SAN DIEGO _ The Twins traded closer Brandon Kintzler, who made the All-Star Game this season, to the _Washington Nationals on Monday.
Tyler Watson, a 20-year-old left-handed reliever in Class A, will go to the Twins, along with $500,000 in international bonus pool money
Kintzler, 32, is 2-2 with a 2.78 ERA and 28 saves, third best in MLB, in 32 chances in a breakout season. He was signed by the Twins as a free agent before the 2016 season and will be a free agent after this season.
Watson was a 34th round pick (1,034th overall) in 2015 by Washington out of Perry High School in Gilbert, Ariz. The 6-foot-5, 200-pounder is 6-4 with Hagerstown (Md.) in the South Atlantic League with 98 strikeouts in 93 innings.
Baseball America ranks Watson as the Nationals' 17th best prospect. He was 26th in that ranking after last season, when he split the season between Auburn in the New York Penn League and Hagerstown.
The Twins, who have lost five of six on a West Coast road trip to fall seven games behind first place Cleveland in the AL Central and five games behind in the wild card race, turned into sellers over the weekend. On Sunday, they traded starting pitcher Jaime Garcia _ who had pitched only one game after being acquired from Atlanta _ to the New York Yankees for left-handed pitcher Dietrich Enns and righty Zack Littell. Garcia is also a free agent at season's end, and the Twins picked up the remainder of his salary for this season in the Yankees deal.
Last season at the trade deadline the Twins also traded an All-Star, infielder Eduardo Nunez, to San Francisco. The lefty they got in return, Adalberto Mejia, is now in their rotation.
