Taking note of the Nats' pitching depth

MIAMI - I had a conversation with a couple of fellow Nationals reporters yesterday evening after watching Blake Treinen carve through the Braves lineup over five scoreless innings. The topic was initially raised by The Post's Adam Kilgore, and got a few of us chatting.

The main point in the conversation was this: Every team in the league would love a pitcher who can throw 98 mph with sink, with emerging offspeed stuff. But how many teams wouldn't see that pitcher as a major factor come September, and into the postseason, if that team is lucky enough to get there?

Don't confuse this - this is meant as a compliment to the Nationals, not a knock. And there is absolutely no offense intended toward Treinen, who has really impressed in his first big league season and seems to be on track for a promising career.

The point that we all agreed upon was that while the Nationals love Treinen's ability and have been proud to see him progress since he was acquired in the Michael Morse deal two offseasons ago, they have enough depth that Treinen probably won't end up factoring into a postseason roster, barring an injury or two.

Pitchers who throw 98 with sink don't grow on trees. They're much-coveted throughout baseball, and once one of them has moved through the minor league system and shown he's ready for the bigs, he typically is quickly thrust into late-season baseball because he can miss bats and be a factor, either as a starter or (often) as a reliever.

We've seen this countless times over the last handful of years. The Cardinals are a team that has especially relied upon this strategy, using promising young flamethrowers like Michael Wacha, Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal and Carlos Martinez down the stretch and in the postseason very early in their big league careers.

The Nats did something similar with Christian Garcia in 2012, and while Garcia was a few years older than the Cardinals pitchers I just listed, he was a guy in his first big league season making an impact and working high-leverage innings in September and October.

This time around, the Nats already have a loaded bullpen. Their rotation is so stocked as we approach the postseason that Matt Williams will have to make a tough decision on who to drop from his starting staff in a short five-game series.

Treinen can make a spot start, as he did yesterday, and pitch quite well. He can eat a few innings out of the bullpen when needed. But Williams has plenty of options out of the 'pen. As much as he has impressed this season, posting a 1.94 ERA in 14 major league games (six starts), Treinen isn't too high up on the totem pole yet.

That's not to say he won't get there. It's to say that the Nats have such depth with their pitching staff right now that a guy with ridiculous stuff is left making spot starts instead of working the eighth inning of a 2-1 game with a playoff birth on the line.