The headlining moves for the Washington Nationals ahead of the trade deadline was their decision to send Curtis Mead to the Boston Red Sox, Luis Garcia Jr. to the New York Yankees and Foster Griffin to the Cleveland Guardians.For the most part, those trades were expected to take place. However, the Nationals also made an under-the-radar deal compared to what else was taking place across the rest of the league, as Andy Kostka of The Baltimore Banner first reported that Washington traded outfield prospect Christian Franklin the Baltimore Orioles. Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic later reported that it was in exchange for minor league right-handed pitcher Joe Glassey.The Nationals reportedly had been letting teams around the league know that they were willing to trade from their farm system depth, and they did exactly that by shipping Franklin out of town, who they acquired ahead of last year's trade deadline as part of the Michael Soroka return package.Nationals Land Another Pitching Option in Joe GlasseyWashington Nationals manager Blake Butera shakes hands with president of baseball operations Paul Toboni | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters ConnectThe mission to upgrade this pitching staff at the major league level and throughout the farm system continued to take place for president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and his front office. Their latest move was to bring in Glassey, who has the look of being a high-upside arm with his 2.20 career ERA across 48 minor league appearances out of the bullpen with 97 strikeouts to 10 walks over 65 1/3 innings pitched.Glassey, age 25, was pitching at the Double-A level for the Orioles. He was a four-year college player at the University of Illinois and he went undrafted in 2024. But since turning professional, he has been lights out coming up the minor league ranks.He was not considered a top 30 prospect in Baltimore's farm system, though, so shipping out Franklin to acquire him is a risk, especially based on the hit tool that Franklin has shown throughout his professional career. But with an abundance of outfielders on their major league roster and coming up the pipeline, the Nationals felt comfortable enough to trade Franklin.Christian Franklin Was Odd Man Out in Nationals Outfield Logjam Washington Nationals prospect Christian Franklin | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters ConnectJames Wood, Daylen Lile, Dylan Crews and Jacob Young are on the big league roster. Andrew Pinckney -- who was a top 30 prospect before Washington brought in a haul from the Yankees -- is with Triple-A Rochester. Five other outfielders are in the top 30 of this pipeline, including Gavin Fien and Yeremy Cabrera -- who were both acquired in the MacKenzie Gore return package.There are a lot of talented outfielders in the Nationals' organization, and it seems like Franklin was the odd man out when it came to the front office's evaluations. Whether or not that's the right decision remains to be seen, as the 26-year-old has slashed .260/.389/.396 for his career.But it was clear that it was time for Franklin to start getting everyday reps in the bigs, which wouldn't have taken place in Washington. Because of that, breaking up the outfield logjam to bring in another pitching option is not a bad course of action.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow