Foster Griffin - we barely knew ya

 The Nats only make one more deal but as expected it's for Foster Griffin.  To Cleveland for four guys pitchers Will Dion, Kendeglys Virguez, and Josh Hartle, and outfielder Nick Mitchell

If you thought the Garcia haul was about quantity this one REALLY is about quantity.  

But to be fair that is what Griffin should bring back - next to nothing.  He's been good but his ERA is under what the fancy stats say it should be.  He's a back end starter for 2 months. This is what you get for that. 

Will Dion is a failed starter propsect attempting to become a reliever but at an age (will be 27 at the start of next season) they can't really expect it to stick.  He's got pretty good walk and K rates but tends to get rattled once someone reaches base. He's a guy to throw in the bullpen now. 

Virguez is the typical "live arm" can be unhittable if he can hit the strikezone, which is usually can't. But he's at a decent age (just turned 22) for trying to fix him. 

Josh Hartle is a mediocre prospect starter. He's doing ok in AA but doesn't strikeout enough and walks too many giving him real "this is his ceiling" feelings. 

Nick Mitchell is org depth. 

The Nats are hoarding pitching depth and you can understand why.  They have Susana and Sykora and basically nothing worth talking about.  If both those guys don't work out (honestly again with prospects the most likely situation) then they'd be doing repeats of what they did this year if they don't want to spend money for the best FA arms.  They need depth of guys that can be slotted in that maybe they aren't as good but aren't a huge step back. Better guys in the rotation, better guys to back them up.   This isn't about hitting 8 of 8 or even 4 of 8.  It's about hitting 2 of 8. Maybe 3 of 8 if we're talking about getting some decent use in the next 3-4 years. Will they?  No one knows!  Not even the best prospect guys.  That's why you get depth. 

Garcia traded for quantity

The Nats get Yovanny Cruz, Jake Bird, Ben Grable and Jack Cebert.  

Cebert is the one the Nats are probably most hopeful for - a starter that probably ends the season Top 10 in the Yankees prospect lists.  One of their college arms that they turn into decent prospects. He ruled High A then struggled in AA but might be turning that around too.  The main issue with Cebert is that he turns 25 next year so when a true stud should be rounding into major league form, he'll likely be proving he deserves a call-up from AAA. That is where he sits though - maybe he's a major leaguer maybe a AAAA type.  But never hurts to have more of those as options. 

Grable is kind of a one-trick pony in that he has a fun fastball that is tough to hit... for minor leaguers.  It was DOMINANT in high A but more hittable in AA. It's gonna be one of those things that if it it holds that major leaguers find it hard to hit he'll be a great relief arm.  If not he's probably nothing. But hey you want someone with a chance! 

Cruz is your "dynamic stuff can he ever control it?" type. At about to be 27 it's far more likely that the answer is no BUT if it is yes he could be dominant. 

Jake Bird is 30yo bullpen filler that is probably a safe bet to be out of baseball in under 5 years, maybe under 3. 

The MOST likely single scenario - Jake Irvin and a couple of live bullpen arms that give you hope and maybe a good year but ultimately disappoint, but we're talking like 20% here for MOST likely.  There are a lot of different possibilities.  If the Nats get Grable or Cruz to become a lights out reliever then it's worth it. If they get Cebert to be a good enough rotation guy, it's worth it. And the chances are probably better that one of them has a career at least sort of like this. 

Who's here and who's not - Make your guesses

I'll go with NEARLY everyone gone. Garcia and Griffin sure. I'll say Williams for scraps. And hell Chaparro and Crews for some random arms because they need random arms and not random bats. 

I'll say though when the smoke clears Abrams is still here. I think they are looking to get blown away for CJ.  They won't be because the market doesn't look at an out of position guy having possibly a career year the same way they look at a Sot. Not that THAT'S the benchmark for the deal they expect - just saying you look at a guy differently who's always produced than one that's just doing it. It'll be a gamble to keep him because I think they are going to trade him eventually and whatever is the "not blown away deal" this year is likely going to be better than what you can get next year unless Abrams repeats this plate performance. 

Bring Back Max?

The Nats need pitching help.  The Jays might be doing some minor selling in the hopes of resetting for 2027. Max Scherzer is a Jay and won't cost much given his recent injuries and performance issues. So... bring back Max?

Ehhhhh

Scherzer blossomed into an ace in 2012 with the Tigers and the Nats managed to snatch him up in free agency getting his best years with arguably the second best FA contract of all time (I still say Randy Johnson's 4 Cy Young in 4 years beats it, sorry*)  He was traded to the Dodgers for what may be scraps (Ruiz has been in a slow tumble since late May - first the power, now the average) pitched well then signed with the Mets.  His first year was as good as any with the Nats, although he did miss some time. But after that at age 38 in 2023, time began catching up with him. He was still an effective swing and miss guy but he was making more mistakes. Walks and homers both went up and the Mets sent him to Texas. He made some adjustments and when he pitched in Texas he was ok, but in 2024 that wasn't even close to a third of a season. Toronto took a chance on him last year and he was a perfectly ok rotation filler but too injured to rely on, and now he's still battling injuries and is just bad. 

What happened?  What happens to all old arms. The fastball velocity goes. You can't rely on it so you shift to more breaking junk which was never your bread and butter and is now worse than your peak so the results aren't what you like. You get hurt and nothing is as good coming back. 

One of Max's bugaboos was that he was never a GB pitcher. He gave up flyballs and when he was going bad he became ScHeRzer, giving up bombs for runs. This was ok when he was missing bats and putting no one on but now he's not doing enough of either and those are three run shots, not solo ones.  

If you want a positive to Max's outing - his fastball velocity was up.  If he can tick it up a bit more that's into effective territory.  BUT he's no where near as controlled with his pitches anymore. The walks came and that may be the trade-off that he has to put out there. 

As a starter he might be able to figure out a middle ground of dialing it up early with the hopes of being on and then working smarter if he's too wild and gets himself into trouble to limit the damage. Become a wily 5 inning guy.  I can see that. But fans are asking for Max to dial it up and head to the pen.  Even if he wants that I see a guy that can't do that while controlling where the ball goes.  And if he can't hit say... 95 without having control, well that's not close to a major league fireballer. While he may have the temperment of a pen guy, he doesn't have the stuff. Too wild. No out pitch anymore. 

If the Nats want to bring him back to fill in the back of the rotation, to take care of these weird opener situations, sure. Maybe you get pucky and he can find a 2024 like finish. But as a reliever? Nah. It doesn't feel right nor would it work out.  

 

*Yeah the length does help Max, but in two and two thirds more years with the Nats than Randy spent with the D-Backs (in his initial contract before the option years) Max only threw 200 IP more. Max's best year by bWAR is still behind Randy's worse year and Randy's combined bWAR is less than 1 behind Max's. They both got a WS title. It's ok to be #2 ALL-TIME.

Monday Quickie - Still Here

One thing you have to realize about the Nats is they HAVEN'T made a big push to remain in the Wild Card hunt.  6-4 in last 10.  8-7 in last 15.  In mid June they reached 39-35 and they've gone 15-17 since and they've gone from in the WC and up a game to one game out of the Wild Card.  

The middle of the NL is extremely soft. There are no very good teams beyond possibly the Phillies (and I'm not 100% sold on them).  There are six basically equal teams looking to get that last spot.  The Nats are in good shape to be the one. 

But it's not the plan. 

The plan is 2028, with 2027 looking brighter based on this year, but it's never been 2026. 

So they trade a good bat today for a good arm tomorrow.  The process doesn't change. 

But who is going to make that push? The Padres or Diamondbacks seem possible. The Pirates and Marlins seem unlikely.  I don't know where the Cardinals stand. They were kind of supposed to be in year one of a complete tear down to the studs but then Jordan Walker suddenly became the player everyone thought he'd be 2 years ago and the pitching has been surprisingly better than average. I can't see them buying but who knows? If you don't you are wasting build around Jordan Walker which you might have for only a couple more years before you'd want to deal him... but I digress

The Nats should be in the thick of it. Will they be pressing the issue though? The first trade suggests not. That was a good deal but not a good deal for 2026. Early just started mound work.

 

The team is better than you thought they'd be.

The league is worse than you might have thought it would be. 

You hope for things to work out like this. 

Bought and Sold

 Like we said - why not both.  Bats for arms.  Mead for Early

In losing Mead they lose a power bat whose prospect history suggests could keep this up.  The major league results are spottier but he’s young enough you can see a team still buying into scouting

In gaining Early the get a rotation worthy arm who’s probably more a 3/4 but a 3/4 with lots of control left.  A spot that doesn’t have to be filled with cash or FA gambles.  That is if he can stay healthy. He already missed time with an inflamed elbow

Quick take - I like the deal. It turned nothing into a decent chance at 100s of innings  

Buy, Sell? Why not both?

 That's the implication of what we've heard from Toboni recently.  This makes sense.  The organization likely came into the year thinking SELL SELL SELL but given the team has shown themselves to have a playoff caliber offense they would be shooting a gift horse in the mouth to do that.  You want a great offense. You have it.  You want great pitching.  EH.  So the goal should be to get good pitching. Simple? 

Well it would be if you had a ton of money from owners that wanted to spend but no one believes that so instead we are left with trying to do particular sales to fund the pitching without hurting the offense. 

And now we're at the problems. 

You can't really sell good pitching because you need good pitching.  Is Foster Griffin good pitching? 

You should sell your good hitters to be to fund the pitching of now and that does make sense but the organization was planning to keep the those guys.  Can they get over their initial desires? 

Or alternatively, will they decide to gamble on those guys to replace some guys like Garcia they could sell now? 

My guess?  The latter.  Selling good guys now - Garcia, Abrams for real pitching.  

And... I don't love it. Birds in the bush are those for reasons. Every team can name more prospects they were excited about that didn't pan out. But I don't have the information they have.  If the money is not coming any time soon then it will be foolish to go in now on guys that will be gone in a couple years. But I don't think you can say anything like that for sure based on what they do. 

It's also hard. Because guys selling WANT the kids. They aren't looking to get guys for now.  So there has to be some kids thrown in. 

A lot of people are saying this is a fascinating deadline for the Nats and I agree. We could see anything from a complete rebuild to a light push for the playoffs this year and you can justify any of that.