00:00Dylan Cruz today, and via his efforts, we've got audio we can react to from President Paul
00:06Taboni, Manager Blake Butera, and Cruz himself from this afternoon, so I wanted to go through
00:11some of this.
00:12Big story of the day in D.C. sports, the return of the number two overall pick, who's expected
00:17to be one of the pillars of this franchise.
00:20If you're talking about the foundation and the columns holding up the four corners of
00:24this organization, James Woods, one of them, Dylan Cruz, is expected to be another, and
00:28he's been in Rochester, trying to work out some of the things that this team said he
00:33needed to improve upon.
00:34We'll get into what those were.
00:35Let's start with Manager Blake Butera, though, on the return of Dylan Cruz to the Washington
00:41Nationals as he met with the media today.
00:44Yeah, nothing to do with it.
00:46We had an injury two weeks ago, and he was playing his tail off.
00:49He would have been up two weeks ago.
00:51We always say, like, you should do right by the player, and more importantly, do right
00:55by the team, and we want to win games up here.
00:57So that's Paul Toboni on, I'm assuming, whether or not calling him up now had anything to
01:03do with saving a year of service time.
01:04Look, I'll take Toboni and his word that that wasn't a factor.
01:08I just have a hard time believing that they would have not considered that when making the
01:14decision.
01:15You didn't send him to the minors from the idea for the perspective of saving a year, but
01:21when he goes down, he's not dominating.
01:22He's down there for a little while.
01:24Well, now you look at the calendar, and you go, hey, if we wait till May 13th, we get
01:29another year of him without him hitting free agency.
01:31That's a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned.
01:32100%.
01:32It may not have been the initial plan or reason or design, but that's certainly how it worked
01:36out.
01:36Like, when he was sat down, we wondered and posited at the time, is this two weeks?
01:41Is this a month?
01:41Is it six weeks?
01:42Ended up being longer than both.
01:44All right, this is Blake Butera on the return of Dylan Cruz.
01:48I'll start with Dylan.
01:48So, Dylan, over the course of the last couple weeks, I think he's probably played in 11 games,
01:55and he's just been torching the ball.
01:57I think he's got close to 20 balls hit over 100 miles per hour in his last...
02:03That was also Paul Toboni.
02:04This, too, was Paul Toboni.
02:05All right, I tell you what.
02:06By the way, great prank, Darius.
02:07Let's just rub dirt on this thing.
02:09Do we want to keep doing this?
02:10Do you want us to do something else?
02:11Do you want...
02:12You good over there?
02:13Like, what's happening?
02:15The great thing is Darius takes this very seriously, which I appreciate.
02:18He's like, this...
02:18He's really good at this.
02:20The first time, he was, like, all frazzled, and he's like, oh, dude, I'm so sorry.
02:23Like, I got you.
02:23Don't worry.
02:23And I'm like, you good?
02:24We're ready?
02:25And he's like, yeah.
02:25And then he played it, and he's like, give me a thumbs up.
02:28He's like, see?
02:28I'm back.
02:28And I'm like, this is still not Blake Butera, bro.
02:31This is also Paul Toboni.
02:32And he's like, wait, what do you mean you said Blake Butera?
02:34I'm like, Blake Butera is different than Paul Toboni.
02:36How are you doing over there?
02:37Everything fine?
02:38What's going on?
02:38I'm doing good.
02:39I'm doing good.
02:40And mentally, Paul Toboni talked first, so I was thinking we were going to Toboni cuts
02:45first.
02:46I should have listened to you.
02:47No, no, no.
02:48I'll tell you what.
02:48You tell me what clip you want to play, and then I'll work off that.
02:51I'd like to play the clip where Butera talks about Dylan Cruz returning to the next.
02:55This is Blake Butera?
02:55Yeah, Blake Butera, the manager.
02:57Play a Paul Toboni.
02:57If this is Paul Toboni, I'll lose it.
02:59I'm just telling you right now, I'm going to lose it.
03:01Blake Butera on the return of Dylan Cruz.
03:04Yeah, I think a lot of excitement.
03:06Obviously, we all know what Dylan can bring to the table and who he is as a person, a
03:13player, all of the above.
03:15Just excited with the way he was swinging the bat in AAA and the defense he was playing
03:20as well.
03:20I feel like he's in a really good spot right now and excited to see him do it here at
03:25the Major League level.
03:26What did that first conversation with him look like?
03:29He was pretty emotional about it.
03:33He was excited.
03:34Really excited.
03:35I think just going back to the conversation we had, obviously disappointing at the end
03:41of spring training with him not breaking with us, but also talking through what we wanted
03:46to see and how important it was for him to get right in AAA, rather than fight for his
03:54life up here.
03:54Right?
03:55And to be able to go down there and do the things that he did and get on this role
03:59he's
03:59been on.
04:00The numbers are pretty good, but also he's hit some balls really hard right at people and
04:05he's had some pretty unlucky results.
04:08But the defense has been a lot better.
04:10All the things that we asked him to get better at, he went and did.
04:13And a huge credit to that AAA staff for the work they put in as well.
04:18And yeah, excited to see him do his thing here.
04:21Cruz hitting .291 in May, hits in nine of his last 11, a couple homers over his last
04:2512 games.
04:26This is the manager, Blake Butera, expecting a rotation in the outfield.
04:30We've talked about having Lyle, who you want to play every day, Wood, who you want to play
04:34every day, Cruz, who you want to play close to every day, and still having one of the
04:37Platinum Glove defenders in center field in all of baseball and Jacob Young.
04:41So how do you make that work?
04:42It will create a type of a rotation for a bit.
04:46Also, one thing that is nice about this, we'll get Woody and Dale in some DH days, which
04:51would be nice.
04:52They've been playing a ton.
04:54They've been on their feet a ton, so getting them a DH here and there would be helpful.
04:57And now the moment Darius has been waiting for.
05:00Danny, this will be Paul Taboni.
05:01Do we have any Paul Taboni clips?
05:02Paul Taboni on Cruz trusting this new regime's process.
05:06Think about this, Danny.
05:07They're just learning Dylan Cruz.
05:09They're just getting to know him.
05:10You show up at spring training.
05:11You're trying to build this rapport with a guy who's going to be really important to
05:14the organization.
05:15And then you send him to the minor leagues and you're like, trust us, man.
05:17We're going to help you.
05:18But we got to fix some things here.
05:20Taboni talking about that.
05:21To me, there's like, it starts with a huge education component, right?
05:25Where, and that's a two-way street, right?
05:27It's like, hey, Dylan, we don't just want you to do these things.
05:30We're not just going to shove these things down your throat and tell you to do them.
05:33We're going to tell the whole story as to why, right?
05:35Like, we think this is the best for you.
05:37And then if he has questions on it, right?
05:39Like, let's have a completely open conversation so that when we get to a point where we're
05:43committing to a path forward, like where the coach is really aligned, the coaching staff
05:47is really aligned, Dylan's really aligned so that the work every day can reflect whatever
05:51it is that we agreed upon.
05:52But I say it's a two-way street because what we really want, too, is Dylan's feedback.
05:57Like, hey, guys, I tried this my junior year at LSU, and I sucked.
06:02Like, I don't want to do this, you know?
06:03By the way, he did not suck.
06:06But that's, you know, that's like the dynamic that we want to create.
06:10And I think if we're doing a good job, Dylan trusts, like, deep, deep down inside that
06:17we're just fully committed to helping him realize the best version of himself.
06:22And if he has any questions that, like, the motives or otherwise, like, we want to hear
06:27from him because it's not just about, like, you know, hoping that these next couple weeks
06:33go well.
06:34It's like, you know, two, three, four years from now, Dylan's going to be in the middle
06:38of this.
06:38Like, how does he look back on those conversations two, three, four years ago?
06:42Such a good point, too.
06:43Yep.
06:44If this goes really well, this could not only be important for the relationship with Cruz
06:50where he looks back and goes, I appreciate the tough love early.
06:53I like that you guys did that.
06:54You made me the player I became.
06:56But also, other guys could look at that.
06:58Right now, Brady House goes down.
06:59If he sees in the next month Dylan Cruz takes off and some of the adjustments work, rather
07:03than being salty and upset that you got sent down, maybe you go, all right, this worked
07:07for Dylan Cruz.
07:08Maybe it can work for me.
07:09Yeah, this is a seven-week footnote, potentially.
07:11You know what I mean?
07:12Or it could be the thing that defines you.
07:14And you hope that it's not that.
07:15You hope that it's, you know, when Mike Trout was up and then got sent back down and turned
07:18into one of the great players of all time.
07:20A lot of guys have taken it, and it's not the most fun thing to hear, you didn't make
07:24the major league club guy with all the expectations, who's on all our brochures and tickets, and
07:28there's a mural of on the left field wall, and probably has a bobblehead.
07:31But what do you do about it, right?
07:33And he got to work, and that's kind of a testament to him.
07:35And you can hear that shine through in both those guys' comments.
07:37We have both Blake Butera and Paul DeBone.
07:39Did you know that?
07:39I've heard Paul DeBone spoke today, and Daris was super excited about it.
07:44Here's Dylan Cruz, not Paul DeBone, although he might play Paul DeBone.
07:47Nobody knows, but Dylan Cruz is excited to be back.
07:50It feels good.
07:50It feels good to be back here.
07:52You know, we had a lot of hard work going into this past couple months down in AAA, but
07:57yeah, man, it's a great feeling coming back here.
08:00It makes you realize that, you know, it's special being here.
08:05Dylan Cruz, speaking today about, you do realize, you take it for granted a little bit when you're
08:10up here.
08:11Yeah.
08:11You just think, I'm going to be a big leaguer for the rest of my career.
08:13And then you're down at Rochester riding a bus for six hours, and you're going, damn,
08:18this stinks.
08:19So he talked about that, which I thought was cool, on what his priorities were, what he
08:23was trying to fix at the 3A level.
08:25Yeah, I mean, the main thing was approach, really.
08:28You know, getting the swing off in the heart of the zone.
08:31You know, standing a little bit taller, not trying to get into the legs as much.
08:35You know, getting the ball in the air as well, too, because, you know, with the numbers,
08:39it shows that I make a lot of good contact in the heart of the zone, so just trying to
08:43get that good contact in the air.
08:45The other thing that's cool for Cruz, I talked about this on Bustin' Loose Baseball with Toby
08:49Altizer, we dropped a new ep today, that I enjoyed, was he's coming up and not having
08:53to be a hero.
08:54You're joining the number one offense in this sport.
08:56That's such a good point.
08:57You know, you've got a lot of guys hitting, you've got a lot of guys scoring.
08:59This is the offense that's averaging the most runs per game.
09:02This team's already overachieving.
09:03They're playing about 500 ball.
09:05A lot of guys are feeling good.
09:06Last year, it was like James Wood, Dylan Cruz, pressure's on you guys, because it was the
09:10number 20 offense in the sport, and they just weren't very good.
09:12Get in where you fit in, man.
09:14Cruz on watching the Nats from afar.
09:17It's been awesome to see from the outside.
09:19Everybody's been, looks like everybody's been swinging great.
09:21Everybody's been playing great.
09:22And, you know, just want to add to that and help the team out as much as I can.
09:27So, yeah, it's been awesome to watch the culture and the, you know, the intensity,
09:33the aggressiveness that we show.
09:34So, like I said, I just want to, just want to help the team out as much as I can
09:37and
09:37just add to that.
09:38Let's predict how this is going to go for him with this promotion.
09:41Also, I want to hear from Paul Tabony.
09:43Darius will be excited about that, about the demotion of Brady House.
09:48Why did they send him down?
09:49What does he need to work on?
09:50We're going to play clips from him, even if we call for other clips, about that next.
09:55Don't get into it.
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