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Will Washington trade CJ Abrams? What will the team do with Foster Griffin?
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00:00We continue to circle in this world with the trade deadline looming.
00:06Nats had a bad loss last night.
00:08They lost to a bad team.
00:09I think they kept the opener in too long, and then the closer couldn't close it.
00:14Nats coverage on 106.7 The Fan is presented by Xfinity.
00:18Score the most reliable Wi-Fi, one price, five years, guaranteed.
00:21Xfinity, imagine that.
00:23So there's two players I'd like to discuss, Brian.
00:26One of these very public.
00:28One of these kind of a weird thing.
00:31Where would you like to start?
00:34Anyway, I don't care.
00:35Let's go with the weird thing.
00:37The weird thing?
00:37I'm looking at Ryan, so let's go weird.
00:40All right, so I get this email every morning from MLB,
00:44and the next couple weeks is probably pretty much only going to be about the trade deadline,
00:50unless the Red Sox could break the all-time win streak record, right?
00:53That's a pretty interesting little subplot going on.
00:55They play today at 130.
00:56I think it's a doubleheader.
00:59But MLB.com emailed me this morning,
01:01the best player at every position who could be available for trade.
01:05Okay.
01:07At shortstop, I can't help but notice that CJ Abrams is the player listed.
01:12Now, what I find interesting here is they give some information,
01:16and then they give a buzz factor.
01:18Okay.
01:18The buzz factor is low, medium, or high as far as how much talk there is about this player getting
01:24drafted.
01:25I'm going to read to you what they wrote about Abrams, and then you can guess the buzz factor.
01:31Abrams is having a career year, hitting 24 home runs with 76 RBIs and an 892 OPS in his first
01:3898 games.
01:38At 51 and 51, the Nationals are only one and a half games out of the final NL wildcard spot.
01:44So Washington may not sell by the deadline if it remains in the thick of the race.
01:49That said, Abrams is arbitration eligible for two more years, making him a very valuable asset for president of baseball
01:55operations,
01:56Paul Taboni, if he chooses to make a big move.
01:59What would you say the buzz around CJ getting traded is?
02:03Low, medium, high?
02:04Medium.
02:06MLB.com wrote low.
02:08And I read now,
02:10Do we think the Nationals are going to trade Abrams?
02:12The odds appear less than 50-50.
02:14But given the lack of shortstops available,
02:18he's the clear-cut number one option if a club wants to try overwhelming Washington with an offer.
02:24Names such as Francisco Lindor, Jeremy Pena, and Zach Netto have been mentioned as trade candidates,
02:29but the chances of them being dealt are even slimmer than Abrams.
02:34Abrams is by far the top candidate here.
02:37One, because of the way he's playing this year.
02:38That's the top of the list.
02:40But two, what is Lindor's contract?
02:43A lot of teams probably don't want to take some of these higher-priced players on
02:47that aren't performing even at the same level as Abrams.
02:53I, it's tough because Locked On Nationals over there tells me that he still thinks they're going to trade CJ.
03:01They're just going to wait until the offseason, largely because it is better PR.
03:08It's better optics for a team that's competing, right?
03:11And I guess I can wrap my head around that.
03:13But if you're going to trade them, trade them when you maximize the value.
03:19And then this could be absolutely nothing.
03:23But I found it interesting.
03:26Again, this could be absolutely nothing.
03:29You know my boy Sinai.
03:31Bagel Sinai.
03:32Yep.
03:33Sinai texted me this morning.
03:37CJ Abrams had an event scheduled tomorrow night at the Lids in Pentagon City.
03:44Autograph event.
03:46It was done through Tops Chrome Baseball.
03:50Baseball card event, right?
03:52Lids and Tops have a deal.
03:54You get star players into their stores.
03:56People buy more hats, etc.
03:58The event was canceled.
04:00Okay.
04:01Now, that could be absolutely nothing.
04:03Could be a scheduling conflict.
04:05Could be, you know, they've been on a West Coast road trip.
04:09They could be tired.
04:11I mean, yeah.
04:11They've been out West.
04:12They probably maybe decide to go stop off in Vegas on the way back.
04:16Maybe.
04:17I mean, it could be.
04:18Listen, they play today at 3 o'clock.
04:21They're flying home tonight, is my guess.
04:24Get home in the middle.
04:25By the time you play a baseball game, get to the airport, get home from Denver.
04:29You know, it's probably midnight.
04:30And then they play Friday.
04:31So, Thursday's his only real off day since the All-Star break.
04:34And because he was in the All-Star game, he didn't really get the All-Star break that so many
04:38players get.
04:39My gut tells me that's what it is.
04:41This is just about a guy who wants a day off.
04:43Could be.
04:44But it's interesting.
04:45This is a dude that's hit four home runs in the last three games.
04:48And now this event is canceled as there's growing trade buzz around MLB.
04:56Or he probably canceled because just in case, I don't want to be at this event and something happens.
05:04My trade buzz with CJ remains low.
05:08You'd love...
05:09He is not with Scott Boris for everybody that tries to say, you know, you can't deal with Scott Boris
05:14people, even though the best teams do all the time.
05:16Yeah.
05:17I think he's represented by Roc Nation, right?
05:20Maybe you can get an extension with CJ.
05:22There were talks of that two summers ago.
05:25I remember Svrluga wrote a column about it.
05:27Maybe that's Svrluga just trying to encourage them to get an extension.
05:31Could be.
05:34The wait and trade CJ in the winter doesn't add up to me.
05:39If you're going to trade him, I feel like he'd be completely maximized right now.
05:43Not to mention waiting till the winter with the looming work stoppage.
05:50What is the hot stove going to look like if work's about to be stopped?
05:55Are people that worried about working out trades when you've got the union and the owners screaming at each other?
06:00Well, I think there's part of it that if Major League Baseball adds a salary cap, teams who may be
06:06going after CJ Abrams, like the Yankees,
06:09they might not have a lot of money to spend.
06:11And CJ Abrams is on a really cheap deal because he's still on a rookie contract, still has two years
06:16left for control.
06:17So I think that's kind of part of the discussion of maybe why the Nationals would hold on to him
06:22and kind of maybe wait till the offseason
06:24or maybe wait till next year's trade deadline or just not trade him at all, which is very possible as
06:29well.
06:29Yeah, I foresee a situation where he's still on your roster.
06:35You try to see some of these other guys and get some prospects for them, but you need some bang,
06:40some firepower on your roster.
06:42If they could keep him around with Wood, I think that's better for the team going forward.
06:48Absolutely, that's best for the team going forward.
06:50I just don't know that they're going to do that.
06:52Now, the other side of this coin is Ken Rosenthal.
06:56You said you were going to give us the article and then you just didn't.
06:58It's in your email, JP.
07:00Okay, my God.
07:01You said you were going to print it.
07:02You print everything.
07:03I printed it for Brian.
07:04My bad.
07:05All good.
07:06I got it here.
07:08It is in my email.
07:08Why would you print it for me?
07:11Email's good with me.
07:11He did well there.
07:12Weirdo.
07:13Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic wrote of Nationals Foster Griffin.
07:21Some rival executives believe a Foster Griffin trade is inevitable.
07:26The Washington Nationals, however, are still assessing whether to deal, extend, or keep
07:30the starting pitcher through the end of the season, according to people familiar with
07:34the club's thinking who are granted anonymity to speak freely.
07:38If the Nationals end up engaging with other teams on Griffin, the expectation is that there
07:42would be strong interest in the left-hander.
07:45Either way, the small bet Washington made on Griffin, giving him a one-year deal worth $5
07:49million over the winter, is paying off.
07:52In his first full season in the majors, and after spending the prior three years pitching
07:55in Japan, Griffin made the all-star team.
07:58Griffin holds a .268 ERA, 3.96 FIP, over 117 and a third innings and 20 starts.
08:07He has 111 strikeouts and his 5.7% walk rate per baseball savant, ranks in the top 10%
08:14of
08:14the league.
08:15There are not many attractive rental starters on the market.
08:18The obvious candidates are the New York Mets, Freddy Peralta, and the San Francisco Giants,
08:22Robbie Ray.
08:23Griffin's numbers are better than both.
08:25The main concern some scouts harbor regarding Griffin is possible regression, attributing
08:29some success to his newness in the league.
08:32Griffin's supporters, however, would point to his ERA since June, 1.25.
08:37And I think it helped for the regress folks, for the, oh man, can we really trust this dude?
08:45He looked great in the all-star game.
08:47And perhaps that's anecdotal, but that's going up against the best.
08:52Trading Foster Griffin is inevitable, according to some executives around baseball.
08:57I'll open the phones.
08:58800-636-1067.
09:00800-636-1067.
09:03You think Griffin is gone?
09:06To me, there's two Gs, Griffin and Garcia.
09:09And I wonder if they're not both gone.
09:12And let's be real, because I think Taboni has tried to do the dance pretty well, where
09:17he's like, yeah, we'll see what happens.
09:19Could be buying, could be selling.
09:20We're going to look at all of our options.
09:22I think Taboni was on with the junks this morning and just said, you know, we're, we're checking
09:29on things.
09:29We're, we're keeping everything open as he should, but like, I think if you want to say
09:41they should buy.
09:42I, okay, I can understand your point because the offense has been very good, but if you
09:47sell, I'm not even including CJ, who it's not, it's a non-zero chance.
09:53He does get moved.
09:55If you're going to trade Griffin, you should trade Garcia too.
09:59Like if you trade Foster Griffin, we know how bad this rotation is.
10:03If you trade away the ACE, it's not removing one piece out of five.
10:09Five, it's removing the best pitcher on a team that largely doesn't have good pitching.
10:16Like it's a far greater removal.
10:18I guess point.
10:19If you trade him, you basically are punting on the wildcard chase.
10:23Yeah.
10:24So if you trade one of them, trade both of them.
10:27Like don't half step.
10:28Ain't no such thing as halfway crooks.
10:30Like either do it or don't.
10:34My stance has been pretty clear for a while, but like either do it or don't.
10:39Don't, don't try to like, oh, well, you know, we did have to trade Foster, but we brought
10:43in these two bullpen arms that we think can supplement this and that.
10:47I think if you trade Garcia, maybe you have a little more wiggle room because you have
10:51pop in other places in the lineup and you wonder, was that a one month incredible hot
10:58streak for Louie or has he changed everything too?
11:01But if you trade Griffin, to me, it's, we're trading a lot.
11:07Yeah.
11:08But you, you, you, if you're trading, we better have somebody in the, in the form league or
11:13somebody coming up that you think it happened because it's getting to the point.
11:17I understand the stoppage may be on the way, but get to the point where people are going
11:20to be like, look, I'm not going to keep going to these games.
11:23I mean, hell, you can't play just one side.
11:27You got to play both sides.
11:29And eventually you're going to have to start presenting that we are trying to get to the
11:34point to win, not, oh, we still building it up.
11:37We still trying to get prospects.
11:41Prospects get you fired.
11:42So Boney this morning on the junk said, we should be stubborn on the vision of what we
11:46are trying to achieve, but flexible on the details of achieving it.
11:50If we are projected to lose a hundred games this year, that's a different dynamic than
11:54if we, we are doing what we're doing right now.
11:57I think you have to be flexible.
11:59How much does it accelerate it?
12:00Those are conversations that we'll have, but I think it'd be foolish to say that it's
12:04not accelerating our timeline by some amount, but we also want to be really disciplined.
12:08So we do this right and we're not winning one year and then losing 90 the next year.
12:14He's saying all the right things.
12:16Oh, he knows how to speak.
12:19I think by and large, they've done the right things, but if Ken Rosenthal is saying it's
12:24inevitable that they trade Foster Griffin, then I think you make more trades than just
12:29that.
12:29I'm going to let Jason and Woodbridge.
12:30Jason, what do you think happens?
12:33Hey, what's up guys?
12:33What's happening?
12:34I think we, I'm, I have no idea what I, I hope they can sign.
12:38I hope they keep them because you don't throw away diamonds.
12:42If you find a diamond in the river, you don't throw it away.
12:45You keep that thing.
12:46You got this guy on a, I mean, he's, he's a, I know he's not young, but he doesn't throw
12:52a hundred miles an hour and he's still getting people out.
12:54He's like, he's got skills that not everybody has.
12:57He could last, you know, 10 more years.
13:00I don't know if he really will, but he's just a good player that we need to keep a hold
13:04of all of them.
13:06Maybe Garcia, I would trade him just because we have a lot and maybe an outfielder because
13:11we have a lot of outfielders, but they keep saying we have the best farm system, but when's
13:16the future?
13:17The future is now.
13:19I, I wonder if you're Paul Tiboni, if the future is now, it's a good call, man.
13:23I appreciate it.
13:24800-636-1067, 800-636-1067.
13:30The other part of the CJ Abrams thing that I thought was interesting, the graphic on the
13:35MLB email I got this morning, CJ right in the center of it.
13:40And that's the contact game.
13:42I'm not saying that.
13:43And it was a lot of speculation early, so they're not going to stop it until it's completely
13:47shut down.
13:49B, you've been pretty clear that you don't think they should sell.
13:52Will you be mad if they do?
13:55I don't get mad at stuff like this.
13:58I just know that I just, I, I, oh, baseball, really baseball, it, it is weird to me.
14:06Like baseball is one team, one sport where you can have a guy that you know is very good
14:12for your team, can be a big plus, and you're like, nah, we're going to get rid of him now.
14:17But then you'll say, well, we'll get these prospects.
14:21And then you're waiting three, four years for the prospects to come around, and you're
14:26wondering why you're not winning.
14:28I, I just don't understand it.
14:30So, I refuse to get mad.
14:34Yeah, I mean, there might not be much value in getting mad, right?
14:36I think baseball is such an interesting sport, and I think, I think the looming work stoppage
14:44makes it that much harder to figure out what they're going to do.
14:49Calvin is in Waldorf.
14:51Calvin, buy, sell.
14:52What's going to happen?
14:55Calvin, you up, man?
14:57Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, Brian.
14:59Look, I think, like, I feel like, you know, I'm a person, I go to the games, man, and I
15:04feel like, you know, you keep wanting to trade these good guys off of prospects.
15:09All prospects don't pan out.
15:11You got some studs right now.
15:13You know, you've blown 25, 30 saves.
15:16If you had won 10 of 12 of those, look at the position you'd be in.
15:19You know, I'm just saying it from a different angle.
15:21But I think if you add some pitching to what you have, you have a shot.
15:25Once you get in the tournament, anything can happen.
15:29I agree with that.
15:29Appreciate the call, man.
15:31I do.
15:32I just don't believe it's going to happen.
15:34I don't.
15:35The best thing that can happen, I think, is they announce a Foster Griffin extension.
15:39See, the thing that gets me is, like, the mindset is, no one really believes they're
15:46going to sign anybody, and they keep getting rid of the top players.
15:51Are we to think that 2019 was just a one-time thing and it'll ever happen again?
15:56Because at the beginning of that season, you didn't think that was going to happen.
15:58Well, they were 19-31 at one point, right?
16:02And then they end up winning it.
16:04That's the only way they're going to win?
16:06Just all of a sudden catch lightning in the bottom?
16:10They're not going to build this thing right?
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