Latest / District Territory / How Yohandy Morales and Jared Simpson’s fit into the Nats’ future

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How Yohandy Morales and Jared Simpson’s fit into the Nats’ future · District Territory

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm Eric Shellhouse
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: from Bat Boys Baseball and joining me today, Spencer Nussbaum
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: from The Athletic. The National 16-day, 16-game stretch is finally over.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Their 10-game homestand finishes 6-4. There's a lot of exciting
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: stuff to talk about with some young new players, so
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: let's dive right into it. Welcome to the big leagues,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Yohani Morales, absolutely going off in his big league debut,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a home run, a double, and a knock to go
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: along with it. He was also one of two hits
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in the 9-0 blowout on Wednesday. But Spencer, why Yohani
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Morales and not some of the other names we've heard
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: circulating around the system?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question, right?
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: I think you could make almost the argument that like,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: or at least a lot of fans, I think, made
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: the argument that Yo-Yo could have been called up earlier. Um, I,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I think there's some validity to that, right? Um, 25
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: homers in Rochester, super consistent. Um, part of me wonders
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: if he would have gotten called up a little earlier too,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: if not for, um, an injury that sidelined him for
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: about a month. Right. Um, but at the end of
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the day, I think it has to come down to
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: two things. Um, first and foremost, he has produced as
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: much as anyone in Rochester. He's earned that opportunity and,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: the big thing the organization was focusing on with him
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: was his consistency, was his whiff rate, and was his
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: chase rate. And while those are still things he'll need
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: to work on in the big leagues in future years,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: he had made some strides there. I think, candidly, the
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: larger point we could be making here is about the
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: 40-man stuff. Just to break this down as concisely as
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: one can, there is a lockout looming, potentially. It will
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: almost certainly go into effect on December 1st. And for
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: teams that are not in the postseason race, I think
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: there's a real consideration here about keeping guys off the
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: 40-man roster if they don't absolutely have to be added
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: onto it. Because if you're off the 40-man roster, you're
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: able to play minor league games next year no matter
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: what happens with the CBA or whatnot. And Yo-Yo needed
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: to be added because of Rule 5 protections, which I
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: won't get all into. Um, but basically at the end
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: of the day, they needed to add someone to the
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: 40 man, uh, who wouldn't put them in a quagmire
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: next year. Um, whereas like a Seaver King, for instance, um, isn't,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: doesn't have to be added to the 40 man, um,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: this off season. So that's not saying that's a hundred
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: percent why they did it. But if I'm reading between
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: the lines, I mean, that feels like the most obvious explanations.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And what did it mean for Yohandi to be able
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to be here in the big leagues and, you know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: to have his family there? Just a special day for him.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for him and Jared both, right? With
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Yo-Yo in particular, you saw kind of that look on
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the broadcast, right? When his family was up there and,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: you know, holding the, you know, we love you sign,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: which was really cool. I think I captured that on
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Twitter just as a screenshot. But yeah, I mean, again,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Yo-Yo is someone who was an early round pick in 2023.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Definitely grinded his way up through levels, right? Where it
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: wasn't always perfect, but you always saw that potential with him.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: And more than that, you saw the potential to hit
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: the ball hard, hit the ball in the air. And
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I think for him, it was like, oh, I've finally
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: kind of realized who I am, right? And that's not
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: to say that he's a finished product or anything, but
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: he was, if not like overly emotional. You could tell
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: kind of within, um, he knew how hard he had grinded.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: He knew how long he had waited for this opportunity. Um,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: and so I think it was really special for him
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: just being in the clubhouse and, uh, yeah, hitting the
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: home run was even cooler.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And let's move right on to the next guy, Jared Simpson.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, what a debut for him as well. Three
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: shutout innings, three strikeouts, um, terrific for him. Why him
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and maybe not some of the other pitchers we've heard
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: floating around? And what might be the next stage of
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: his development? Do you think he is someone they're looking
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: to stretch out potentially?
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I guess I'd start with the why him aspect of things, right?
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: And maybe why not others? Because there were so many
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: compelling candidates to potentially get called up. You think about Simpson,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: you think about Eddie Jean, Riley Cornelio was a name
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I was asking about. Obviously he gets called up the
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: next day. But yeah, I mean, Simpson is someone who, again,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: needed to be added to the 40 man for some
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: rule five protection stuff before the end of the season.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: And if you want to figure out if he's a
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: big leaguer, now is the time to do it. Beyond that,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: he is someone who, at least from talking to people
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: around the org, has always had like the mentality, right?
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Like he's always been a hard worker. He's always had
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: the grit. the organization has helped him find the stuff
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: and he has gone out of his way to really
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: acclimate to that. And so, yeah, I mean, Simpson is, well,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: maybe not in anyone's like top 30 prospect list or
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: anything like that, is a pretty compelling character. And as
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: we saw in those three innings, has, you know, the
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: stuff to get big league hitters out, which I don't
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: think he would have said he had a year ago,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: even if he had the confidence.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: To do it.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm curious, do you have any idea, like, what
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: did the PD staff help him out with specifically, or
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: what strides did we see from him? Because he advanced,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I believe, from AA to AAA, and now all the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: way here to the big leagues this season.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and he was in high A last year, I believe,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: for the majority or all of the year. He was
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: one of the many who added at least a tick
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: of velo this year. And when you're a lefty, I mean,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: just to, like, oversimplify it and maybe lack some nuance
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: here you don't have to throw 100 um when you're
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: tolman for instance it helps um but you can you
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: can get away with some some lower velo um just
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: because it's often a funky look for guys um but
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: sitting 91 92 often doesn't do it we saw him
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: in his big league debut average 94 95 um so
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: i think that's the biggest thing right and then again Um,
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: a lot of it comes back to having, uh, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: conviction over his pitches and command of his pitches. Um,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: in the past he, he had mentioned like he was
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: a bit robotic in his, uh, delivery and he was
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: robotic in his warmups. Right. And, um, a big thing
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: for the org this year, which fascinates me and I
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: will be writing about eventually is this idea of like
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: athletic throwing. He mentioned like warming up, throwing his slider,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: like Derek Jeter doing it on a hop and like, um,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: all these sorts of things, which if you're watching before
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: the game and you're a casual fan, or frankly, you're
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: me a year ago, you're like, what is, what is
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: he doing? What is the guy doing, doing that? Um,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: when in reality, it really helps them kind of unlock
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: their biomechanics, um, just helps them like solve issues for
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: themselves for lack of a better phrase on the mound.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: And I think that combination of not repeatability with those mechanics,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: but actually, um, just being able to figure out his mechanics,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: his control and adding a little bit of stuff, uh,
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Totally unlocked his game. And do I know if he'll
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: be pitching in the big leagues for 20 years?
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: No.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Do I know he had a really good debut and
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: the organization really wants to see what they have in him?
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: So I think that's a really compelling debut. And he's
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: a really good personality just from talking to him the
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: other day.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: He also made some pretty cool Nats history. He was
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: just the ninth pitcher and third reliever in Nats history
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to get the win in his major league debut. We're
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: going to take a quick break, but when we come back,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Dale and Lyle has been on a tear. Lots more
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Nats to talk about.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Look, it's summertime. It's cool in the morning, hot during
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: the day, cool again at night. Rarely am I sitting
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: there going, oh, I'm just going to do one thing
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• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Don't forget to subscribe to the District Territory Podcast on
• 9:03
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• 9:06
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• 9:09
  Speaker 1: want to miss any episodes down the stretch or into
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the offseason. Now, Dalen Lyle has been on an absolute
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: tear lately. NL Player of the Week honors last week. Spencer,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: what does it unlock for the Nationals offense if they
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: can get this kind of version of Dalen Lyle down
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the stretch and hopefully in the future?
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I wrote a little bit about that the other day, right,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: where you come into the season thinking your big three
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: is going to be James, CJ, and Dalen. I at
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: least thought that, I should say. And I think for
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: the Nationals, we maybe have, I don't want to say
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: ignored the offense, but It hasn't been as much of
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: a concern because of all the issues on the mound
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: in particular. But I do think if you are Washington
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: and you're thinking about what do I need to eventually
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: compete in the postseason and make a postseason run, it is.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: probably three offensive pillars right you look at a lot
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: of the best teams in baseball and that is kind
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: of the the barrier for entry right is having three
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: stars um do I know if they're going to keep
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: CJ this offseason no we won't have to get into
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: all that now but um Dalen for lack of a
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: better phrase I think needs to be or at least
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: needed to be a better version than we saw earlier
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: this year. And he has figured it out. He's been
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: the one guy where no matter what I've seen this season,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: I have been bullish that he would figure it out.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: I think the swing is too strong, is consistent, and
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: it's just the swing decisions. He's finally, and he talked
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: about this the other day, just been able to get
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: out of his head and more than that has focused
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: way more on the approach than the swing itself, I think,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Earlier this year, and I wrote this in my story
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: the other day, he would walk around, you know, in
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse, in the cages, in the hotel, wherever he
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: went and watches at bats back from last September, which
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: is a really cool anecdote. But it was just so
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: much of his focus was on his swing itself. That's
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: not to say he should have ignored it. But for him,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: the approach was the whole thing, right? And we saw
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: a stretch there where his chase rate was up over 40%
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: for a couple of weeks there. It was, you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: right around 50% over the last week and a half.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: It's been in the 25 to 30% range. And just
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: to stop throwing numbers at you guys, like 25 to
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: 30 is good. It's actually very good, especially for a
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: player of Dalen's caliber. And yeah, if he is able
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: to maintain that or at least hover around that space,
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: he is someone who is absolutely able to be a
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: star for the nationals. I believe that wholeheartedly, uh, his
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: bad is his defense has improved. Um, I think he
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: is going to go into next season and I'm going
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to finish out the season. Very, very strong.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: He is, uh, hopefully going to be that big three.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Like you said, it really is kind of what you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: need to, uh, move forward. And obviously October is not
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: happening this season, but when I look at the nationals,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I dream of CJ Abrams, James Wood, Dale and Lyle
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: leading them there. Really quickly, we'll finish up today with
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: some of the recent transactions. As you mentioned, Riley Cornelio
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: was brought back from AAAs. Tom Cosgrove has been designated
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: for assignment. And James Wood, back from the injured list.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: You know the Nationals offense missed him. We could go
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on and on about this, Spencer, but how does it
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: just transcend the lineup where it's another thing that pitchers
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: have to think about when James is in there? And
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: how does it, I guess, impact a starting pitcher right
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: off of the rift to maybe wear down with your
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: best batter?
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, Blake had mentioned this last night. He said,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: you know, before anything was official, he was like, man,
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to write his name in there again, right?
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: As Franny has talked about a lot, it just creates
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: such a problem. It puts a pitcher, I don't want
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: to say in a bad headspace, but you have to
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: be ready from the jump. And beyond that, you have
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: to spend so much of your preparation, your time that
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: you allocate towards figuring out how am I going to
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: get James Wood out? And that has trickle down effects
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: with the rest of the lineup.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Um, on the flip side, it is not an infallible lineup.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: We saw that, uh, you know, today when they got
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: shut out nine, nothing and James was one of the
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: two players with a hit. Right. Um, it's, it's a
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: lot more nuanced than that, but, um, yeah, you're, you're
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: penciling in a really good September because frankly, it'd be
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: hard to see anything else. And, um, Yeah, he is
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: absolutely essential. Essential is the word I would use to
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: this lineup. Yeah.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: The Nationals head out west. They get a much-needed off
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: day later today. But the mighty Dodgers head out there
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and then Padres afterwards in San Diego. And then just
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: off days every Thursday here as we head down the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: stretch here into the offseason. I saw they popped up
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast today when I was in the press
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: box today was the anniversary of Ryan Zerman's first major
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: league hit. So kudos to the Z man for that.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: But Spencer, anything else you want to toss in before
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: the Nats start this West coast trip?
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: Basically, I think you probably need an off day. I
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: need an off day. Team needs an off day and congratulations.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: They get one in LA. So yeah, it should be
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: a really fun series on the West coast.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: We'll be back with another episode this weekend. Until then,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: let's go Nats. See you later.