Latest / District Territory / 10 potential offseason adds for the Nationals as they look for a closer

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10 potential offseason adds for the Nationals as they look for a closer · 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, joined today by Spencer Nussbaum from
0:13
Speaker 1: The Athletic. The offseason is officially underway and the Nationals
0:17
Speaker 1: are getting to work, maybe not with the big moves
0:19
Speaker 1: that we are looking towards. Later in the offseason, we'll
0:22
Speaker 1: talk about that more later in the episode, but making
0:26
Speaker 1: some small moves, some tiny additions to get started with
0:28
Speaker 1: our offseason. First is Nate Furman will be coming over
0:32
Speaker 1: from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Tony Newick.
0:35
Speaker 1: The corresponding move here, of course, Richard Lovelady will be
0:39
Speaker 1: cleared from the 40-man roster, and then making a claim
0:42
Speaker 1: of Braxton Roxby from the San Francisco Giants as well.
0:47
Speaker 1: So it's been a busy week for the Nationals and Giants,
0:49
Speaker 1: swapping players back and forth. Zach Kent also DFA'd as
0:53
Speaker 1: a corresponding move here, but some additions that the Nationals
0:56
Speaker 1: think can help on the margins going into next season.
1:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll do a quick hitter first on who these
1:02
Speaker 2: guys are and then maybe more importantly, why they're important. Roxby, again,
1:07
Speaker 2: a reliever who the Nationals will take a chance on. Again,
1:12
Speaker 2: he could be a DFA candidate down the road. We
1:14
Speaker 2: don't exactly know, but a pretty sharp cutter. And again,
1:19
Speaker 2: someone the Nationals will potentially have space for given all
1:23
Speaker 2: the bullpen openings. As for Furman, I hope I don't
1:28
Speaker 2: scare fans off by saying this. It is kind of
1:30
Speaker 2: similar to Vivas' offensive profile in that he makes excellent
1:35
Speaker 2: swing decisions, puts the bat on the ball a lot,
1:38
Speaker 2: and does not hit for a lot of power. He
1:40
Speaker 2: ultimately has three options, which is part of why the
1:44
Speaker 2: Nationals wanted him and wanted to make space for him.
1:48
Speaker 2: In addition to the fact that, and maybe this is
1:50
Speaker 2: the important part, they probably need a left-handed hitting infielder
1:55
Speaker 2: next year, right? I don't know how much longer Jose
1:58
Speaker 2: Tena is going to be on the 40 man. He's
2:00
Speaker 2: out of options. Vivas is out of options. And candidly,
2:05
Speaker 2: when you look at the Nationals kind of roster construction,
2:08
Speaker 2: they'll probably have Seaver King and Brady House, you know,
2:12
Speaker 2: at the right-handed hitting infield spots. this year, and so
2:17
Speaker 2: ideally you want someone left-handed to sometimes, it's not always platoon,
2:22
Speaker 2: sometimes platoon with them. And so that's in particular why
2:26
Speaker 2: I think he was a really smart add, especially if
2:29
Speaker 2: the Nationals can get him to add a little bit
2:30
Speaker 2: of power. The only kind of other final point I
2:33
Speaker 2: would say here is obviously the big moves are sexier,
2:37
Speaker 2: they're more interesting. We will be talking about them more.
2:41
Speaker 2: You look at basically any good roster in Major League Baseball,
2:45
Speaker 2: They win these sorts of deals. They win these moves
2:47
Speaker 2: on the margins. Not all of them, but some of
2:49
Speaker 2: them pan out. We think about Curtis Meade last year, right?
2:52
Speaker 2: He was a marginal move before he became a big one.
2:56
Speaker 2: And so I still think these moves are worth monitoring,
2:58
Speaker 2: worth understanding. And they fascinate me personally. So we will
3:04
Speaker 2: keep talking about them as much as we can because
3:07
Speaker 2: I think they are notable.
3:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, you don't know if they may end up being
3:11
Speaker 1: flipped for bigger parts down the line in next season
3:14
Speaker 1: or if they end up becoming contributing parts in the
3:16
Speaker 1: Nationals team next season. We shall see. The other thing
3:20
Speaker 1: was an off-the-field move was that they announced they are
3:23
Speaker 1: hiring David Beske as a pitching strategist. He's coming over
3:27
Speaker 1: from the Boston Red Sox, I believe, Spencer. Is this
3:30
Speaker 1: a move where the guy is down in the dugout
3:32
Speaker 1: or on the field helping with players? Is that what
3:35
Speaker 1: his role is expected to be?
3:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it will be an on-field role, but there
3:40
Speaker 2: will be a ton of behind-the-scenes stuff. When we think
3:44
Speaker 2: about the Nationals as an organization, we talk so much
3:47
Speaker 2: about the behind-the-scenes stuff. And a big reason why it's
3:51
Speaker 2: important to have him around is he understands the processes,
3:55
Speaker 2: the pitch calling, the advanced meetings, the further analysis, all
3:59
Speaker 2: the stuff that the Nationals really want to make sure
4:01
Speaker 2: they have nailed behind the scenes so that pitchers and
4:04
Speaker 2: players have conviction once they step on the field. Um,
4:07
Speaker 2: and so, yeah, we'll technically be an on-field role. We'll
4:10
Speaker 2: see him in the dugout. We'll see him around. Um,
4:13
Speaker 2: you know, not that I've had the chance to talk
4:15
Speaker 2: to him yet, but I've, I've heard rave reviews, uh,
4:17
Speaker 2: kind of from around the organization about how happy they
4:20
Speaker 2: are to get this guy. Uh, and yeah, candidly, um,
4:24
Speaker 2: we don't know exactly what, uh, you know, the position
4:27
Speaker 2: will entail in terms of specifics, but what I put
4:30
Speaker 2: out there is, um, is accurate and that he'll have
4:33
Speaker 2: a hand on all that stuff. will have a lot
4:36
Speaker 2: of behind-the-scenes influences as well, which should be important for
4:39
Speaker 2: the Nationals.
4:41
Speaker 1: Well, the Nationals pitching certainly needs some help, and that
4:44
Speaker 1: is what you wrote about earlier today in The Athletic.
4:47
Speaker 1: You put out an analysis of 10 relievers the Nationals
4:49
Speaker 1: should target to help close out games next season. And
4:52
Speaker 1: kicking off that list, we have Evan Phillips from the
4:55
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Dodgers, a guy that has a lot of
4:57
Speaker 1: experience here in the big leagues, 47 career saves. Why
5:01
Speaker 1: does he jump off of the paper to you as
5:03
Speaker 1: someone the Nationals should target?
5:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of a consistent theme with basically every
5:10
Speaker 2: guy I mentioned, which is that the stuff is quite good.
5:14
Speaker 2: In his case, I would say it borders on exceptional.
5:17
Speaker 2: And the command is quite good too, right? Like he
5:20
Speaker 2: looks like what a back-end reliever should look like in
5:24
Speaker 2: the big leagues. Not a ton of saves in his past,
5:28
Speaker 2: but he was, you know, on World Series rosters. He
5:32
Speaker 2: was on the Dodgers. He, again, has great stuff that
5:36
Speaker 2: misses bats. And he candidly looks like a closer, right?
5:44
Speaker 2: You know, I have not concerns, but some questions as
5:48
Speaker 2: to whether the Nationals would be able to pry him
5:50
Speaker 2: away from, you know, the Dodgers if he went back
5:54
Speaker 2: there in free agency or another contending team. just because
5:59
Speaker 2: winning can be addictive and all those sorts of things.
6:02
Speaker 2: But man, he jumped off the page to me immediately
6:06
Speaker 2: as if I'm thinking about the best case scenario for
6:08
Speaker 2: the Nationals, Evan Phillips closing games is about as good
6:12
Speaker 2: as they get.
6:13
Speaker 1: Also a local guy from Maryland, so maybe he wants
6:16
Speaker 1: to come back to the home roots. That would certainly
6:19
Speaker 1: solidify a lot of things down in the Nationals bullpen.
6:22
Speaker 1: Another name that you had come up on this list
6:24
Speaker 1: was AJ Puck, although we have not seen much from
6:27
Speaker 1: him in the big leagues of late, he has been
6:29
Speaker 1: dealing with some injuries, uh, was coming back last season
6:32
Speaker 1: and then suffered a setback while rehabbing. So we haven't
6:35
Speaker 1: seen this guy in the big leagues in a while,
6:37
Speaker 1: but if he is to return this season, you would
6:40
Speaker 1: like for it to be in a nationals uniform.
6:44
Speaker 2: It would. Um, and I would, I should say, uh, again,
6:48
Speaker 2: like as exactly as you mentioned, we haven't seen him
6:50
Speaker 2: as a while that makes him a risk for a
6:52
Speaker 2: bullpen that needs stability. Um, the injuries are always a
6:56
Speaker 2: concern at the same time. I don't even know if
6:59
Speaker 2: by low is the exact correct term. Cause I still
7:02
Speaker 2: think he should fetch a pretty penny in free agency. Um,
7:06
Speaker 2: but he maybe won't be set to make as much
7:11
Speaker 2: if he had never hit the aisle and missed effectively
7:14
Speaker 2: two full seasons. Right. Um, again, misses a lot of bats.
7:18
Speaker 2: The stuff is really good. Uh, and I think, you know,
7:22
Speaker 2: if the nationals are looking to sign a guy in a, reasonable,
7:25
Speaker 2: relatively expensive one to two year deal, why not bet
7:28
Speaker 2: on some of the best stuff out there? Why not
7:30
Speaker 2: bet on a big lefty who can get lefties out
7:33
Speaker 2: in an elite rate and right handers out at a
7:36
Speaker 2: pretty consistent clip as well? He's kind of the first
7:39
Speaker 2: name that I looked at in free agency. I don't, again,
7:44
Speaker 2: know if he's going to land with the Nationals, but
7:45
Speaker 2: he would be a pretty compelling arm to add.
7:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, you really like the swing and miss stuff that
7:51
Speaker 1: he brings down there, especially against lefties. He would be
7:55
Speaker 1: an awesome addition as a southpaw down in the Nationals bullpen.
7:59
Speaker 1: Before we jump into the other names really quickly, I
8:01
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Speaker 1: miss out. That's districtterritoryshop.com. And we come back to the
8:41
Speaker 1: list here. The next one, I might butcher the pronunciation
8:45
Speaker 1: on this name here, but Jonathan Losiga, I believe, from
8:49
Speaker 1: the Reds, if I'm not mistaken, has had some pretty
8:52
Speaker 1: good numbers over the course of his young career, a
8:54
Speaker 1: 2-4-2 ERA. Would the Nationals be interested in bringing this
9:00
Speaker 1: guy down into their bullpen?
9:02
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, again, just as a quick clarifier, pitched
9:05
Speaker 2: for the Diamondbacks last year, and he's bounced around, so
9:08
Speaker 2: it's fair to not exactly know where he was in standing.
9:11
Speaker 2: But I mean, again, just kind of another great candidate is,
9:16
Speaker 2: at least among the free agent candidates who I listed,
9:19
Speaker 2: the hardest thrower on the list throws 98, which is
9:23
Speaker 2: basically what you want in the ninth inning. Again, some
9:27
Speaker 2: minor concerns with the injury history, as well as the
9:32
Speaker 2: lack of maybe strikeout stuff. Usually with your closer, you
9:36
Speaker 2: want guys who can punch dudes out as opposed to
9:39
Speaker 2: get a bunch of ground balls, but When you do
9:42
Speaker 2: everything else as effectively as he has, and again, you
9:46
Speaker 2: throw 98, I mean, again, it looks like a closer.
9:50
Speaker 2: The Nationals love athletes. He is another one who would
9:54
Speaker 2: be very high on my list and, again, could come
9:57
Speaker 2: at an expensive cost but a reasonable. one given where
10:00
Speaker 2: the Nationals are at with their payroll and everything.
10:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to know that that guy is on Arizona,
10:07
Speaker 1: out here in Phoenix, close to the D-backs. And yeah,
10:10
Speaker 1: he just had a career year for them after spending
10:13
Speaker 1: a lot of time in New York with the Yankees.
10:15
Speaker 1: This next name fires me up a lot. He is
10:17
Speaker 1: a good friend of the Bat Boys page and always
10:20
Speaker 1: brings the energy when he's out there pitching on the mound.
10:22
Speaker 1: Alex Vessia, he doesn't have a ton of experience necessarily
10:26
Speaker 1: in the closers role, pitching in Los Angeles with all
10:30
Speaker 1: the great pitchers they have there. But he has pitched
10:33
Speaker 1: in the meaningful late innings and has gotten some big
10:36
Speaker 1: outs before. I think he would be an awesome addition
10:39
Speaker 1: for the Nationals bullpen if there was a way to
10:41
Speaker 1: pry him away from Los Angeles.
10:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the Batboys connection is exactly
10:46
Speaker 2: why I did this. No. With Vessia Wright, and this
10:50
Speaker 2: is someone who I think Franny and I are both
10:53
Speaker 2: pretty high on. We've texted about him a good deal.
10:56
Speaker 2: You know, maybe you look at the one-mile-per-hour fastball and
10:59
Speaker 2: that scares you away, or you look at the fact
11:00
Speaker 2: that he hasn't closed a ton of games before. Maybe
11:02
Speaker 2: that scares you away as well. Again, there's so much
11:06
Speaker 2: to like about the profile. The fastball is elite. He
11:10
Speaker 2: has pitched for a winning team. Um, again, the, the
11:13
Speaker 2: heaters just can't stress how unhittable it is and how
11:16
Speaker 2: much lefties. I mean, I can't remember if I ended
11:18
Speaker 2: up writing this. It kind of looks like they're swinging
11:20
Speaker 2: like a number two pencil out there, right? Like there's just,
11:22
Speaker 2: there's no, there's no hope, um, for left-handed hitters other
11:26
Speaker 2: than maybe a walk here and there against Vessia. Um,
11:29
Speaker 2: track record speaks for itself. Maybe the concern is that
11:33
Speaker 2: the velocity has dipped over the last few years. Um,
11:35
Speaker 2: and that's been a relatively consistent problem for him. Um,
11:38
Speaker 2: 91 is still plenty good enough with the variety he
11:43
Speaker 2: gets on the fastball, but I would worry if that's
11:45
Speaker 2: a dip closer to 90, 89, etc., especially with the
11:50
Speaker 2: fly balls in the profile. Maybe you get worried. All
11:53
Speaker 2: of that is to say, if he wants to leave
11:56
Speaker 2: the Dodgers and join the Nationals, it feels like a
11:59
Speaker 2: pretty good fit for Washington.
12:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how much it would cost the Nationals,
12:04
Speaker 1: but whatever it takes, I would be willing to get
12:06
Speaker 1: it done. I think that guy should come over and
12:09
Speaker 1: pitch in the red and white for a little bit.
12:11
Speaker 1: That would fire me up. That would make me excited.
12:15
Speaker 1: Another name that is coming up here, I mentioned around
12:18
Speaker 1: the deadline, I believe, when the Nationals were maybe still
12:21
Speaker 1: in contention, it's A.J.
12:22
Speaker 2: Minter.
12:23
Speaker 1: He also brings a look from the left side, has
12:26
Speaker 1: some experience closing, has some experience in some big leverage
12:30
Speaker 1: innings down there. But he's been around for a while, Spencer.
12:33
Speaker 1: Why is he a guy that the Nationals should target
12:35
Speaker 1: in the bullpen?
12:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the two things to cling to are
12:39
Speaker 2: consistent track record. Again, that sub three era over the last,
12:42
Speaker 2: I think, six or seven seasons. And the other big one,
12:46
Speaker 2: this will make Nationals fans happy. He doesn't walk anyone.
12:49
Speaker 2: He doesn't give free passes. He doesn't allow free bases.
12:51
Speaker 2: We know how much of an issue that was for
12:53
Speaker 2: the Nationals last year. You know, maybe I'm a bit
12:57
Speaker 2: concerned by some of the underlying metrics, but when you
13:00
Speaker 2: don't walk anyone and you've done it as consistently as
13:02
Speaker 2: he has, I'm willing to bet on, you know, the,
13:06
Speaker 2: you know, kind of baseball speak the back of the
13:07
Speaker 2: baseball card, uh, with a guy like mentor as, uh,
13:12
Speaker 2: a ninth inning guy, or, you know, even a eighth
13:14
Speaker 2: inning guy, if the nationals are able to maybe pair
13:16
Speaker 2: a couple of guys together. Yeah.
13:19
Speaker 1: And you take a look at the face right here
13:20
Speaker 1: on the profile. I'm waiting for it to come up
13:22
Speaker 1: here for our YouTube viewers. That's the face of a
13:26
Speaker 1: gamer right there, right there. That's a guy that looks
13:29
Speaker 1: like he's ready to come in and get some out. So,
13:32
Speaker 1: you know, I I'm not messing around. when he's on
13:35
Speaker 1: the mound. And as you mentioned, he doesn't walk a
13:37
Speaker 1: lot of guys. That is something that the Nationals' bullpen
13:39
Speaker 1: has been missing desperately. That was so, so critical for
13:43
Speaker 1: them last season and such a big problem. As we
13:46
Speaker 1: get towards some of the other names on this list,
13:48
Speaker 1: we have another lefty, Stephen Okert. Just two career saves
13:52
Speaker 1: for him, but he kind of brings you a funky
13:54
Speaker 1: look from the left side. Not an overpowering fastball, an
13:58
Speaker 1: average of 91.1, but a. 213 career ERA. So he
14:02
Speaker 1: has still found a way to be effective defensively, Is
14:05
Speaker 1: this a crafty left-handed option the Nationals could pursue?
14:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's in terms of, I don't know
14:12
Speaker 2: about the stuff specifically, but like the 30,000-foot view, very
14:16
Speaker 2: similar to Vessia. Again, like hasn't closed a ton of games,
14:19
Speaker 2: as you pointed out. The fastball velocity has declined pretty
14:23
Speaker 2: consistently over the last three or four seasons. All that
14:27
Speaker 2: being said, you look at the stuff plus 114, the
14:30
Speaker 2: location plus 106, you're He pitched for the Astros, if
14:35
Speaker 2: you care about pitching for a good organization or a
14:37
Speaker 2: winning team. And, you know, I don't know if there's
14:42
Speaker 2: more untapped upside or whatever, but the Nationals, and I
14:46
Speaker 2: should make this point pretty clearly, they love pitchers with
14:49
Speaker 2: one elite pitch. That's what a lot of teams love
14:51
Speaker 2: because you can build out the rest of the arsenal
14:54
Speaker 2: without having to worry about that weapon. And his slider
14:57
Speaker 2: is about as good as any you'll see from a reliever.
15:02
Speaker 2: He throws it a ton, and so Yeah, I think
15:05
Speaker 2: that the Nationals are betting on a guy that maybe,
15:07
Speaker 2: I don't know about untapped upside, but maybe has a
15:09
Speaker 2: little more in the tank. This feels like the sort
15:12
Speaker 2: of arm they could potentially put back there in the
15:15
Speaker 2: ninth inning and even get more out of than Houston
15:18
Speaker 2: might have.
15:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, also had stops in Minnesota before that. Miami, they
15:23
Speaker 1: got to see him a little bit in divisional play
15:25
Speaker 1: and debuted with the Giants way back in 2016. So
15:28
Speaker 1: he's been around for a while. He's got some experience.
15:31
Speaker 1: Maybe he'll bring that over to Washington's bullpen We jump
15:35
Speaker 1: over to another name here. This guy has a lot
15:37
Speaker 1: more experience closing ballgames. Emilio Pagan. He definitely brings you
15:41
Speaker 1: some electric stuff out of the bullpen. Fastball at 95
15:45
Speaker 1: on average, but can certainly tick upwards of that. He
15:48
Speaker 1: brings you some power and some swing and miss down
15:51
Speaker 1: in the bullpen. Would fit in well to a closer's
15:54
Speaker 1: role in Washington, I think.
15:56
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. And I think if you are a
15:58
Speaker 2: big believer in ninth inning experience, which I would totally
16:02
Speaker 2: understand being a big believer in that after we watched
16:04
Speaker 2: what happened with the Nationals and some inexperienced guys back
16:07
Speaker 2: there last year. This is probably one of the two
16:11
Speaker 2: or three names you're really circling, right? In addition to that, again,
16:15
Speaker 2: still has good stuff and still has good location that
16:18
Speaker 2: has ticked down in recent years. It's still above average.
16:23
Speaker 2: And again, if you are Washington, you want reliability back there.
16:26
Speaker 2: This is probably your guy. It would probably cost upwards
16:30
Speaker 2: of $ 10 million since that's the amount he declined on
16:34
Speaker 2: his option. So that's just something to note or think about.
16:39
Speaker 2: But yeah, would pretty easily slot in as Washington's ninth
16:46
Speaker 2: inning guy basically every night, I would have to imagine. Yeah.
16:51
Speaker 1: I hope a multi-year deal doesn't scare away the front
16:53
Speaker 1: office from wanting to go after a guy like that. Because, man,
16:57
Speaker 1: you could have him helping out for multiple seasons. I
16:59
Speaker 1: wouldn't be opposed to that. That would be helpful down
17:02
Speaker 1: in the Nats bullpen. As we start to wrap up
17:04
Speaker 1: and look at these final names, we come across a
17:06
Speaker 1: guy that we just saw pitching in the World Series,
17:09
Speaker 1: JoJo Romero. And boy, was that Brewers bullpen unhittable down
17:13
Speaker 1: the stretch. He was a big part of it for them.
17:16
Speaker 1: Matched up well against lefties. Also proved he could get
17:19
Speaker 1: righties out. But I think you got to love the
17:21
Speaker 1: playoff in the World Series experience that he would bring
17:24
Speaker 1: to the bullpen. The Brewers went and acquired him at
17:26
Speaker 1: the deadline, and now he is set for free agency.
17:29
Speaker 1: Where will he take his talents?
17:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the nail on the head.
17:36
Speaker 2: I don't have a whole lot more to add on that.
17:38
Speaker 2: The only maybe other aspect I would think about, and
17:41
Speaker 2: I think about this often, is the organization you're getting
17:44
Speaker 2: them from. If you're getting someone from the Brewers or
17:47
Speaker 2: the Dodgers or whoever, You kind of have to consider
17:50
Speaker 2: both sides of the equation. The first is that, well,
17:53
Speaker 2: if the Dodgers wanted him or if the Brewers wanted
17:55
Speaker 2: him or if one of these kind of top flight
17:57
Speaker 2: organizations wanted him, you have to think that there is
18:02
Speaker 2: a pitcher in there who can be exceptional or at
18:04
Speaker 2: least who can thrive in some really important games, really
18:08
Speaker 2: important outings because those teams know how to identify talent.
18:11
Speaker 2: At the same time, if that team is letting that
18:15
Speaker 2: player walk or candidly if that player just leaves, You
18:18
Speaker 2: have to wonder, can the Nationals get as much out
18:20
Speaker 2: of a JoJo Romero as the Brewers did? I'm a
18:23
Speaker 2: big believer in the Nationals pitching infrastructure. At the same time,
18:26
Speaker 2: the Brewers have done it for years and years and years.
18:29
Speaker 2: This is year one of the Nationals, you know, trying
18:32
Speaker 2: to get to that upper echelon. And so it's just
18:34
Speaker 2: something I think about often is do the Nationals have
18:38
Speaker 2: kind of the capability to keep him where he's at
18:40
Speaker 2: or even find something that the Brewers or the Dodgers didn't?
18:43
Speaker 2: That's a very interesting question that I kind of think
18:46
Speaker 2: about all the time.
18:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, if they can just get what they got out
18:50
Speaker 1: of him down the playoff stretch there, I think the
18:52
Speaker 1: Nationals would take that. To get it over the course
18:55
Speaker 1: of seven months, though, would be a bigger challenge, a
18:57
Speaker 1: different conversation. Everyone's bound to have some ups and downs.
19:01
Speaker 1: But we'll see. I would love it if the Nationals
19:03
Speaker 1: went out and made that move. This is another name
19:06
Speaker 1: that I believe has come up on this show before,
19:08
Speaker 1: Kevin Ginkle. We really do like the stuff that he
19:10
Speaker 1: has to bring. Spencer, this guy, he keeps on coming up.
19:15
Speaker 1: Will we finally see him as a Washington national next
19:18
Speaker 1: season at some point?
19:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it's my fault. Maybe it's my fault. I
19:21
Speaker 2: bring them up basically every episode. Yeah. I mean, again, just,
19:26
Speaker 2: just fits the profile. It's why I included him, even
19:29
Speaker 2: though he has the lowest like public stuff plus on
19:32
Speaker 2: the page has just consistently thrived in high leverage situations
19:37
Speaker 2: year after year after year still has a, you know,
19:42
Speaker 2: pretty hard fastball that he he can throw for strikes, uh, still,
19:46
Speaker 2: you know, has stuff that maybe, um, if it's not
19:50
Speaker 2: upper echelon, it's like a tick below that. And I,
19:52
Speaker 2: I don't even know that I would go that low
19:54
Speaker 2: on it. Um, good locations. And I think he should be,
19:59
Speaker 2: you know, gettable so to speak. Right. I don't know
20:02
Speaker 2: that he's someone who's going to be one of these
20:04
Speaker 2: like more home 20 million a year, yada, yada guys. Like,
20:09
Speaker 2: I think he'll cost money, but I don't know that
20:11
Speaker 2: he's that tier one of the class. And so, yeah,
20:14
Speaker 2: I think he could pretty easily slide in as the
20:19
Speaker 2: ninth inning guy. Or potentially, if he doesn't cost that much,
20:23
Speaker 2: the eighth inning guy, you can get another arm on
20:26
Speaker 2: top of that. And so that's why I'm high on Ginkle.
20:29
Speaker 2: That's why I think the Nationals should explore that pathway
20:31
Speaker 2: and potentially could. But yeah, we'll still see how all
20:35
Speaker 2: this shakes out. I think it's day one of free agency,
20:38
Speaker 2: so a lot of this is TBD.
20:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, the price tag shouldn't be too high, but yeah,
20:43
Speaker 1: it's only November 2nd. We are just officially kicking off
20:46
Speaker 1: free agency. I think we got Silver Sluggers announced later today,
20:50
Speaker 1: and then we're getting into some other awards. But it'll
20:52
Speaker 1: be a long off-season, a lot more to talk about.
20:56
Speaker 1: As we get into the final candidate, it would be
20:58
Speaker 1: via a trade, Camilo Duval. from the San Francisco giants.
21:02
Speaker 1: He has spent some experience, spent some time, uh, closing
21:05
Speaker 1: over there has quite a bit of experience with 109
21:08
Speaker 1: career saves. And of course that electric sinker, the movement
21:11
Speaker 1: on it is crazy as it starts to get up
21:14
Speaker 1: towards triple digits. But what might it take from the
21:16
Speaker 1: nationals farm system to acquire a closer of this status?
21:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, I, I wish I had a better sense
21:24
Speaker 2: on what exactly it would take. Um, If the Giants
21:27
Speaker 2: are in this kind of rebuild-ish mode, again, it's not
21:32
Speaker 2: like Doval is a Ferrer and that he's cheap and
21:36
Speaker 2: has four years of control or anything like that. But
21:40
Speaker 2: I think it would cost a prospect haul or at
21:43
Speaker 2: least a handful of compelling top 30 type guys. Still something, candidly,
21:50
Speaker 2: I'm trying to parse out because I don't know the
21:52
Speaker 2: Dashiells are necessarily going to definitely go out and get him.
21:56
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, it's exactly the profile you mentioned.
21:59
Speaker 2: He throws hard. It's a little bit of up and
22:02
Speaker 2: down in his career. So you'd worry a little bit
22:05
Speaker 2: about the stability, but the stuff is just so good.
22:08
Speaker 2: He has over 100 career saves, so he knows how
22:11
Speaker 2: to do it. And yeah, checks a lot of boxes
22:16
Speaker 2: if you're the Nationals. So I don't necessarily know that
22:19
Speaker 2: he's the only guy we should be thinking about in
22:22
Speaker 2: trade conversations, but typically closers are not traded. And so
22:26
Speaker 2: that's why I looked at him and maybe some guys
22:29
Speaker 2: on the Angels, some guys on the Rockies per se,
22:34
Speaker 2: but he was kind of the main name that stood
22:35
Speaker 2: out as, oh, maybe if they wanted to move on,
22:38
Speaker 2: the Nationals could get involved.
22:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it just depends what the Nationals might
22:43
Speaker 1: have to give up to get him and if the
22:45
Speaker 1: Nationals are willing to part with some of those top prospects.
22:48
Speaker 1: This revamped farm system is looking really sharp as we
22:52
Speaker 1: head into the 2027 season and wonder what it will
22:55
Speaker 1: bring for the Nationals. I guess I'll remind you all again,
22:58
Speaker 1: don't forget the Eli Willett signed baseball card giveaway. Subscribe
23:02
Speaker 1: to the YouTube channel. You do not want to miss
23:04
Speaker 1: that as we move along with the offseason. No Kevin
23:08
Speaker 1: Franzen today, but hopefully we'll have him back in the
23:11
Speaker 1: episode later this week. Spencer, anything else you want to
23:14
Speaker 1: throw in?
23:15
Speaker 2: I guess I'll just make one final point in the
23:17
Speaker 2: bullpen because I cannot help myself on these sorts of things.
23:20
Speaker 2: They fascinate me. I did a pretty good deep look
23:24
Speaker 2: on how the best bullpens in baseball are constructed so
23:28
Speaker 2: many of them either average out to have one zero
23:33
Speaker 2: occasionally two arms who were like bona fide back end
23:37
Speaker 2: arms before they joined the org which means that you
23:40
Speaker 2: know if we think about the a side of the
23:42
Speaker 2: bullpen or the top four relievers in the bullpen who
23:44
Speaker 2: are protecting the big outs usually three out of four
23:47
Speaker 2: of those guys are you know, acquired internally, whether it's internationally,
23:52
Speaker 2: late rounds, et cetera, or they're acquired on the margins.
23:55
Speaker 2: They're guys who other teams were ready to give up
23:58
Speaker 2: on in minor deals and the new org, you know,
24:02
Speaker 2: found a profile that they really liked, found a trait
24:04
Speaker 2: they really liked and maximized it. And that's why I
24:07
Speaker 2: think that, you know, going into next season, we have
24:10
Speaker 2: to keep talking about the Tolmans, the Cruzes, the Deons,
24:14
Speaker 2: the guys who were maybe thought of as like more
24:16
Speaker 2: marginal pieces, but could and frankly, will still need to
24:20
Speaker 2: get big outs because, you know, you can absolutely make
24:23
Speaker 2: the case that the Nationals should go out and get,
24:26
Speaker 2: you know, two big bullpen arms. And I won't quibble
24:29
Speaker 2: with it all that much. But what I will say
24:31
Speaker 2: is you look at, you know, the Brewers, the Braves,
24:36
Speaker 2: the Red Sox, the Yankees, you know, the Guardians, all
24:40
Speaker 2: these teams, so many of them have just like one
24:43
Speaker 2: guy who they acquired from the outside with bona fides.
24:46
Speaker 2: and everyone else was developed internally. So that is my
24:51
Speaker 2: long-winded way of saying we'll need internal development and we'll
24:54
Speaker 2: need external development, or at least the Nationals would need
25:00
Speaker 2: to see that. So yeah, that's my spiel, and I
25:04
Speaker 2: will let our readers go, our listeners go. Yeah.
25:07
Speaker 1: Well, go check out that story from Spencer the Athletic.
25:10
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for lots more episodes coming this off season
25:13
Speaker 1: and take care of yourselves, everybody. Hope you had a
25:15
Speaker 1: good Halloween. Peace.