Eric Espada/Getty ImagesOn a deadline day when there was much more quantity (15 trades) than quality Blaine Boyer Jersey , the guy who could make the biggest impact on the rest of the season was the guy who didn't get traded.The teams that made moves concentrated on incremental upgrades that may or may not help them win a championship. The team that made almost no moves showed belief in a team and a star who have so far badly underachieved.The biggest move of the month was the Los Angeles Dodgers trading for Manny Machado, but that happened nearly two weeks ago. The biggest move Tuesday was a non-move, with the Washington Nationals not trading Bryce Harper.The Nationals could look bad鈥攊f their 53-53 team doesn't rally to make the postseason and if Harper leaves as a free agent and they are stuck with only a draft pick in return.Harpers Home Run Derby performance was magical, and the Nationals will need that magic in August and September (and perhaps October).Rob Carr/Getty ImagesBut look at it the other way. They could look great鈥攊f the team responds to win a division that is still ultra-winnable, and especially if Harper is the one who leads them into October and perhaps past the first round for what would be the first time since the franchise moved from Montreal.With any other 53-53 team, you'd say they were dreaming. In any other division, you might say that, too.But when I contacted a group of major league scouts after Tuesday's deadline to ask about the Nationals' decision to keep Harper, every one of them agreed they did the right thing. And so do I."They [think they] aren't out of it," one American League scout said. "And I agree with them."The Nationals are 5.5 games behind the first-place Philadelphia Phillies and five games behind the second-place Atlanta Braves. The Phillies (with catcher Wilson Ramos) and the Braves (with starting pitcher Kevin Gausman) both made moves Tuesday, but neither was an obvious "this wins it for them" kind of move.Put it this way: If the Nationals had traded for Harper, that would have been by far the biggest move any National League East team made this month鈥攅ven with his .223 batting average.The Nationals could have justified trading him away instead. Ken Rosenthal made an interesting proposal Monday on The Athletic, suggesting the Nats trade Harper as part of a remake that would also include adding catcher J.T. Realmuto from the Miami Marlins.It's not clear whether moves like that were even realistic. The Marlins put a high price tag on Realmuto, according to sources, and in the end did not trade him to anyone.Besides, soon after Rosenthal's column hit the internet, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo told Harper he was going nowhere."I only got in touch with him when some information came out that we were in the midst of looking to trade Bryce Harper," Rizzo said, according to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. "And I thought at that time, it was probably a good time to say that was false information and he wasn't going to be traded."By Tuesday morning, Rizzo was telling everyone else the same thing, with multiple tweets quoting him as saying Harper wouldn't be dealt. The first was this one from Janes:Chelsea Janes chelsea_janesMike Rizzo just reached out with this message: quot;Bryce is not going anywhere. I believe in this team.quot;We may never know exactly what the Nationals could have gotten back in a Harper trade, or what they heard from other teams before deciding to keep him. But the scouts surveyed by Bleacher Report suggested the return would have been underwhelming."It's not like they could get a haul for him," the AL scout said."They probably wouldn't get enough for Harper to justify moving him," a National League scout agreed.Not when they still have a realistic chance to win. Remember, they're not chasing the Boston Red Sox Trevor Cahill Jersey , New York Yankees or Houston Astros. They just have to make up ground on the Braves (29-30 over the last two-plus months, entering play Tuesday) and the Phillies (30-28 over a similar span).They can do it, if Stephen Strasburg (pinched nerve in his neck) doesn't spend too much time on the disabled list. They can do it, if Harper can be the most valuable player of the final two months of the season.In Harper's first post-deadline at-bat, he rocketed a double to right-center field to drive in a run Tuesday night against the New York Mets. It was his ninth RBI (and fourth extra-base hit) in 10 games since he lit up Nationals Park and won the Home Run Derby. He added another run-scoring double later in a 25-4 Nationals win that鈥攁t least for a day鈥攎ade the Nationals look like a team on the way up.You wouldn't call it peak Harper, as in the 1.109 OPS he had when he was the 2015 NL MVP, but maybe it's just the start of something big. Maybe this can be the start of something big for the Nationals, who spent 16 days in first place in the first half of the season but never really got going.Maybe instead of putting the NL East away early, as the Nats did when they led the division by 14 games at the end of July 2017, this year can be the season they win it with a furious two-month charge."I honestly think it might be good for us [to do it the tough way]," first baseman Ryan Zimmerman said just before the All-Star break. "The last few times we won the division, we clinched early. You're thinking about days off. It's not that you stop playing, but it's not the same intensity down the stretch."Don't get me wrong, I'd take that, but I think this might be good. Maybe if we get in, maybe we'll go into the playoffs on the upswing."Harper and Rizzo celebrated a division title last September. Less than 11 months later, Rizzo kept Harper and hoped for more celebrations.G Fiume/Getty ImagesWhat they've done before hasn't worked in October. The Nationals have been in the postseason four times since 2012, which was Harper's rookie season. They've lost in the division series each time, each time in excruciating fashion, three times in a decisive fifth game.This year shouldn't be the last chance for a team that has Max Scherzer signed through 2021 and has one of baseball's brightest young stars in 19-year-old Juan Soto. But it could easily be the last chance with Harper, whose Washington future beyond this season remains uncertain.Because of that and because of their sub-.500 record, the Nationals could have justified trading Harper and beginning to rework their roster for 2019. Instead, the only trade they made Tuesday was to send reliever Brandon Kintzler to the Chicago Cubs, a move that opened a spot for other relievers they like as much and according to the Washington Post, "because the Nationals believed he was responsible for anonymous reports that painted Washington鈥檚 clubhouse culture as iffy.""I believe in this team," Rizzo said Melky Cabrera Jersey , in the text to Janes.I'm not sure I do, but I believe Rizzo believes. He believes in the Nationals. He absolutely believes in Harper.And now Harper and his team have two (or maybe three) months to justify that belief. Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball. NEW YORK (AP) — The playoff-bound Yankees blew a three-run lead against the worst team in the majors Sunday — and then came the really bad news.New York shortstop Didi Gregorius has torn cartilage in his right wrist and is unsure whether he will be able to play in the AL wild-card game on Oct. 3. Gregorius, who has 27 homers and 86 RBIs, got injured Saturday when he slid headfirst on Aaron Hicks‘ 11th-inning double to score the run that clinched a postseason berth for the Yankees.“It feels a little bit better now,” Gregorius said after missing a 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in New York’s final home game of the regular season. “I slid into home plate, my right hand got stuck. We were celebrating, everything was fine. I went home, fine. I woke up this morning, it wasn’t feeling good.”Gregorius had an MRI that revealed a small tear, he said. He received a cortisone shot and will be re-evaluated soon.“We’ll know a lot more in a few days,” manager Aaron Boone said .Gregorius said the injury is “really frustrating” but he has some mobility in his wrist and is very optimistic he’ll play in the postseason. New York has seven regular-season games remaining and is trying to secure home-field advantage in the wild-card game.“They say things like this happen to other players but some of them play through it,” Gregorius said, explaining he feels soreness but not sharp pain.If Gregorius is unavailable, the Yankees have a couple of options at shortstop. They could turn to Adeiny Hechavarria, especially if they’re concerned about defense. Or they could slide Gleyber Torres over from second base and put Neil Walker’s bat at second.“Didi’s a great player and obviously I think everyone in this room understands how important he is to our team,” Boone said. “Kind of an anchor for us defensively in the infield, and obviously what he brings from the left side of the plate. So, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, but hopefully we get some good news here in a few days.”New York remained 1½ games ahead of Oakland for the top AL wild card when the Athletics lost 5-1 to Minnesota.Boone said it’s important to the Yankees to get the wild-card game in the Bronx — where they finished 53-28 this season. They sure didn’t play that way, though.Tim Beckham homered twice for the lowly Orioles, who trailed 3-0 early.J.A. Happ needed 107 pitches to get through five innings in a possible tuneup for the wild-card game. Happ allowed only one run, but A.J. Cole (3-1) quickly coughed up a 3-1 lead in the sixth as the Yankees rested their best relievers.Baltimore (45-110) remained one loss shy of matching the franchise record for defeats set by the 1939 St. Louis Browns, who went 43-111.Orioles second baseman Breyvic Valera broke his left index finger on a headfirst slide into home plate, the team said. Valera was in a cast and a sling after the game.Alex Cobb lasted only four pitches in an abbreviated start, leaving with another blister problem. The right-hander exited his previous outing Sept. 11 after two innings because of a blister on his middle finger.“Actually in the bullpen, it was starting to heat up a little bit http://www.angelsfanproshop.com/authentic-zack-cozart-jersey ,” manager Buck Showalter said. “We knew it had potential to be a short outing. We wanted to give it a shot.”The Yankees took advantage by scoring three times in the first, but then their bats went silent against five relievers.Ryan Meisinger (2-0) pitched two perfect innings and Mychal Givens worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his ninth save.“Just stalled out offensively,” Boone said. “Frustrating way to end this homestand, but we’ve got to get past it.”Renato Nunez also homered for Baltimore, and DJ Stewart drove in two runs off the bench. Joey Rickard had three hits.Miguel Andujar and slumping Gary Sanchez each had an RBI single for the Yankees in the first. Torres delivered a sacrifice fly.END OF THE ROADCobb probably won’t pitch again this year, Showalter said. The right-hander is 5-15 with a 4.90 ERA in his first season with the Orioles after signing a $57 million, four-year contract.“It hasn’t been anything that we envisioned before we made the commitment to come here,” Cobb said. “I don’t think anybody envisioned it would turn out this way. You never sign up for something like this.”CROWD CONTROLThe Yankees drew an AL-leading 3,482,865 at home this season, an average of 42,998. That was up from 3,146,966 last year and New York’s highest at home since 2012. The Yankees had 23 sellouts, their most at new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.TRAINER’S ROOMOrioles: Valera exited in the fifth after getting tagged out at the plate. He was acquired from the Dodgers in July as part of the trade for Manny Machado. … RHP Andrew Cashner (left knee) probably won’t pitch again this season, Showalter said.Yankees: CF Aaron Hicks walked in the seventh as a pinch-hitter and stayed in the game. Hicks fouled a ball off his ankle Saturday just before his game-ending double. “He’ll be all right,” Boone said.UP NEXTOrioles: Before this miserable season finally comes to an end, the Orioles still have seven games left against Boston and Houston — the top two teams in the majors. RHP Dylan Bundy (8-15, 5.37 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday night at Fenway Park against RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-7, 3.98).Yankees: Had not announced a starting pitcher for the opener of a four-game series Monday night at Tampa Bay. RHP Luis Severino (18-8, 3.38 ERA) is on turn.