindsight to analyze the real winners and losers in trades, and quality over quantity. For anyone wondering how MLB.com rated teams after the non-waiver trade deadline, their power rankings in the National League had the top five teams in this order: Cubs, Nationals, Giants, Dodgers and Cardinals. Yes, they ranked the Nationals ahead of the Giants, and yes, they know it's an even year.

General manager Mike Rizzo was active in the trade market as he filled the Nationals' greatest need, which was for an upgrade in the bullpen, when he traded for the Pittsburgh Pirates' elite closer Mark Melancon. Rizzo looked for other strategic upgrades in the trade market and did not find a trade he wanted to make.

"When you have a team as talented as ours, it's tough to add pieces," Jayson Werth told reporters after last night's 14-1 win over the Diamondbacks. "That's kind of been our M.O. over the years. We haven't really done a lot at the deadline. I think that speaks more to the talent and the level of players we have in-house."

Rizzo does fill most of his holes in the offseason as he brought in Daniel Murphy and Ben Revere, as well as Stephen Drew and Chris Heisey for the bench. Rizzo also traded Yunel Escobar for Trevor Gott. It is not to say every offseason move has worked out per Rizzo's vision, but when has a team made every move work as planned?

Rizzo could still make additional moves just like he did three days after the 2012 non-waiver trade deadline when he made a trade for Kurt Suzuki. Rizzo did the same thing in 2014 when he acquired Matt Thornton five days after the non-waiver trade deadline. Can we expect Rizzo to do the same in 2016? It could happen as it's an even year.

By rule, teams can make waiver trades until August 31 and include the acquired player(s) on their postseason roster. Some general managers like the exclusivity that exists when you claim a player, as you then are not competing with other teams in an open market competition for the same player.

While Rizzo added Melancon via a trade, some believe that he made a big move when he added prized prospect Trea Turner back to the major league roster, and this time Turner returned to the team with positional flexibility, as he could now play middle infield as well as the outfield. Last night, Turner played both positions in the same game as he started in center field then switched to second base. Positional flexibility is a big advantage for teams that have players who fit different roles.

In addition to other roster moves, Rizzo has said he would consider adding Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito to the Nationals bullpen if needed. We have already seen in the 2016 All-Star Futures Game that Lopez can be electric in a one-inning relief appearance with a blazing fastball at 100 mph. Koda Glover, Matt Grace and Gott are additional possibilities to make the postseason roster for Dusty Baker. The new postseason bullpens seem to be loaded with power arms these days, and the Nats have several power arms now in the system.

Keep your eyes on Rizzo in the coming days to see if he makes any more moves, and if he does not, it will say a lot to what Werth said that if Rizzo holds firm, consider that it speaks more to the "talent and the level of players we have in-house."

Steve Mears blogs about the Nationals for Talk Nats. Follow the blog on Twitter: @TalkNats2. His thoughts on the Nationals will appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. 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 roster of writers.