Latest / District Territory / Did the Nats win the first trade of deadline season?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome back to the District Territory Podcast. I'm Eric Shellhouse
- 0:09Speaker 1: from bat Boys Baseball and joining me today Spencer Nusbaum
- 0:12Speaker 1: of The Athletic. It's a successful weekend for the Nationals,
- 0:15Speaker 1: a busy weekend for the Nationals. Let's dive right into it.
- 0:19Speaker 1: The big news Connilly Early come into Washington in exchange
- 0:22Speaker 1: for infielder Curtis Mead is first reported by Jeff pass
- 0:25Speaker 1: And I'm very excited about this pick up for the
- 0:28Speaker 1: national Spencer, but obviously the departure of Curtis Mead has
- 0:32Speaker 1: some fans upset. Walk us through this.
- 0:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll give the most simple breakdown I can, which
- 0:41Speaker 2: is that the Nationals are very good at hitting. They
- 0:44Speaker 2: are in the progress of trying to become better on
- 0:49Speaker 2: the mound. I think this is incredible heart move for
- 0:54Speaker 2: the Nationals. I would give it an A which I
- 0:58Speaker 2: don't think is a usually out for things like it.
- 1:03Speaker 2: And that's that's that is also kind of acknowledging that
- 1:05Speaker 2: this version of Turtise, I'm just kind of a belief
- 1:10Speaker 2: that the national and so strong and window or the
- 1:15Speaker 2: ability to kind of add controllable starting pitching is like
- 1:19Speaker 2: I kind of wrote about this morning for the athletic
- 1:23Speaker 2: that I just think a controllable starting pitcher for a
- 1:28Speaker 2: bat that theoretically you could replace. I think you're in
- 1:33Speaker 2: a spot where you have.
- 1:34Speaker 1: To do yeah. I mean it's no, no, no secret.
- 1:37Speaker 1: The Nationals need some pitching help, and they're certainly seemingly
- 1:40Speaker 1: getting it. Connie Early was the number fifty two ranked
- 1:44Speaker 1: MLB prospect entering the season by Baseball America. It's a
- 1:48Speaker 1: lot of hype around the kid. He's on the injured
- 1:50Speaker 1: list right now, but then I shall have a couple
- 1:52Speaker 1: of guys working their way back, including Jake Irvin.
- 1:54Speaker 2: Uh.
- 1:55Speaker 1: It seems like hopefully this will be impactful for the
- 1:57Speaker 1: rotation this year too. To Bone spoken the dugout the
- 2:00Speaker 1: other day, I believe August third is when he's scheduled
- 2:03Speaker 1: for a rehab start. But this is a move the
- 2:05Speaker 1: Nationals made with intentions of, hey, he could help us
- 2:08Speaker 1: out this season and in the years to come exactly.
- 2:11Speaker 2: And one of the ways that to Bony put it
- 2:13Speaker 2: that I thought was really interesting is he said his
- 2:15Speaker 2: job is not just to look at his spreadsheet, It
- 2:17Speaker 2: is to look at the clubhouse and what it would
- 2:20Speaker 2: mean this team to compete and he said the team
- 2:22Speaker 2: has the it factor this year, which I think is
- 2:24Speaker 2: a fair assessment to put on it given how much
- 2:26Speaker 2: sleep overachieved and the fact that they're over five hundred
- 2:29Speaker 2: and just took a series of the Diamondbacks. Right that
- 2:32Speaker 2: being said, and I wrote about this this morning. If
- 2:34Speaker 2: you're a true contention window, meaning this team is going
- 2:38Speaker 2: to compete for the World Series, that's not happening this year.
- 2:41Speaker 2: But I think it's fair to at least make sure
- 2:43Speaker 2: you're off shipped down enough where you're still giving yourself
- 2:49Speaker 2: an outside shot thing. And even beyond that, I think,
- 2:53Speaker 2: because we talked link right like that's the goal of
- 2:58Speaker 2: being a baseball team. The goal is to win the
- 3:00Speaker 2: World Series. To me, and I wrote about this this
- 3:03Speaker 2: morning at the Athletic, they need more controllable pitching to
- 3:07Speaker 2: do that. This is good first step, but to me
- 3:10Speaker 2: it does kind of clarify. Hey, twenty twenty seven and
- 3:13Speaker 2: especially twenty twenty eight, candidly are kind of the avenues
- 3:17Speaker 2: I'm looking. Hey, this is probably when the true contention
- 3:22Speaker 2: whindow can start. But I think it's real that they
- 3:25Speaker 2: are not giving up on twenty twenty six, when there
- 3:28Speaker 2: is frankly, despite and might not want to hear its
- 3:32Speaker 2: like there is a case for the season and thinking
- 3:36Speaker 2: long term.
- 3:37Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Marlins have certainly been doing the Nationals
- 3:41Speaker 1: some help. They have lost twelve in a row that
- 3:43Speaker 1: is now a franchise record. They find themselves eight and
- 3:46Speaker 1: a half back of the NL East in just one
- 3:48Speaker 1: game out of the playoff car out of a wildcard
- 3:51Speaker 1: spot after taking two or three from the Diamondbacks, but
- 3:54Speaker 1: just such an important series in general for them to
- 3:57Speaker 1: get two of three there, it really seems like they
- 4:02Speaker 1: are embracing, like you said, a soft cell, but also
- 4:05Speaker 1: a soft by bringing in pieces that are going to
- 4:08Speaker 1: help them in the next in the years to come,
- 4:10Speaker 1: in the window that is going to open up soon.
- 4:13Speaker 1: Let's talk about Saturday really quickly, because Foster Griffin was
- 4:17Speaker 1: incredible again. Five to three Nationals victory helped get them
- 4:20Speaker 1: back over the five hundred mark. But the Phillies and
- 4:22Speaker 1: Rays had scouts and attendants watching Foster Griffin. We know
- 4:26Speaker 1: this is a very popular name of the trade deadline spencer,
- 4:29Speaker 1: but tell me about watching him on Saturday and what
- 4:32Speaker 1: you heard about other teams and attendance to watch him.
- 4:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I think The biggest thing I would put on Foster,
- 4:38Speaker 2: right is despite the fact that again these two teams
- 4:42Speaker 2: were in attendance to Washington, which I think is not nothing.
- 4:46Speaker 2: What it speaks to for me is these are You
- 4:51Speaker 2: look at the number of teams that are contending and
- 4:53Speaker 2: the number of teams that need starting pitching, it's almost
- 4:55Speaker 2: one hundred percent overlap, right, And I think we've talked
- 4:57Speaker 2: about this before. Market for Foster should be really strong,
- 5:02Speaker 2: and even if it isn't strong, it should be really wide, right,
- 5:05Speaker 2: because how many teams could use him as the number
- 5:09Speaker 2: three or number four starter this year or I'm not
- 5:13Speaker 2: saying he belongs in the bullpen because clearly he's shown
- 5:16Speaker 2: that he doesn't, but.
- 5:18Speaker 1: If the team wanted to try it, yeah, you know,
- 5:20Speaker 1: go Andrew Miller's style like the Cleveland did back in twenty.
- 5:23Speaker 2: Sixteen, exactly exactly. And so I think that the market
- 5:30Speaker 2: for him is going to be strong. And again we
- 5:31Speaker 2: heard anything that indicates an extension is closed, which is
- 5:35Speaker 2: not to say it isn't. I could be, you know,
- 5:39Speaker 2: but I just think that when you think about what
- 5:42Speaker 2: the Nationals need and their their long term window, unless
- 5:46Speaker 2: they're able to sign Foster, or term extension offer. Maybe
- 5:52Speaker 2: the key I'm holding on to are they are acting
- 5:59Speaker 2: as though it is a definitive possibility that they do.
- 6:03Speaker 1: So.
- 6:04Speaker 2: This is a guy where everything is on the table,
- 6:06Speaker 2: probably more so than anyone else on the roster.
- 6:09Speaker 1: Right, it's not an interesting scenario. They can do things
- 6:12Speaker 1: even if they choose to keep him through the rest
- 6:14Speaker 1: of the season. They don't make the playoffs to protect
- 6:16Speaker 1: him or not protect him. Protect the team if you will,
- 6:19Speaker 1: if he leaves in free agency. But it's certainly an
- 6:23Speaker 1: interesting package you would think that other teams are offering.
- 6:26Speaker 1: I'm curious, Spencer, have you heard anything about like what
- 6:29Speaker 1: a package looks like, how many prospects are involved. Obviously
- 6:33Speaker 1: a top one hundred name I think has to be
- 6:35Speaker 1: moved for a guy of his caliber.
- 6:39Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't say a top one hundred caliber guy
- 6:42Speaker 2: just because you're getting him for like one postseason run.
- 6:47Speaker 2: But what I would say is, if you look at
- 6:49Speaker 2: kind of the underlying metrics, it's pretty similar to what
- 6:54Speaker 2: Michael Struka did last year. Now again, I kind of
- 6:58Speaker 2: envisioned the package to be a hair better than that
- 7:01Speaker 2: which at the time returned Ronnie Cruz, who is kind
- 7:04Speaker 2: of a high upside, low level prospect at Christian Franklin,
- 7:08Speaker 2: a triple A outfielder. I'd expect a little bit more
- 7:12Speaker 2: than that, just because of what he's actually produced metrics
- 7:18Speaker 2: I think is notable, and Soroka had that dip. If
- 7:22Speaker 2: we remember towards the end of Jill lost him some value,
- 7:28Speaker 2: had nothing of the sort. I guess you could say
- 7:31Speaker 2: the wiff is down recently, but to me that you know,
- 7:33Speaker 2: he's still putting UB Zero's one two stories right.
- 7:36Speaker 1: The whiff isn't a part of his game that needs
- 7:38Speaker 1: to be on all the time. He's just such a
- 7:42Speaker 1: dog out there. He finds a way to get through
- 7:44Speaker 1: the lineup every day exactly.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Yeah, So I would envision candidly or maybe expect something
- 7:52Speaker 2: a little better than that package. I would pump the
- 7:54Speaker 2: brakes sough on top one hundred Prospect talk. Teams will
- 7:58Speaker 2: okay for starting pitching. If they do that, it's usually
- 8:02Speaker 2: for a guy that they're starting in Game one of
- 8:05Speaker 2: a postseason series. Despite how good Foster has been, I
- 8:08Speaker 2: just I think the fact that he's a free agent
- 8:10Speaker 2: after this season and the fact that he's not starting
- 8:14Speaker 2: Game one of the postseasons kind of complicates matters.
- 8:18Speaker 1: Yeah, he is without a doubt to me. The I
- 8:22Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know what happens with that name
- 8:24Speaker 1: at the deadline, but it's going to be really interesting
- 8:26Speaker 1: to follow. If you look at the Nationals upcoming schedule,
- 8:29Speaker 1: they got the Blue Jays coming to town later today
- 8:31Speaker 1: and it'll be a familiar face on the mound for
- 8:33Speaker 1: the Jays later today. But if you're looking for tickets,
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- 9:41Speaker 1: As I just mentioned Max Surezer on the mound for
- 9:44Speaker 1: the Blue Jays later today. It's going to be his
- 9:46Speaker 1: first start, coming since coming off the injured list. Last
- 9:49Speaker 1: time out was June tenth against Philadelphia. Andrew Alvarez the
- 9:53Speaker 1: South Paul gets the rock for the Nationals later on today.
- 9:56Speaker 1: It hasn't really been an incredible season for the reigning
- 9:59Speaker 1: American League champions. They find themselves down in the cellar
- 10:02Speaker 1: of the American League East. But Spencer, I'm just curious
- 10:06Speaker 1: your thoughts going into this series what the Nationals can
- 10:09Speaker 1: do to the expectation. I think at this point on
- 10:12Speaker 1: home turf is starting to become win the series and hey,
- 10:15Speaker 1: can we eat this up to a sweep. But what
- 10:17Speaker 1: are your thoughts going into this?
- 10:20Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the the Blue Jays, as you clearly mentioned,
- 10:22Speaker 2: are are on a spiral down and the Nationals aren't
- 10:26Speaker 2: on the ascent up. We also know that this, uh,
- 10:31Speaker 2: this park hasn't exactly been kind to the Nationals in
- 10:34Speaker 2: terms of how they've played here, and so yeah, I
- 10:37Speaker 2: think candidly you have to take two of three, you know,
- 10:40Speaker 2: tonight again they'll they'll get Shurezer, who you could see
- 10:44Speaker 2: him throw five no had innings, also has an area
- 10:47Speaker 2: of ten, right, and so we'll kind of see what happens.
- 10:51Speaker 2: But regardless, I mean, I think it's just exciting that
- 10:54Speaker 2: that Sure's are going to be on the mound. It's
- 10:55Speaker 2: something where again he hasn't pitched here since I've been
- 11:00Speaker 2: on the beat, and so this is a obviously a
- 11:02Speaker 2: new experience for me. But I think for fans again,
- 11:06Speaker 2: just if we are going to step ouk and contention
- 11:09Speaker 2: top for just one second and just kind of all exciting, interesting,
- 11:15Speaker 2: et cetera. Being able to that's you know, play against
- 11:20Speaker 2: Jerser tonight is is obviously a really compelled and then yeah,
- 11:24Speaker 2: beyond that just needs the back keep doing what they've
- 11:27Speaker 2: been doing. And yeah, the Blue Jays have have proven
- 11:33Speaker 2: their offense is not as strong as it was when
- 11:35Speaker 2: they made it to the game to them here, so
- 11:39Speaker 2: they'll I envision they'll probably do a lot of mixing
- 11:41Speaker 2: and matching that the Nationals will on them Mount mh.
- 11:46Speaker 1: Probable pictures for Tuesday and Wednesday are Shane Bieber and
- 11:49Speaker 1: Cavee Cabaldi and then Trey you Savage against Zach Lttel,
- 11:53Speaker 1: although entirely possible that the Nationals could be considering an
- 11:56Speaker 1: opener strategy come Wednesday. While we're talking out Matt Max
- 12:00Speaker 1: really quickly. Yesterday was the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
- 12:04Speaker 1: I think this is kind of an obvious answer to
- 12:06Speaker 1: this question, Spencer, but I want to ask you, who
- 12:09Speaker 1: do you think is the first guy that will be
- 12:11Speaker 1: representing the Curly w on their way into Cooperstown.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Oh, I think it might be the man on the
- 12:19Speaker 2: mount tonight, unless I'm I'm misremembering someone right. It's hard.
- 12:23Speaker 2: It's hard to honestly think of someone who has the
- 12:26Speaker 2: Hall of Fame probability that we'll both get them in,
- 12:29Speaker 2: and you know, wants to represent the Nats. I'm curious
- 12:32Speaker 2: if anyone else.
- 12:35Speaker 1: I'm to me, it's obviously Max seems like the lock
- 12:38Speaker 1: for the first guy. But I think that it call
- 12:41Speaker 1: me crazy, but I think there's an argument to be
- 12:43Speaker 1: made for Juan Soto still because we don't know what
- 12:46Speaker 1: that contract may become in New York. We don't know
- 12:49Speaker 1: what his legacy may be left as there in New York,
- 12:52Speaker 1: and there's certainly a commitment to him there right now.
- 12:55Speaker 1: But I think if you go and look at this
- 12:57Speaker 1: guy's baseball career, the best seasons and the best omens
- 13:00Speaker 1: and the best memories for him probably came in Washington.
- 13:04Speaker 1: I still believe there's an argument for him. I really
- 13:07Speaker 1: want to believe Steven Strassburg is a Hall of Fame player,
- 13:09Speaker 1: but he's definitely a NAT's Ring of Honor member. Get
- 13:13Speaker 1: that done one day ownership. But yeah, it's so obviously
- 13:17Speaker 1: Max to me, I mean, like you said, a Hall
- 13:19Speaker 1: of Fame career and had some of his best moments
- 13:22Speaker 1: in Washington. Some people say like Detroit or throw around
- 13:25Speaker 1: other names. I'm like, get out of here with that.
- 13:28Speaker 1: Come on multiple not otters in DC the ring. I
- 13:31Speaker 1: just think it's definitely got to be Max. Let's take
- 13:35Speaker 1: a look at yesterday's game really quickly ten to seven Nationals.
- 13:39Speaker 1: It was the full Nationals experience. They had to come
- 13:41Speaker 1: back a couple of times. James Wood with a game
- 13:44Speaker 1: tying home run in the bottom of the fifth inning
- 13:46Speaker 1: made it four to four, and they weren't done that inning.
- 13:48Speaker 1: See j Abrams with a multi homer game seven in
- 13:52Speaker 1: his last seven games. He is just on fire. And
- 13:55Speaker 1: James Wood wasn't done either, in the bottom of the
- 13:57Speaker 1: eighth inning, making it ten to five national with his
- 14:00Speaker 1: thirtieth home run of the season. There's a couple of
- 14:03Speaker 1: things I want to reckon with here from yesterday's game,
- 14:06Speaker 1: Spencer James Wood reaching thirty home runs this quickly, which
- 14:09Speaker 1: I don't think is a surprise to anyone, but the
- 14:11Speaker 1: fact that it's July twenty seventh, we're saying that. And cj.
- 14:14Speaker 1: Abrams continues to light the world on fire at a
- 14:17Speaker 1: position where the Nationals have a lot of death. There
- 14:20Speaker 1: is a lot of interest around his name is the
- 14:22Speaker 1: deadline approaches, But Washington has fallen in love with this
- 14:25Speaker 1: guy and it would hurt to lose him in the clubhouse.
- 14:28Speaker 2: It would, right, And that's that's what makes kind of
- 14:31Speaker 2: this next week just such a quagmire for the front office,
- 14:36Speaker 2: right Like, there is absolutely a case to be made
- 14:39Speaker 2: that you trade cg Abrams and you not only set
- 14:42Speaker 2: yourself up for twenty twenty seven twenty eight, but you
- 14:45Speaker 2: become like a true true contender. If you nail that trade, right,
- 14:50Speaker 2: you nail not only twenty eight, but twenty nine, thirty
- 14:53Speaker 2: thirty one. The flip side of that is, all of
- 14:57Speaker 2: a sudden, your contention windows pretty open. Is happy to
- 15:00Speaker 2: have this guy here and with James and c J.
- 15:03Speaker 2: Candidly I check them to this year, probably not because
- 15:08Speaker 2: they probably won't do the season this year. If you
- 15:12Speaker 2: have Kate on the mound and you get some good
- 15:14Speaker 2: luck roll in your way, you have two of the
- 15:16Speaker 2: ten best hitters in baseball, right, And that is a
- 15:19Speaker 2: recipe for winning a short series. House. I know that
- 15:25Speaker 2: these things haven't happened yet, and I know that they're
- 15:27Speaker 2: still unlikely, and I know all these different aspects you
- 15:31Speaker 2: have to consist. It's decided attention or the national's likelihood
- 15:37Speaker 2: to make the postseasons play but also like the now,
- 15:44Speaker 2: they're trying to balance short term and long term at
- 15:46Speaker 2: the same time, right, and so that that will make
- 15:48Speaker 2: this week tricky. But if we just talk about James
- 15:51Speaker 2: and CJ, who they are as players teammates, are right
- 15:55Speaker 2: the rock of this franchise, and that is if you're
- 15:59Speaker 2: talking about guys super there there are a lot of
- 16:03Speaker 2: teams that cannot match up with that, that don't have
- 16:08Speaker 2: that optional stud I mean, let's think about where they
- 16:12Speaker 2: were at two years ago when the one two version
- 16:19Speaker 2: of CJ. Abrams that wasn't ready breakout yet and Thomas,
- 16:22Speaker 2: who was a good kind of borderline All Star player,
- 16:25Speaker 2: Like it's a good one two to have. You're just
- 16:31Speaker 2: the foundation that they have.
- 16:33Speaker 1: It's unbelievable, right, There's no disrespect to the player that
- 16:36Speaker 1: Lane was or who CJ was a couple of seasons ago.
- 16:39Speaker 1: But you talk about the foundation now following. I wonder
- 16:43Speaker 1: if for the previous regime there was almost a mentality
- 16:45Speaker 1: of like, we can't trade those guys because there's no
- 16:48Speaker 1: other offense. But yesterday's box score it was busy, man,
- 16:51Speaker 1: I mean, just an incredible game all around for the guys.
- 16:54Speaker 1: I shout out the two of them, but those other
- 16:56Speaker 1: runs came from somewhere else. Team had fifteen hits, I believe.
- 17:00Speaker 1: Bring that up really quickly. Fifteen hits, ten runs. It's
- 17:04Speaker 1: just that double digit number. They seem to come across
- 17:06Speaker 1: it quite often. And the bat's keep on roll and
- 17:10Speaker 1: hopefully they'll keep it dude, and keep on doing that
- 17:12Speaker 1: later today against Toronto. But really quickly. Want to remind
- 17:15Speaker 1: our listeners to subscribe over on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify,
- 17:20Speaker 1: wherever you're listening. Do not want to miss a single episode.
- 17:23Speaker 1: And once we get to one thousand subscribers on our
- 17:25Speaker 1: YouTube channel, we're going to be giving away this Eli
- 17:27Speaker 1: Willetts sign baseball card when we come back a little
- 17:30Speaker 1: bit about the Nationals and new catcher called up Harry Ford.
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- 19:05Speaker 1: Let's talk about Harry four really quickly, because there is
- 19:08Speaker 1: a lot of hype around his name in spring. We're
- 19:10Speaker 1: finally getting to see it now. But what has excited
- 19:12Speaker 1: me the most is the use of the APS challenge
- 19:16Speaker 1: by him thus far. Dan Colco with a great call
- 19:19Speaker 1: in the ninth inning yesterday. He is seven of eight
- 19:21Speaker 1: on his ABS challenges so far. This was something the
- 19:24Speaker 1: National struggled on a lot in April, and may they've
- 19:27Speaker 1: gotten a lot better of it of recently. But to
- 19:30Speaker 1: see when he was using the challenges as well, because
- 19:34Speaker 1: home plate umpire is lucky. I don't have the name
- 19:36Speaker 1: pulled up right now. Wasn't a great day for them yesterday,
- 19:38Speaker 1: And I think that was kind of obvious from the
- 19:40Speaker 1: get go in the first and the second inning, and
- 19:42Speaker 1: I'm yelling at my TV telling Harry, yo, you use
- 19:45Speaker 1: the challenge. You know you know that. I think you
- 19:47Speaker 1: know that that's a strike. But it mattered when he
- 19:50Speaker 1: overturned a strike out in the ninth inning, and when
- 19:52Speaker 1: he's been using the challenges, what have you noticed from
- 19:55Speaker 1: him since his call a big league spencer.
- 19:58Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the stuff is notable, if
- 20:01Speaker 2: only because the Nationals have been unsuccessful on that front.
- 20:06Speaker 2: Beyond that, though, I think what is interesting about Harry
- 20:09Speaker 2: is that we kind of need a sample size, or
- 20:13Speaker 2: a real sample size of three four weeks to understand
- 20:17Speaker 2: just how good defensively he is back there. He had
- 20:20Speaker 2: a bit of down season both at the plate and
- 20:24Speaker 2: behind the plate in Rochester, uh, if only because he
- 20:27Speaker 2: was dealing with a shoulder injury that kind of hampered him.
- 20:31Speaker 2: And so then now that he's fully healthy, now that
- 20:34Speaker 2: again he seems quite happy to be here and quite long.
- 20:37Speaker 2: I'm really kind of Bobby Wilson, who helped Caperuiz behind
- 20:43Speaker 2: the dish a lot, definitely helped Drew Millis, who was
- 20:46Speaker 2: also I'm pretty strong on the plate, become even stronger.
- 20:50Speaker 2: I'm fascinated to see it's a big leap because for
- 20:56Speaker 2: as bad as the Nationals pitching the results have, they
- 21:01Speaker 2: have made massive strides behind the plate and feeling strikes
- 21:05Speaker 2: and so yeah, if Harry Ford could do well, I
- 21:08Speaker 2: think that is a massive benefit to the National feature.
- 21:13Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw a funny tweet the other day saying
- 21:16Speaker 1: the extensions the Nationals need to get done the most
- 21:19Speaker 1: is the coaching staff, and I think Bobby Wilson is
- 21:21Speaker 1: a huge part of the conversation. I think the hitting staff,
- 21:24Speaker 1: the pitching staff, all those guys, those might be some
- 21:27Speaker 1: of the most important extensions the Nationals can lock down
- 21:30Speaker 1: the the deadline approaches. Here, Spencer, anything you want to
- 21:34Speaker 1: toss in before you're over at the ballpark later on today,
- 21:37Speaker 1: Any any hot takes or anything from the hot stove
- 21:41Speaker 1: you want to add here?
- 21:44Speaker 2: Yeah, I just again, I think the final thing I
- 21:46Speaker 2: would kind of want to bring up is about finally
- 21:50Speaker 2: early in what it means for the National's rotation moving
- 21:53Speaker 2: forward right again. Wrote about this at the Athletic this morning.
- 21:57Speaker 2: But if you picture, if you imagine that the National's
- 22:01Speaker 2: contingent window opens up in twenty twenty seven, right right now,
- 22:04Speaker 2: your October rotation would be really kindly early in some
- 22:08Speaker 2: question marks. Right. What I kind of laid out this
- 22:11Speaker 2: morning is what could potentially fill in those blanks. Just
- 22:14Speaker 2: give a quick rundown. They could see someone in Freecy.
- 22:19Speaker 2: Although signing over thirty this early into your contention window
- 22:23Speaker 2: is not something teams often. I would also bring up, uh,
- 22:28Speaker 2: just the prospects that could potentially fill that in. And
- 22:31Speaker 2: I also talk against rookies or second ear players really
- 22:34Speaker 2: filling it and really being ready to take the ball
- 22:37Speaker 2: in October. But you have a Harley and Susanna if
- 22:41Speaker 2: he's a starter, Travis Sikora, although again we'll see stealth
- 22:45Speaker 2: and the amount of innings under at least are they
- 22:50Speaker 2: actually have some pretty good depth at the upper in leagues.
- 22:53Speaker 2: It's about whether they have the amount of expence I've
- 22:59Speaker 2: helped the Nationals towards the end of next year. The
- 23:03Speaker 2: third and maybe most angle I would talk about is
- 23:08Speaker 2: really and Paul Tabun talked about this the other day,
- 23:12Speaker 2: to acquire controllable starting pitching, right, That really hurt in
- 23:16Speaker 2: my mind. That means CJ. Abrams, right. And that is
- 23:19Speaker 2: not to say that they're going to DJ or that
- 23:21Speaker 2: they are explicitly going to trade him for control pitching.
- 23:24Speaker 2: But it's just hard to see them trading anything else
- 23:27Speaker 2: on this roster for the guy who's ready to start
- 23:30Speaker 2: games in October. Right, And so I think I walked
- 23:34Speaker 2: through a lot of the machinations of what it would
- 23:36Speaker 2: take for the Nationals to get kind of back in
- 23:39Speaker 2: it on the mound, because that does more or less
- 23:42Speaker 2: feel like the final big piece to this thing. And
- 23:45Speaker 2: so yeah, I just recommend reading that and check on
- 23:48Speaker 2: that out because there are a lot of different things
- 23:51Speaker 2: to think about with this trade and what could potentially
- 23:54Speaker 2: happen over the next week. So very exciting times. Yeah,
- 23:58Speaker 2: really what happens.
- 23:59Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that time of the year, folks, that time
- 24:02Speaker 1: of the season. Strap in be ready. Wednesdays and Friday's
- 24:07Speaker 1: episodes are gonna be a lot of fun. You don't
- 24:08Speaker 1: want to miss any in the future. Really quickly. Just
- 24:10Speaker 1: give the roses to Curtis Meat. Thanks for all the
- 24:12Speaker 1: good memories this season. Sign off today's episode with the
- 24:16Speaker 1: Sea eleta mate, but we'll be back on Wednesday. Have
- 24:19Speaker 1: a good week, everybody,