Nationals acquire Melancon from Pirates

Left-handed reliever Felipe Rivero and minor league left-hander Taylor Hearn are headed to Pittsburgh as part of the deal, according to reports. He is making $9.65 million and is eligible for free agency after the World Series. The veteran has saved 130 games for the Pirates over the last four years, including a major league-leading 51 last year and 30 so far this year.

“We knew full well that holding Mark Melancon would have been a good return, but at the end of the day we felt this was a better return for us”, Huntington said. He has allowed just seven earned runs in 41 2/3 innings pitched (1.51 ERA), and held opponents to a.205 batting average.

Now that Melancon heads to Washington, Nationals manager Dusty Baker will have to make a move in the bullpen given that Jonathan Papelbon has been far from efficient. Papelbon was pulled in the ninth inning of Thursday’s game against the San Francisco Giants and took the loss in two other games over the past week.

The Pirates will plug the 25-year-old Rivera into a seventh-inning role, with Neftali Feliz working the eighth and Tony Watson in the ninth.

Rivero has a 4.53 ERA in 47 appearances (49.2 innings) this season out of the bullpen for the Nationals.

Melancon, 31, comes to the Nationals on the heels of almost four seasons as the Pirates closer, in which he’s amassed the fourth-most saves in Pirates history (130). The Nationals drafted Hearn in the fifth round last summer.

The Major League Baseball trading deadline is Monday, August 1st.

Also Saturday, Washington recalled right-handed pitcher Reynaldo Lopez from Triple-A Syracuse.