Report: Nationals interested in Ryan Dempster, Ramon Hernandez

The first-place Nationals are looking to buy before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

By Navin Vaswani

Jul 17, 2012 at 1:54 pm ET • 1 min read

The Washington Nationals are exploring trading for starting pitcher Ryan Dempster, as insurance for when Stephen Strasburg reaches his innings limit, wrote FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal.

The Nationals (51-36) maintain they will shut down Strasburg when he reaches his innings limit, believed to be around 160 or 165 innings. Strasburg has pitched 105 innings so far this season, and has a 2.66 ERA, along with 135 strikeouts.
Dempster is just one of the starting pitchers the Nationals are exploring a trade for. They're also looking at Milwaukee's Zack Greinke and Minnesota's Francisco Liriano.
Washington is also looking for an everyday catcher, and could target Colorado's Ramon Hernandez.
Currently, Jesus Flores is the Nationals' catcher, having taken over for the injured Wilson Ramos, and he's batting .234/.273/.348 in 55 games, with three home runs and 17 RBI.
Opponents are running wild on Flores; he's thrown out only 11 percent of baserunners so far in 2012.
Washington leads Atlanta by 2.5 games in the NL East, and the Braves are also in the mix for Dempster, along with the Tigers, Dodgers, and Red Sox, notes Rosenthal.