The Washington Nationals are scuffling a bit after dropping two rough ones in San Diego and suffering a walk-off loss in Colorado on a pitch-clock violation, but the young 38-41 club has plenty of reason to feel good.
"Lotta positives, man. Lotta positives to be taken from this team," Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said during his weekly appearance on Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
"If you can't get excited about where we're at here, right now, then you're not paying attention to this re-build, it's well underway and starting pitching is key and we've got that and we've got more guys in the minor leagues and we've got guys at each and every level. So it's exciting to be here," Rizzo said, highlighting the young starting pitchers and the core group of position players they have developed in addition to the farm system.
CJ Abrams is one of the reasons for optimism. After a rough May, the young shortstop has been on fire through 18 games in June, with nine doubles, three home runs and 14 RBI for a .384/.451/.658 slash line for a 1.109 OPS.
"He's a helluva player," the GM said, adding that players go through bits of lulls from time to time, but the 23-year-old has "showed us good steady increase in improvement in his play."
"Defensively, routine balls are becoming very routine for him. He makes great plays, but the routine plays he's making, his throws are on-line, he's worked very, very hard at that, his footwork at shortstop. He's becoming very, very reliable defensively," Rizzo told the Junkies. "His base running wise, he can really run and steal bases, and we know about his power.
"And it's all about consistency and I think that you're seeing that this guy is kinda maturing into an impact player for us."
On the year, Abrams has a 2.8 WAR per Baseball-Reference and 1.7 per FanGraphs, with a .842 OPS (142 OPS+) and 133 wRC+.
The All-Star break is first, but the MLB trade deadline is coming up in about six weeks and Rizzo told the Junkies that the club has already been fielding a few "feeler calls for the last couple of weeks." But the GM said he doesn't think the conversations will really "get rolling until closer to the trade deadline."
"Usually it starts heating up about two weeks before the deadline and really it goes down a lot of the final decisions aren't made until like a week before the trade deadline and sometimes days before the deadline," he said. "So I think that it often goes down to the wire with these things and we made the Lane Thomas trade with one minute before the deadline. That's kind of the process with these things.
"The deadline brings out the finality of 'I'm a buyer or am I a seller?' And I think that it's become a thing that it's an exciting time."
When it comes to whether the Nationals will be a seller, there is the possibility they are closer to buyers due to the expanded playoff. The Nationals sit 2.5 games out of the final wild-card spot in the National League and Rizzo isn't surprised about their season, but is "pleasantly pleased that we're playing baseball so well."
So would Rizzo's version of buying at the deadline be promoted to the big league for some of the young studs in the minor leagues? "That will be something that we'll do for sure," Rizzo said. "Calling up the young guys [to] get their feet wet at the big league level to see if they can give us a little jump start, a little more energy. [But] you can't get much much more energy than this team is showing [Davey Martinez] has got this team playing hard."
Rizzo was asked about the pitch-clock violation that ended the game for a walk-off loss to the Rockies with the bases loaded and a 3-2 count. However, the GM praised Nats closer Kyle Finnegan for being a solid bullpen arm this season.
"That 27th out is different to get," Rizzo said. "It takes a different kinda guy to pitch it. And Finn has been outstanding for us this entire season. The greatest reliever that I've ever been around is Mariano Rivera and he gave it up in Game 7 of the World Series against us when I was with Arizona.
"They all give them up, it's always heartbreaking but it's part of the game."
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