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Is there anyone more plugged in to the Washington Nationals than Grant Paulsen? He joined the Junkies this morning to break down what Washington should do before the MLB trade deadline.
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00:00Grant Paulson, who of course you can listen to every day right here on 106.7 The Fan with our
00:05pal Funny Danny, Danny Ruyeh.
00:08What's up, GP?
00:10First pitches were a success yesterday, gentlemen. Looked like we did a good job in Bowie.
00:15I think pretty solid overall.
00:17Mine was kind of nubby.
00:19You can pitch for the Nats, it looks like.
00:21Yeah, we might be better arms in the bullpen.
00:25Seventh inning tonight, I think, for you, JP. I'll put Cakes in the 8th and EB, you can close it.
00:30All right. I don't like the pressure.
00:32I'll throw a 50-mile-an-hour meatball right down the middle.
00:35It'll get eaten alive.
00:36So obviously this team is way overachieved beyond our expectations, but it is what it is now.
00:43I mean, this is kind of who they are, right?
00:46Like a great hitting team.
00:48They score a bunch of runs and they can't close out games.
00:53Do you think that they're going to do anything meaningful here when the deadline hits, or
00:59are they just going to kind of play around the edges?
01:02I think they'll thread the needle.
01:04And I think Paul Taboni, when he was on with you guys on Wednesday, used that phrase.
01:08So I've taken it from him, but it's my way of saying I think they're going to do some
01:13adding and some selling.
01:15My guess is like the biggest name coming or going will actually end up being going, whether
01:20that's Foster, Griffin, Luis Garcia, or both.
01:23But I also do think they're going to add bullpen help to try to solve what is their biggest
01:29dilemma or at least make that a better area of the ball club the rest of the way.
01:33It'll be somebody who's controllable into next season.
01:35But yeah, it would be silly for them not to do something to benefit this clubhouse if
01:42they don't fall off between now and August 3rd.
01:45They have the most home runs in Major League Baseball as a team.
01:49They have hit 150 home runs, three more than anybody else.
01:52If you look at runs scored, guys, they have scored 567 runs.
01:56That's 24 more than any other team.
02:00In July, where we all kind of thought as the year went on they'd cool off, they're hitting
02:04290 with an OPS over 900 as a team.
02:08I mean, it's just getting more and more ridiculous what they're doing.
02:11So I would be disappointed if they are either in the wild card or a few games over 500 if
02:18they play really well in this, their biggest series of the year that starts tonight against
02:21the Diamondbacks and eventually they sell.
02:24But as Taboni told you guys, there's still over a week and I think how they perform is
02:29going to inform what he does.
02:31Grant, when you talk about the hitting and their number one in home runs, last I checked
02:35their number one in stolen bases, who do you give the credit to?
02:38Does it go to Taboni?
02:40Does it go to a hitting coach?
02:42Does it, you know, who gets the credit for kind of igniting some of these players who've
02:48never put up these offensive numbers before?
02:50Well, I think to break it down from a power standpoint, the regime gets the credit.
02:57So this is a lifestyle in a sense, right?
03:00So when I covered the Redskins back in the day with Mike Shanahan, I remember asking him
03:04one time, he was known as being the architect of one of the great run schemes in NFL history.
03:11And I remember asking him, like, what's the difference between the teams that run the ball
03:14well and don't?
03:15And he's like, well, some people run the ball, like I would run the ball, to be honest
03:19with you, like to get to their next pass play.
03:21You know, he's like, you just use it to slow down the defense and you just kind of mix
03:24it in.
03:25He's like, but for us, running the football is a lifestyle.
03:27We talk about it on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and it's what we want to do.
03:31It is the meat and potatoes.
03:33And I think of power in that same kind of way, in a sense.
03:36Like, the Nationals start from a hitting philosophy of saying, we're going to pull the ball in
03:42the air and hit as many home runs as possible.
03:44And that is to Boney's vision as an analytical guy, but he surrounds himself with similar
03:49thinkers, I'm sure, in the front office.
03:51And they built a staff that way.
03:53So I guess I would give the majority, the biggest piece of the pie to the hitting staff
03:58and just the staff that they put together.
04:00But the point is, it is a paradigm, right?
04:03And it's not just the big league level where you've got Jacob Young, who had four home
04:07runs ever coming into this year with nine.
04:09And he'll hit close to 15 or Wood or Abrams or Meade or Ruiz.
04:14Like, all of these guys are going to have career highs and home runs.
04:17This has happened throughout all of the minor leagues, guys.
04:20I mean, I could rattle off nine names, a lot of which people don't know, but all the way
04:23down to like, you know, Caden Wallace and Caleb Lomavita and, you know, Trey Lipscomb's
04:29having a monster year.
04:30This is at every single level.
04:31They're crushing their home run total.
04:33They're about to surpass, if they haven't already this week, the amount of home runs
04:37they hit all of last season in the minor leagues.
04:39So it's a philosophy and it's something they can coach.
04:42I asked DeBoney about this recently and they really believe this.
04:44They just took a kid in the draft named Chris Okopian who hasn't hit a ton of in-game
04:49home runs like power-wise, but he makes great swing decisions.
04:52He hits the ball really hard with exit velocities.
04:53He's got legitimate like BP power and they are confident.
04:57They know we'll coach him into power.
04:59That's not something they did around here before this year.
05:01Hey, Grant, if I had a crystal ball back in March and I told you that at this point
05:06in the season, 103 games, the Nats would be one game above 500 and they'd be welcoming
05:11in the D-backs for the biggest series of the year to try to catch them in the wildcard
05:16race.
05:17You probably would have thought I was borderline insane, right?
05:20Oh, I would have thought you're a goose, but also I would have like learned how to do some
05:25kind of like jig, you know, and just done it down half street.
05:28Right.
05:28Yeah.
05:28I mean, this has been a blast.
05:31Nobody, nobody thought this was going to happen, including by the way, DeBoney and Ani
05:36Colombian that had staffed.
05:37I mean, they just couldn't have.
05:38And frankly, DeBoney is actually in a really tough spot, if I'm going to be honest.
05:43Like, I bet you he would never admit to this, but privately, he'd probably prefer that they
05:49lost like eight in a row and they could just sell.
05:51Right.
05:52Because I don't think he views this correctly, by the way, as if they're some legitimate
05:56contender.
05:57You know, when three-fifths of your rotation is made up by guys that you'd like to replace
06:03tomorrow, if you had the option to, in terms of just, you know, Michaelis has been inconsistent,
06:08Littello has been inconsistent, and Andrew Alvarez, like that's not a winning formula when
06:12you add that to one of the worst bullpens in the sport over the last few years.
06:16But the offense didn't get the memo.
06:18And so you've kind of got this like 105 win offense with basically like a 62 win bullpen and
06:25like a 72 win rotation.
06:27And the mean has become this 80 or so win team.
06:31So it'd be easier for Taboni if they got hot and just forced him into making a couple moves
06:36positively, or frankly, got really cold and did the inverse of that.
06:41But he's kind of between a rock and a hard place now where fans are engaged.
06:45They're excited.
06:46The team has a plus 26 run differential, which is third best among the wildcard hopefuls
06:51and three teams get in.
06:53And this is the other part that I think is so interesting, guys.
06:56The teams around them, like the Cubs and the Phillies have the top two wildcards.
07:00Those are definitively better teams, in my opinion, on paper than the rest of the clubs
07:04competing.
07:04But the teams on the outside looking in with Washington, like the Pirates, the Cardinals,
07:09the Marlins, even the Diamondbacks, who are the last team in that are coming to D.C.
07:12right now.
07:13They've won three in a row in eight of ten.
07:14None of those teams are really better than the Nats.
07:16They're kind of middling 500-ish type teams.
07:20And that's the thing.
07:21One of these executives is going to make a trade or two to get that team into the playoffs.
07:25But you can't tell me with a straight face that any of those teams are a lot better than
07:29the Nationals.
07:29They're right there.
07:30It's crazy.
07:31So, Grant, let me fast forward.
07:33So, it's August 1st, and they are tied for the wildcard spot.
07:42If the Nationals do not acquire two or three relievers, is that malpractice?
07:50I think three is really hard, right?
07:52You're talking about, like, half of your bullpen, essentially, at that point.
07:55But I would say if they do not add a major league relief pitcher to go into a leverage
08:03situation here, seventh through the ninth inning, and they're tied for the wildcard,
08:07yeah, that would be a really bad look.
08:09And forget me, you know, saying something negative about it on the radio or beating them up.
08:14Like, in the clubhouse, James Woods earned that.
08:17C.J. Abrams has earned that, right?
08:19But I will say this, too.
08:20What I believe is I'm very confident they're going to add a relief pitcher.
08:23Here, Taboni actually told you guys as much, that they've been trying to do this.
08:28Sure.
08:28Which was the first time he'd said that anywhere.
08:30And I interviewed him on SiriusXM over the weekend, and, like, we didn't get that out of him.
08:34So, that was a really big nugget, I thought, that they were close on some relievers already
08:38that they didn't land.
08:39And it tells you that that's something they're trying to do.
08:42But we haven't gotten into this yet.
08:44I actually think they will trade Foster Griffin.
08:47I think there's a really good chance that they trade Luis Garcia.
08:50So, could they add relief pitching, and it's got to be controllable pieces, not just for
08:55now but the future, but also try to recoup assets with Foster Griffin or Garcia?
09:00I think they will.
09:01And in the net, people would still feel, I think, discouraged by that and feel like it's
09:06a sell, understandably.
09:07But I think that's how they could couch it and kind of say, oh, we still think we can
09:11win.
09:11We fixed our fatal flaw.
09:13We can replace Garcia with Abimelech-Cortiz or whatever they do at first in a platoon.
09:17The one that's going to be really hard to sell people on, I think, is Foster Griffin, who
09:21just made the All-Star team.
09:22So, a couple weeks ago when we had Taboney on, we asked him if James Wood and C.J.
09:28Abrams were untouchable.
09:30And he kind of gave us an answer with the non-answer because he talked about James Wood
09:35and he talked about the report that came out and how he made a special trip to talk to
09:40James Wood and said that there was nothing to it.
09:42But he didn't mention C.J.
09:43Abrams.
09:45Do you think there's a likelihood that he moves or stays?
09:49What's kind of your stance on C.J.
09:50Abrams, who has 24 home runs, 16 stolen bases, is having a great year?
09:55Yeah.
09:55So, James Wood's not going anywhere.
09:57He is off the table, whatever phrase we want to use.
10:00In fact, if James Wood gets traded, I'll come into the studio and you guys can dump that
10:05spaghetti sauce on me that you dunked on cakes that time.
10:08It was so cold.
10:09I slept on how cold it was.
10:11I mean, he is very much off the table.
10:13Now, he's not going to answer because C.J.
10:15Abrams is not technically.
10:17And the reason for that is that we're at a point now of control with C.J.
10:22Abrams in terms of number of years he has left where if you were to get an unbelievable
10:28offer, I think you would take it.
10:30Because if you ask me what is most likely, Abrams getting traded this offseason is still, I think,
10:37the most likely outcome of the next calendar year, even after this breakout.
10:42But Wood is off the table.
10:45Abrams, I would say, the chance of him being dealt is like 5%, something like that.
10:49It would just take a team to give you quite literally an offer that you can't refuse that
10:54would be somewhat ridiculous, where you'd say, we can't, in good faith, turn this down.
11:01But here's what they should do with Abrams.
11:03And this is kind of where I'm at as a guy that is, you know, setting aside my like Grant
11:07to Boney hat where I like to try to play GM and think about everything for the next three
11:10years.
11:11My taking my kid to the game every Saturday at 4.05 hat where I'm going to be at like
11:1565 home
11:16games this year at Nats Park, here's where I'm at on this, okay?
11:22You have to try to sign Foster Griffin.
11:26That's malpractice if you don't.
11:28That's ridiculous.
11:28I think so.
11:29So they need to put an offer in front of him, EB, where it's like, you know, I don't care
11:33if it's two years and 30 or three and 45.
11:35They need to put a real offer in front of him.
11:37And if his agent, Casey Close, and he decide, I'm not going to sign that because I'm this
11:41close to free agency, perfectly fine.
11:43Then you trade him because you don't want to risk him walking for nothing.
11:47Same with C.J. Abrams, by the way.
11:49I would go to C.J. and I would try to make him the highest paid second baseman in baseball.
11:54So I'm going to offer him an eight-year deal based on his age at $26 million a year, which
12:00is $208 million.
12:02And I would say, look, C.J., we're moving you to second next year, and you're going to
12:05be the highest paid player at the position.
12:07And if he's not interested in that as a starting point or, you know, a negotiation where he's
12:11going to do an extension, then trading him is not any more, like, infuriating or ridiculous.
12:17Fans will be annoyed just like they were with Soto.
12:19But Soto was never re-signing ahead of free agency.
12:23So they did the right thing.
12:24And it would be the right thing probably with, you know, C.J. Abrams, and it'd be the right
12:28thing to some extent with Foster Griffin.
12:30This is how it works.
12:31But there is such a big difference between not trying to sign a player first and moving
12:38on to recoup assets and doing your part of the it-takes-two-to-tango before you trade
12:44them.
12:44And that's what I hope they're doing.
12:45The assumption is they don't necessarily have the free reign to do that from ownership.
12:50You're assuming they do?
12:52Well, I'm not assuming that necessarily.
12:54I'm just saying if their ownership group is not giving them that ability to or they don't
12:59have that free reign, then the whole thing's broken and nothing matters, right?
13:03With Soto, as an example, they offered him $440 million, which was actually a reasonable
13:09offer.
13:09I would say it was like the lowest amount you could have offered him that was not ridiculous.
13:14But Boris at the time knew, we just got to wait this thing out at three years and we're
13:18going to get a couple hundred million more than that.
13:21And they ended up getting over $700 million.
13:23So it tells you they had no business taking the $440.
13:26But it was still a record offer at the time.
13:28And while it was not something you should have accepted, it wasn't crazy.
13:32So they did their due diligence in that regard, I'd say.
13:35That's all I'm asking for.
13:37Do I think that they're going to try to sign Foster Griffin?
13:39I do.
13:40Because that one doesn't break the bank.
13:43Do I think they're going to offer C.J.
13:44Abrams over $200 million?
13:45I don't.
13:46Especially with a pending work stoppage.
13:49And the recent track record of this ownership group is that I'm not giving them the benefit
13:54of the doubt of spending big money on one of their stars.
13:56Talking to Grant Paulson.
13:58Of course, you can listen to him every day at 2 o'clock on the station.
14:01Switching gears.
14:02You're a Virginia guy.
14:04Would you invite Brandon Ayuk over for a house party?
14:08No.
14:09Are my kids around?
14:11He should invite you over to his $10 million pad that he just apparently bought.
14:15I don't know that there's anyone.
14:16Maybe Jake Paul, honestly, would be the other one that I would less like to spend time with.
14:22I'm totally with you, Jeeps, on this.
14:24Jake, if I never hear Jake Paul's name ever again, it's just a great thing.
14:28Let me ask you this, Grant.
14:31So the rookies report today, vets in a few days.
14:34Obviously, the whole thing hinges around Jaden.
14:37It does for most teams, but really with this team, it really does.
14:41Beyond Jaden, though, give me the other storyline that you're most intrigued by.
14:46Good question.
14:49First off, I don't know if you guys have heard this or not, but I'm kind of crazily excited about
14:55the defense.
14:56I think their defense, which was horrific last year, could actually be pretty damn good.
15:01So my question would be, it would revolve around Durante Jones' usage of the linebackers, specifically.
15:10And also, how much are they going to look like Minnesota schematically?
15:14Because in the spring, they didn't really run any of the Vikings stuff.
15:19I think that's probably a not wanting anyone to see anything thing.
15:23But they weren't like mugging linebackers in the A-gap and doing all the stuff that made Brian Flores the
15:29most talked about coordinator in the league and the reason they hired Durante Jones.
15:32So that's my interest is, like, I have wanted something like this Minnesota defense that shut Washington out last year,
15:39by the way, for an extended period of time.
15:41And the idea that they've gone from having the slowest linebacking core in the league to the most athletic in
15:48recent years is so exciting to me.
15:51With Sonny Stiles, Leo Chanel was one of the most athletic linebackers ever drafted when he came out via RAS
15:56score.
15:57And then Frankie Louvoo in space coming downhill, blitzing, that's a strength.
16:01Like, he's an asset in that way.
16:02How do they get all three of those guys on the field?
16:04They're going to have two linebackers in their base look most of the time in a 34, right?
16:09So that's what I want to know.
16:11It's a lot of stuff around the defense.
16:13Because Danny and I have argued about this a lot.
16:14He's kind of annoyed they didn't do more to help Jaden in terms of wide receivers or these direct ways
16:19with skill position.
16:21I think, you know, they've got a pretty solid offensive line.
16:24They made tight end a priority.
16:26They drafted a wide receiver in the top 75.
16:28They didn't go out and get a beast.
16:30They tried to overpay a, you know, speed threat from Indianapolis, and it didn't work out.
16:37They tried to sign Romeo Dobbs, and it didn't work out.
16:40But I think one of the great things you can do for a young quarterback is build up a strong
16:44defense.
16:44And they did that.
16:45So I'm actually really excited about that.
16:47That's kind of what I'll be watching.
16:49All right, Grant, good stuff.
16:51Everybody check out Grand Danny at 2 o'clock right here on 106.7 The Fan.
16:55Thanks, buddy.
16:55Thanks, Jeeps.
16:56Thank you, fellas.
16:57Be good.
16:57Yep, you too, buddy.
16:58Coming up next, we'll get a prominent national media member's opinion on where the commanders stack.
17:05That's next here on The Junkies.
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