Discussing Jacob Young & Harry Ford as Opening Day is Later This Month

0:00Walters is back for another season as the official bar of the Nats Chat podcast. They've been with us since our very first season on air in 2021. Walters is located just across the street from the ballpark. Welcome to Nats Chat, along with Washington Nationals Insider and Mark Socrimate of Nats Journal.com. I'm Al Galdi, host of the Al Galdi Podcast. We now are less than three weeks away from 2026 opening day. Thursday, March 26 is opening day. We on that day have the Nats at the Chicago Cubs at 2.20 pm in game 1 of a 3 game series. So the Nats on this most recent Thursday, March 5th, improved a 6, 3 and 3 in this exhibition season with a 7-4 win over the New York Metz.

1:02A lot to get to on this installment in Nats Chat with is the only Nats Podcast for which there is a new episode for the morning after every Nats regular season game day, week day, weekend, does not matter. We during spring training are coming at you on a once per week basis. This installment of Nats Chat is brought to us by the golf yards in Bolston, the DMV's new home for elite indoor golf training. The Nats are getting ready for their season. Make sure that your swing is ready to visit thegolfyards.com to secure your spot. Please consider subscribing to this podcast if you're not already doing that, subscribing cost nothing. Make sure that you never miss an episode and helps out the podcast a lot. Also feel free to spread the word about the podcast. We very much appreciate that. Tell a Nats fan who's looking for more slash better Nats content to give this podcast a listen. If he or she hasn't done that already. We thank you very much for listening and it is great to have you with us. Mark, I came across this on Thursday, a piece on mob.com by mob.com's Mike Petriello, who's

2:04a good guy. I've had him on as a guest. Really smart. When it comes to analytics and stat cast, the headline of the piece, quote, ranking all 30 teams by tiers one through nine and quote. And so I immediately scrolled down to see where the Nats were ranked. They were not ranked in the bottom tier. The bottom tier tier number nine was what's the path forward? Two teams in that tier, the angels and twins, the Nats were in the next last tier. Tier number eight, which was titled lots of losses ahead, but finally headed in the right direction for teams in that tier, Cardinals, Rockies, White Sox and Nationals. One day, hopefully the Nats will be in the top tier, which was comprised of one team, the Dodgers, but we're not there yet. I thought that that was an appropriate labeling of the tier in which we find the Nats right now. Lots of losses ahead, but finally headed in the right direction. Yeah, I think there's an important distinction there is that they're not hopeless.

3:06They're not aimless. They do have a plan and they're trying to put it into action and unfortunately may take a little longer than most people prefer. I'd be curious if he had done similar lists in recent years where he would have put them because I feel like at least two, three years ago, they probably would have fit that same description. I think we were saying at the time, hey, they're not good, but they have a plan. They've gone all in on this rebuild and that's where it's headed. Well, it didn't work out, obviously. And they never got out of that grouping. And so now here they are kind of right back in that same place again. So is it progress? I think when you consider the circumstances, the change in leadership, and it truly is a different path they're going on now. But you can't say that my grizzled company didn't have a plan in the past. It was just a plan that didn't work. And that's why you have Paltibony and company now embarking on a new plan.

4:06Better to be there than to be in that final group, yes. But there's still a long way to go and the hope would be that by this time next year, we're saying they're on the right track, finally, they're moving up that ladder. And the plan is going to coincide with actual success on the field. Yeah, as we know, there is process and there are results. And good process does not guarantee good results. But the best way, the most reliable way to get good results is with good process. And we hope we believe that the Nats do have better process these days. I would encourage anyone listening to this to check out an interview that Robert Hasselbe third did on 1067, the fan on Thursday afternoon. It's difficult for me to recreate what he said because he got ultra technical with coaching that he has received on his swing on his stance. That has been a huge saying this year so far. I've gotten more instruction from these guys here in this spring training that I have

5:09in five years being in Pro Bowl. What do you mean by that instruction from them? It's specifically instruction like, I mean, we're all in big league camp here. I mean, our stuff is good, right? But it's fine tuning the little things, whether that's cues, that I'm a big, that's a big thing for me is certain cues in the box, not necessarily like swing changes to stuff to think about. But he described in intricate detail some things that have been pointed out to him. And then toward the end of that portion of the conversation, he was asked, does this stand out as the kind of instruction that you had not received previously? And without hesitation, Robert Hasselbe third said, yeah, when I was with the Padres, I didn't get coach like this and I didn't get coach like this here up until now. And the fact that he said that so stood out, the fact that he was willing to say that so stood out. I think both of those things are pretty significant. But you know, you get these snapshots of the process, maybe hopefully being better. We talked a few episodes back about all the things that you observed at Nats camp

6:13in terms of things that were different and appeared to be more advanced and more sophisticated. And yeah, the process looks to be a lot different and we would think a lot better. What he said there mirrors a lot of what I've heard when I was in Florida for those first couple weeks of camp and they're not necessarily shy about coming out and saying it. They're acknowledging that, yeah, this is better or at least in their minds, it is better. It's certainly different and they definitely appreciate the information that they're getting and the different approach to doing things. Now it's one thing to talk that talk and to bring all this new data information and technique into the conversation. The next step, the key to this all is now implementing that into actual game situations and seeing positive results come out of that. And you know, it's hard to say in spring training whether any of that is showing up or not. You know, hassle for whatever it's worth has always been a really good spring training player.

7:16So he may not be the best example to look at in terms of, oh, here we have like some tangible evidence of how much better this all is for him because he's always been somebody who put up big numbers in spring training. This is the kind of thing we're going to have to see over the long haul. It's not just with him, but with plenty of others. Everybody's saying the right things, everybody's doing the right things, everybody's in a good mood. I just can't wait to get this thing started so we can see if this translates into anything. And by the way, if it doesn't translate anything on the field right off the bat in April, that doesn't necessarily mean it's not going to work. You know, as we've talked about, this is a longer process. And especially if you're doing things in such a whole new way, it can take time to adapt to all that and to see the positive results from it. So I don't want to read too much into what happens in that first month of the season. But I'm just really curious to see how different this actually does look. Are there signs? Are there things when the season gets started that we could look at and say, okay, yes, we've heard about the process being different.

8:17But now we're seeing what that actually looks like on the field. Well, and there are so many wild cards here too, because the process can be better. But if it turns out that the players actually aren't that good, then the results won't be that much better. You know, we've talked about this like the bad results of the last few years has that been more bad players or bad development? Like are these guys just not capable of being good? Or are they in fact capable of being a lot better than what we've seen? You know, they just have not gotten the proper coaching and development. So we are multiple weeks now into spring training. We have finally started to get some cuts at Nats Camp on March 2nd. The Nats reassign multiple players to minor league camp, including their top two pitching prospects. Travis Sakura and Harleen Susana on March 4th. The Nats reassign some more guys to minor league camp, including infielder Caden Wallace and a man who we got to know last season, pitcher Shinose Ogasawara. There are a few injury items at Nats Camp so far.

9:18Nothing that seems to be too serious, but Dylan Cruz has been dealing with left thumb soreness. And Jacob Young has been dealing with a sore right wrist. And Mark wrote a really good piece about Jacob Young for natsjournal.com. Or the piece came out on March 4th. Headline quote, is there enough production in Young's bat to complement elite defense? And quote, so you start with who Jacob Young is as a player. Great defensively, great base runner, but a poor hitter. But now you throw in this injury that has really limited his playing time in this exhibition season. What do you think we're at with Jacob Young when it comes to how he might fit into that opening day roster if he fits into the opening day roster? So the timing of this injury is not ideal for him personally. What happened? This was going back to before the games even started. He was hit by a pitch in live BP from a teammate. And it got the wrist pretty good. Now, I mean, it actually is negative. There was no fracture, anything like that. But it took him some time. He did make it just like Luis Garcia who was dealing with a hamstring issue.

10:20He did make it into a game, robbed a home run on the very first bat of him playing the field in spring training. It was, I believe, a Jose Altuve drive to center field and he robs the home run. Hey, great. Everything's good. Well, he hasn't played since. And that's now approaching a week since then. And I was told that the wrist is still bothering him. I was also told this is one of those kind of cases where the thinking is it's just not worth pushing it right now because then it might linger into the regular season. And so if you just give him as much time as it needs now, make sure it's knocked out completely. Then you're not trying to deal with this. If this same injury happens and it's in the middle of the season, he probably plays through it. Now, maybe it starts impacting him in a way that actually prevents him from playing at the best of his ability. And then they have to make a decision. But it seems like this is really them being excessively cautious with it. I would like to see him back out there. I know he wants to be out there because, as you point out, there's such a crowded outfield. We know what his skill said is.

11:20And it was interesting. For that story, I asked Blake Butera, essentially what the headline of that article was, is his defense alone enough for him to make it long-term in the big leagues or does he need to do more offensively? And Butera didn't hesitate when he said it can be enough because that's just how good he is as a defensive center-fielder. And I think we overlooked this sometimes. He's amassed an impressive amount of war for the last couple of years, in spite of being truly one of the least productive offensive players. In baseball, I think it was something like 2.8 war a couple of years ago was almost too war last year. And again, he had the second lowest OPS of any regular big leagueer last season. And he's still almost compiled to war. And that is entirely on defense. So yes, it can be that valuable. But he knows, Jacob himself knows that he's got to do more than he has. And so I think he was really motivated to show them some more this spring in that regard.

12:20There's still time for him to do it. But it would have been nice for him to be able to get that out of the way. One of the point on him, you mentioned the base running, he really wants to improve in that regard too. And I know he's fast. But you look at his stolen base percentages. He started his career. I think it was 25 for 25. And since then, it's gone way downhill. And he led the lead in caught stillings last year. I think it was only 15 out of 26. He's looked at it with the coaching staff. He has found some kind of mechanics, I guess you'd call it. In terms of the way he leads off at first base, the stance he takes. And the break he gets taken off for second. And he thinks these are things that can be corrected and make him a much better base dealer. He knows that's got to be a part of his game. First is get on. But once you're on, turn a single into a double. It's something that he didn't do well enough when he did get on base last year. No, he did not, where he has excelled in terms of base running is in taking extra bases. And one of the great stats for that is extra bases taken percentage. You can find that on baseball reference.

13:21And Jacob Young, I mean, I'll just look at last regular season. 62.5% in terms of the extra bases taken percentage. The MLB average 42.3. So more than 20 points above league average in that regard. Extra bases taken is going more than one base on a single, going more than two bases on a double when possible. He's exceptional in that regard. But you're right, the stolen base efficiency was not there. It's a funny thing with him and the war. You were talking about 2.8 war, 2024, 1.4 war, 2025. This again is per baseball reference. Last regular season, his defensive war was higher than his overall war, which tells you all you need to know about how much he struggled as a batter, 1.60 war versus 1.4 overall war. And the thing with Jacob Young is the same thing that we had with Danny Espinoza years ago, the same thing that we had with Michael A Taylor, a little more than a few years ago. And that is, can the offense, can the batting, more specifically, just be decent enough?

14:22That's all you're asking for because you're talking about an elite defender. You're talking about a guy who can excel on the base pass. And with Jacob Young in 24, the offense was in good, but it was at least palatable. If you go by OPS plus 85 in 2024, 100 is league average. So 85 is in good, but you can function with that. Last season, 68, that's atrocious. You can't function with that. And I think that's the key with him. I mean, obviously he should attempt to be as good of a batter as he can be. But realistically speaking, if he can just be a guy with an OPS plus in the high 80s, low 90s, that's more than good enough, given how good the defense and base running can be and many ways already are. And what I would say when you talked about those two previous defensively gifted offensively challenged players, Danny Espinoza, Michael A Taylor, so infuriating both of them because you knew how valuable they could be because of defense if they could just be better at the plate. I think there's an important distinction here between Jacob Young and them. Those guys issue was that they swung and missed a ton.

15:27They could hit for some power when they connected, but they just took way too many big swings swung at too many bad pitches. In Jacob Young case, it's not really about that. It's about being the best version of who he's supposed to be. He is, in theory, a contact guy just get on base. Don't try to hit for power. Maybe a few balls in the gaps down the lines and turn them into doubles and the occasional triple, but he's not trying to hit home runs the way that Taylor and Espinoza were. So I think on one hand, you might say he's not as offensively gifted as those were. Those guys have the potential for more offensive contributions, but maybe what it is that he needs to fix in that regard is a little easier than what they had to do. Those guys might have just been flawed hitters that were never going to figure that part of the game out. Whereas Young, if he can, just get the bat on the ball a little more, and use that speed of his, you know, kind of hit it where they ain't sort of thing, that could then turn him into the kind of hitter that you're talking about, which is it's a very low bar that you're asking for there.

16:30So maybe that's a little bit of reason to think that he has a better shot at that than those previous guys. In terms of playing time, we've talked about how crowded the outfield is, and I still believe in the more and more I see how Blake butares doing this and the way he talks about it. I really feel like there's going to be a solid rotation of these guys. Playing and, you know, aside from obviously James would being in the lineup every day, I think others are going to be moving in and out based on matchups, where they fit best defensively on that given day. Obviously, Jacob Young, if he's playing, is going to be in center field. I think you'll find them picking the best matchups for him to start, and those will be the games that he's in the lineup hitting ninth. And then I think you'll also see maybe more of a willingness to make an in-game switch for defensive purposes. Now they have to hold lead, of course. To make that happen, but I think you're going to see more of that. And so this may not be as much a case of how often is he in the lineup, but how often can they still get him in there in a variety of ways? And how does he do when he plays?

17:31Because, you know, there's going to be a much longer leash on a wood and a cruise and a liel and a hassle than there is on a young given each guy's offensive background and offensive track record. And I do think there's some pressure here on Jacob Young to make the most of his offensive opportunities early in the regular season to warrant to get himself more playing time because it is so crowded that if everyone's healthy, you know, you can talk all you want about rotating guys and that's fine, but you don't have to rotate them evenly. And if Jacob Young is producing at a 68 OPS plus clip, it's hard to justify having him in any lineup. I don't care what the matchup is or, you know, who the opponent is. It's hard to play a guy like that who's that much of an offensive liability. Well, and then we're also ties in with that is we assume on the days that he's not playing that it's going to be Dylan Cruz and center. Maybe some of Hassel, assuming that he makes the team. If they're getting good enough defense and centerfield from those guys, and no, you're not going to be as good as Jacob Young, but they have the ability to be above average defensive centerfielders,

18:34then you may look back and say the drop off an offense is too significant and it's not worth having young in there. Yeah, we're losing some, but we're losing more by putting him in there because of what we're losing offensively for sure. I mean, defense matters a ton, but the truth is it doesn't matter as much as offense. And we were just talking about Danny Espodosa. Look at Nat's history and look at, in fact, another second baseman with the first name of Dan or Daniel Daniel Murphy. Daniel Murphy was horrible defensively, but was excellent offensively. And he's very well remembered here. And he was a regular starting second baseman during his time here. Danny Espodosa was really good defensively. It was really bad offensively and he had a hard time being a regular player for the Nance because the offense just was so bad. So you can accept bad defense if the offense is really good. It's hard to do it the other way around. Again, can you just be close to competent offensively? That's all anyone's asking for from Jacob Young. So I think it's going to be really interesting to see how he does offensively this season.

19:35But he is outstanding defensively. I don't know if we've had this conversation before or not, but I don't think you are being a prisoner of the moment. If you say he is the best defensive centerfielder the Nance have had here since the franchise came here. I mean, he is spectacular with the catches he makes. He obviously is very athletically gifted, but he makes these home run robbing catches, these highlight worthy catches look routine. And that is maybe the greatest compliment you can pay to someone defensively. But he is magnificent defensively. I don't want us to lose sight of that. Yeah, I think I've always said that I believe that Danard Span was their best centerfielder that they've had. But the thing about Danard, I think we may have discussed this before, is that he didn't make a lot of highlight real plays because he was so good at reading the ball off the bat, getting the right jump, taking the right angle, that he didn't need the leap for it. And so that maybe at times diminished his greatness because you didn't have those highlight real plays. I think Jacob Young certainly shows up in more highlights. He does have the great read.

20:36He probably gets to more balls than Danard did. And two-time gold glove finalists them. And that tells you a lot right there at such a premium position. It's not just the people around the nationals who see this. People around the league recognize just how good he is. The gnats are down in West Palm Beach, getting dialed in for the season. But the real question is, is your golf swing ready for spring? If you're tired of losing strokes early in the season, you need to check out the golf yards. They are building the most advanced indoor golf performance club in the DMV right here in Boston, located directly off I-66. This isn't just a simulator bar. It's a true training facility, featuring the best tech in the game. Trackman simulators, well-putting technology, techno gym, and Oxford Strength training that the Olympians and PGA Tours pros use. And a one-of-a-kind short game area with a real sand trap.

21:38It is the perfect place to fix your slice, work on your short game, or just escape the weather. They're opening doors in April, but founding memberships are going fast. They are building a community of golfing enthusiasts in the DMV and want you to be part of it. Go to the golf yards.com right now to lock in your membership before the season starts. Well, it sets up a potential moment for the ages here. Harry Ford does not have a big league base in his fourth ever major league game. A base in he wasn't even one. You're right. He does not. Give me a sack, Harry. What did you ask for? Is it deep enough? Palanco is on his way home. Here it comes. Hey, son. Harry Ford. Harry Ford. Welcome to the big leagues. The Mariners are in first place. So a few days ago, M.O.B. Pipeline came out with its new ranking of the nationals,

22:38top prospects. And I'll read to you the top 10. Number one short stop, Eli Willett's number two. Starting pitcher Travis Sakura, number three, catcher Harry Ford, number four, starting pitcher Harleen Susana, number five, and fielder Gavin Feene, number six, pitcher Louise Peralas, number seven, shortstop Seever King, number eight, shortstop slash second baseman Luke Dickerson, number nine, and fielder Devon Fitzgerald, number 10 pitcher Landon Harmon. I bring this up to ask this question. So something we have had certainly in recent years in this net's rebuild is, okay, you go into the regular season. And there is a carrot being dangled in the form of a well-regarded prospect who we are looking forward to seeing at the major league level at some point that season. We've actually had that fairly consistently here in recent years. Do we have such a prospect this season? Is there a carrot being dangled in terms of a well-regarded net's prospect who realistically could be making his major league debut this season?

23:39Or are we say a year away from that? Because if you look at the estimated arrivals for these prospects, I just talked about, again, I'm going off MLB Pipeline, but Willett's 2028, Sakura 28, Ford 26. I mean, Ford could break camp with the net, hopefully he does. So I don't even know if we count him, but Susana 27, Fiend 29, Peralas 26, King 27, Dickerson 28 Fitzgerald 28, Harmon 29. Does anyone come to mind in terms of a well-regarded net's prospect who we could be seeing make his major league debut this season? No, and I think that's the real, the two things that stand out to be about this list is that number one, as you're pointing out, pretty much across the board, these are guys who are going to be in the lower levels. They're still few years away. And the second part of it is how many of those guys have been acquired within the last nine months or so? Basically, since the 2025 draft and trade deadline, which Mike DeBartlow was in charge of, and then since Paltibony took over,

24:41almost all those guys are part of the, quote, unquote, new regime or the interim regime. And that tells you a lot right there. I do think it's a little bit frustrating. And I think this goes to like the Gore trade, that the frustration that people had, was that yes, they got five prospects, but only one of them really has a shot of being here anytime soon. And that's Obby Melok Ortiz, who's not really the top guy or close to the top guy in that trade. These are further down the road kind of prospects. And so that part is frustrating. Harry Ford, yes. But as you said, he's already made his major league debut. He may break camp with the team. He is a prospect. He's only played a handful of big league games. But it's not quite the same celebrated thing that a James Wood or a Dylan Cruiser who even a Brady House had, when they made their major league debut. The other part of that, they were in a position in a perfect world. The two guys that I was really looking forward to seeing at some point this year were the two pitchers, Travis Sakura and Harley and Susana. And they were trending in that direction. Probably not opening day,

25:42but trending towards some time this season. And then they both got hurt and had pretty significant surges. We know Sakura is out for the year after his Tommy John. So you're looking at 2027. And at that point, he's healthy again, but he's still at AA and hasn't pitched above that level. So it's probably at least late 27 for him, if not 28. Susana does have a better chance with the last surgery of coming back sometime in the middle of this season. Still very young, very raw. It's gonna have to prove that he can be effective again and throw strikes and all that. Kind of stuff. But he is somebody that in theory we could see before the end of the season and certainly could have a shot, you know, being a part of this team for a good chunk of next season. So there's a lot of progress they've made there for sure. But it's hard to look at that list and not realize most of these players have been acquired within the last six to nine months and almost all of them are younger and still a few years away. And you hope they pan out.

26:43But as we know, a lot can change between what these rankings look like right now and what they're gonna look like a year or two from now. Yeah, if you look at the overall top 30 more than half have been acquired over the last eight months other by interim GM, like the Bartolo or by Paul Taboni. I mean, we know how it goes, right? There will be people in the Nats minor league system this season who do better than anticipated and maybe warrant call-ups. So you know, you end up getting someone who wasn't really thought of that much going into the season and maybe that person ends up getting called up. But yeah, I mean, there isn't that like obvious, you know, perceived blue chip prospect who has everyone salivating for the day on which he finally does a ride with Harry Ford multiple weeks into camp. Right now, best guess is he the Nats starting catcher on opening day? I'm gonna say no because Cambridge's looked pretty good. Has Homer a few times hit the ball pretty well. He's getting a lot of playing time. Everything health wise looks to be good. Ford has been fine. It's not like that he's been bad,

27:44but we haven't had that like standout moment yet from him to get you excited. Now, I'm really curious in these next few days to see how he does for Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic. He did Homer, I believe, in one of their exhibitions out in Phoenix. He's gonna be facing, they're in that pool with the United States and Mexico and Canada. He's gonna get a chance to face some pretty good pitching. I think he's gonna face Tarek Schooble in the Great Britain USA game coming up. So that may actually tell you more than you would have gotten at a spring training. How does he handle those situations? How does he work as a catcher against such a star studded US team? So if we had it to say right now today, I think Cabe Ruiz, if the idea was to prove you're healthy, prove you can hit, show us you can retain your job. I think right now I'd put him there. And then the question really becomes, do you keep forward on your opening day roster as a number two or as a time share catcher with Ruiz or do you say this guy needs to play more?

28:44He's only got eight games, whatever it is, a big experience last September with Seattle. Let him go to AAA for a little bit. Let him play as the number one guy there, work his way up to proving that he's ready for this and whether that's in a few weeks or a few months, we see him. I think that's still to be determined over the next couple of weeks. But right now, if they had to put out a lineup for opening day right now, I feel like Cabe Ruiz would get the benefit of the doubt and get the opportunity to catch that game. Four nationals are competing in the WBC, including like Mark said, Harry Ford for Great Britain. I love that Matt Mervis, who's from the Washington DC area is playing for Israel. That's great. The WBC is not exactly that you have to be a citizen of the country or you have to have been born in the country or you have to live in the country to play for the country. There are some pretty liberal rules when it comes to who you play for and why. I will say as far as team Israel goes, I know this about them and about his particular case. Essentially, American Jews are entitled to like Israeli citizenship.

29:45And so they make those teams. And in Mervis' case, I believe one of his grandparents was born in Israel. So yes, it's a little bit of a stretch. Not a whole lot of Israeli-born, true baseball players. So it's much more American Jews who are on that team. I will tell you from talking to Mervis, he was really excited. He did this the last time in the WBC. He was really looking forward to being in it this time. It means a lot to him. And again, a guy who's maybe trying to prove that he should make the nationals roster as one of their first baseman. In some ways, you worry that he's missing camp, but in other ways, getting a chance to face. And I think he's in the pool with the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. He's gonna face some top tier pitching and Paltiboning company are gonna have some good data to work off of how he does against good pitching in a high level competition. That might actually help make his argument or hurt if he doesn't do well there. Yeah, I think it's a tricky deal from a club perspective, right? Because especially with someone like Harry Ford, okay? Your Paltibony, you traded for this guy.

30:46He is in your mind, your catcher of the future. And you're about to lose him here for a while. To the WBC, you're not gonna have your hands on him. You don't know how he's gonna be coached. You don't know what he's gonna be told. You don't know what kind of bad habits potentially he formed. So that would be like the cynical glass half empty view of things. Fears competition, big time spotlight, maybe it ends up being a great experience that expedites the development of a Harry Ford. So, you know, from Paltibony's perspective, I don't think you're gonna get like total truth from every executive and manager and coach. But I would love to know like deep down inside is to bony thumbs up on a key player like Ford, leaving the team for a while here for the WBC or more a thumbs down. I am sure that pretty much every team executive would rather their guys be in camp with them. In a more controlled environment, working with your team prepping for the season. Now that said, they are not allowed to prevent somebody from playing in this thing, unless there is a real injury concern. And, or as we've seen, I guess insurance concerns

31:47is another part of that equation. There's the right of the player to get to choose to be in this if they so want to. It can make it a little bit awkward, of course. But if you're to bony, if you're Blake Buttera, you can't even try to convince a Harry Ford to stay or say this could hurt your chances of making the team. They have to let them go if they wanna go. And then the good thing is there's a lot of communication between the MLB clubs and the international clubs. And everybody knows what is the playing plan, the pitching plan for these guys. And the WBC teams are very good at hearing to that. Because the last thing they wanna do is put a guy out there in a spot where he may either not be getting enough work or where he may get a risk of an injury because then they're never gonna be allowed to do this thing again. So there is good coordination between both sides of that equation. It's, we can get to a longer discussion here. I love the concept of the WBC, especially having just seen the Olympics and what the hockey tournament was like.

32:48It makes you think this is what could be for baseball. I hate the timing of it. I really wish they could do it in the middle of the season to have an extended all-star break. I don't know if that's ever gonna happen. The spring training timing of this is not great for a variety of reasons in what we were just outlining. I think is high on that list. Do you know how it works where if a big money player gets injured in the WBC, is his MLB team on the hook for that money or is the team in some way compensated or helped out with paying the salary of the player if he suffers a serious injury in this competition? So I think that's where this insurance question comes up and I know Jose Altuve and a few other prominent players are being denied the chance to play in it because of the insurance issue. So I think that's what it boils down to is that the teams don't wanna have to be on the hook for something major. We remember what happened last time with Edwin Diaz. Torna killies in the celebration of all things pitching for Puerto Rico and missed a whole year

33:49for the Metz and I don't know the specifics of if the Metz were on the hook for that or if they did have insurance. But I do know that there's much more awareness of that going into this one and that's why you have seen some very prominent players be told they can't play in it because the insurance aspect of it couldn't be worked out. Yeah, I mean, I think again, from a club perspective that would be my biggest hang up. I'm paying you 20, 30, 40 million dollars and you're about to leave me and you could get injured in this thing and I still have to pay you like that ain't how this is supposed to work. So yeah, it's an interesting deal. Foster Griffin is the new pitcher, the life candor. While we're talking WBC, so the Nats played a WBC team in an exhibition game of 5-1 win over Venezuela and we got a look at Foster Griffin who started the game, tossed two scoreless innings. You know, it's an interesting deal with Foster Griffin, right? Basically totally unproven in the majors and yet he's basically being handed a spot

34:50in the opening day rotation, right? There really isn't much discussion here. Like Griffin is gonna be a part of that Nats opening day rotation. You talk about a total wild card for the Nats. This coming season, Foster Griffin who did really good work in Japan is this guy, someone who can be an effective quality major league starting pitcher or are we gonna look back on this and say what were the Nats thinking? And again, just basically handing this guy a spot in the rotation. It is a fascinating question and it may be unprecedented. I don't know of another example that quite fits this description, which is he got a guaranteed deal and he's pretty much assured of making the opening day rotation. And his first start for the nationals is going to be his first start as a major leagueer, okay? He had, I think, seven games in the big leagues in relief a few years back with Toronto and Kansas City but never actually started a big league game. Now, you can look at what he did in Japan

35:50and say, okay, this generally we know how this translates or doesn't translate. He did it for three years so it's not like this was just some flash in the pan. There's actually a fairly decent comp right here in his same rotation in Miles Michaelis who followed the exact same path, pitching for the exact same club in Japan. The Yomiri Giants spent three years there, got a chance to pitch for the Cardinals and wound up being a very effective pitcher for them a two time all star until just now joining the nationals. So that's the optimistic view of it. The pessimistic view is you don't really know how this is going to go or what he's going to look like and they are just essentially handing him the job. I will say I was impressed. It's only a couple of innings but I wasn't impressed with how he looked against Venezuela facing some big time hitters, Akunya, Jackson Churio and we're forgetting who was in that line. He faced some big time hitters and looked pretty good. The stuff was solid. Fastball was in the low to mid 90s, good breaking ball. His pitch that he really wants to incorporate

36:52that he worked so well for him in Japan is the splitter. It's such a big pitch over there and he feels like there are very few lefties who throw that pitch in America and the big leagues and that can be a real weapon for him. So the first sign I thought was very good. Obviously we need to see more but it was a tough challenge and he came through that one pretty well. So I would feel good at right now, tentatively good about the way that's all working out. He's not especially young. He's going into his age 30 season but the good news is that his success in Japan was over a pretty significant sample size. Three seasons, 315 and 2 thirds innings, ERA at 257 whip 1.033. Like you said, pitched for a well-regarded team in the Yerma Yuri Giants of NPB and one thing we have come to know is that the difference between Japanese baseball and M.O.B it's not this like Grand Canyon size gap that was in effect say 30 years ago that the gap I think has been narrowed. Plenty of people have come from NPB

37:53and other international leagues to M.O.B and had success. So the idea of like, oh, it means nothing that he had success in Japan. No, it means something. We're just trying to figure out how much of a something. It's a one year reported $5.5 million contract. We on the last installment of the podcast talked about the lack of obvious potential trade ships for the Nets. If Foster Griffin is good as a veteran pitcher at least in terms of age, you would think that he could be a potential trade ship for the Nets. Yeah, that is true. And I do believe my understanding is, even though I don't have very, he has very little major league experience, when you sign a player like this, he's not still under club control beyond this year. So it's not like they can say, oh, he's got his six years of service time and it can't be a free agent till he's 36 or whatever. No, it's a true one year deal. And then he becomes a free agent after that. So sure, if they want to look at it that way, but if he is somewhat successful and he's going to feel probably a debt of gratitude to the Nationals for giving him this opportunity and he may like it here and they like him.

38:54Perhaps there is a chance to retain him and not just have to do the the Al Goldie way and look to flip him in July. One of these days, Al, one of these days, I really hope we're talking about them and not trying to flip guys at the deadline but actually wanting to retain them because they could be a part of something here for more than one year. I said this to you off the air, I believe, a few weeks ago. We're going into season six, doing this podcast, not once on the podcast, have we had a conversation about the Nats buying in any truly meaningful way, either via a trade acquisition in season or in an op season, a free agent signing in season or in an op season, it's been nothing but like scrap heap type op season moves and in every season when we've talked about the trade deadline, it has been about them selling. It is remarkable. Season number six, we haven't had one conversation about the Nats buying in any meaningful way.

39:55And it is unfortunate timing on our part that we launched this podcast when we did as we have lamented that 2021 season, but good days are ahead. Our numbers have been great. We're on the rise. We've had like, I think our last three episodes are among the top seven episodes in the history of the podcast. So we're on the rise. Maybe that also means the nationals are finally on the rise and they will be buyers at some point here and we're not just talking about them constantly selling. We hope so and we thank everyone for listening very much. You tell us what you think. Hit us up on X at Nats underscore chat. You can find mark on X at Mark Sukerman. You can find me on X at Algoldy. You can find this podcast on blue sky. If you prefer that at Nats chat podcast, you can email us Nats chat podcast at gmail.com. This installment of Nats chat is brought to us by the golf yards in Bolston. The DMVs new home for a leap indoor golf training. The Nats are getting ready for their season. Make sure that your swing is ready to visit the golf yards dot com to secure your spot.

40:56All nationals radio highlights on Nats chat are courtesy of 1067 the fan for Mark Sukerman on Algoldy. We thank you for listening. We'll talk to you next time on the Nats chat podcast. It'll be a two one. Here it is. So we're going to drive toward the gap in right center field. Young giving chase closing. He dives and he caught it. Freeman's all the way to third. This is going to be a double play. Vanessa's will pick up the throw in and step on first. Freeman's around third, but he's out at first. After a diving catch, turn into a double play for Jacob Young. Four innings in a row and in a double play. That one spectacularly turned by Jacob Young in center field.