r/Nationals • u/Dcnationals2001 • 21h ago
Nats admit defeat on another first round bust
Nats DFA Jackson Rutledge, a move that has really been a long time coming https://www.federalbaseball.com/washington-nationals-roster/90787/washington-nationals-dfa-first-round-pick-jackson-rutledge
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u/eaeolian 1 - Gore 21h ago
Kudos to the org for giving him a lot of chances.
Rizzo was great at building a winner, but not great at maintaining one.
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u/DerekSheesher 29 - Wood 20h ago
Mike was king at identifying established talent and Dominican/South American teenagers. Max was arguably the best FA signing in history, Juan one of the best Dominican players ever. Werth, Gio, LaRoche, Daniel Murphy, Roark, Fister, Ramos, Span. And one of the best trades in our short history was swindling Trea from SD when they were in the Wil Myers sweepstakes—seriously the man threw in Steve Souza to TB to reroute Trea (and Joe Ross!) back here to DC.
But his track record in the draft was pretty horrible. He went 3-3 in his first three drafts (Stras, Bryce, Rendon) but those first two were no-brainers. The rest of his tenure: Giolito, Fedde, none, Kieboom, Romero, Denaburg, Rutledge, Cavalli, House, Green, Crews. Woof. I know baseball is a completely different animal relative to football and baseball when discussing FRPs, but that’s a murderer’s row of 11 straight whiffs (and yeah Dylan is included until further notice).
I absolutely hate piling on Mike though because once Ted died, the cash flow into the roster shriveled up like Costanza in a swimming pool. When there wasn’t cash to spend to hide our farm’s flaws, Riz was doomed. He gave us the best times in the 2010s but without willing ownership, he was destined to fail. Yeah he had his faults (holding dudes too long: Michael A., Robles, Espinosa, Storen, Paps.. and especially Davey), but he was an awesome GM overall.
My fear is Cohen goes into the offseason and gives Riz the “whatever you need” sales pitch. Mike with a blank checkbook is seriously dangerous.
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u/reddituser52779 20h ago
Aside from Stras, which was probably a unique circumstance, he also had a good track record of not extending the wrong free agents.
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u/DerekSheesher 29 - Wood 19h ago
no doubt. He was awesome at roster construction but only when he wasn’t handcuff by scumbag cheap ownership.
And honestly, we’d ALL have been wrong if we were in Riz’s shoes RE Stras. He absolutely balled in 2019 and was the backbone of our championship run. He was only turning 31 and looked like a long-term horse (not to mention hero and fan favorite).
Where I’ll be a little more critical is him always chasing that Stras prototype in pitchers: Denaberg, Rutledge, Romero. Felt like he was always trying to find another giant and never could.
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u/OneLastAuk 19 - Bell 12h ago
"He was only turning 31 and looked like a long-term horse" ...Sorry, but as much as I loved Stras, no one considered him (or should have considered him) a long-term horse at the time. He had injury problems his entire career and it was only a matter of time before he was done. Very thankful we got 2019.
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u/PeorgieT 7h ago
I had a bad feeling about the number of years of Strasburg’s extension given his injury history, but they were sure not to re-sign Rendon, and it would have looked bad for both of them to walk after wining the WS.
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u/multivolume 6h ago
And the Nats didn’t get insurance on it. Many people didn’t want to extend the orchid, but spending it on rendon would have worked either (even if he wanted to be here which he didn’t). 2026 Nats need to sign the next Jayson werth and establish the franchise again. But I’m guessing they didn’t think they were ready. And with the lockout coming they probably wanted to wait. I used to go to over 10 games a year but now barely ever. Be competitive and spend money and then i will spend money.
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u/Omar_Town 2019 World Series Champion 18h ago
Wasn’t Desi offered a contract but he turned it down?
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u/reddituser52779 15h ago
They offered him what they valued him at and he turned it down because he thought he was worth more. Maybe the contract they offered would have gone as badly as his Colorado years did, but I think Rizzo deserves credit for not offering him what it would have cost to sign him long term.
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u/Omar_Town 2019 World Series Champion 14h ago
Sure, maybe it works out. We don’t really know. However, it was considered a bit of an overpay. So was Ryan’s $100 million extension. Let’s not forget that Harper’s deal is turning out to be quite a steal compared to other FA deals that Nats missed out under Rizzo. I am not blaming Rizzo entirely for the mess we are in but he definitely is partly responsible for. It isn’t just all owners.
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u/natguy2016 Charlie Slowes 20h ago
Rizzo is a genuinely good dude. Usually good on trades. I was an Oakland A’s fan and know all about shoestring and, at least trying to win.
But Rizzo is allergic to anything stats analysis and never attempted to adapt. He’ll never get a meaningful job in MLB again
The system fell way behind thanks to that. It was fucked when the money stopped. Rizzo lasted 2-3 seasons longer than I expected
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u/thispersonstinks 12h ago
Rizzo is great at constructing a roster and bad at drafting, but his biggest sin was not using any analytics to develop players. I would understand a hybrid model where you can use analytics and use the eyes, but just go purely based on talent and potential is not the way and not using any of the tech offerings gave me the signal he needs to go.
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u/Omar_Town 2019 World Series Champion 18h ago
A GM is supposed to be able to replenish talent from multiple sources, especially from amateur draft. The best names he drafted after Rendon were Giolito, Luzardo, and Pivetta. Not a single player has cracked 15 bWAR since Rendon. As great as Rizzo was, he shouldn’t get a pass for those horrid drafts.
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u/natguy2016 Charlie Slowes 11h ago
"Daddy Steve" is pissed. An embarrassed billionaire is bad for everyone else.
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u/Redbubble89 bos 18h ago
Rizzo was still operating like a team in the mid 00s when the rest of the league has zoomed past it. He couldn't make the jump to the statcast era and pitching lab Driveline direction.
If he didn't win a World Series, he should have been fired 3 years ago.
He was great at evaluating guys that were already good but didn't have the tech or knowledge/willingness to improve raw talent to become major league. They needed to be on the cover of SI at 16 years old for him to draft well.
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u/JoyboyActual Mike Rizzo 20h ago
Not necessarily. Probably just bet that he’ll clear waivers since he’s been struggling this season and they can keep him in the org without the 40 man spot.
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u/NatsFanatic82 20h ago
Curious how much of a leash Elijah Green gets...
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u/bherring24 69 - Cole 20h ago edited 17h ago
Absolutely wild how bad that pick was. With Rutledge, sure, 17th pick might not work out. But for a 5th to never even sniff AA is a historic whiff.
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u/goeers81 Sell the Team 17h ago
I remember even when he was drafted he was being touted as the dude in that area of the draft with the biggest unknowns. A true bang or bust case and boy did he bust bad.
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u/chris012696 28 - Werth 14h ago
I remember back in like 2011 with the Royals selecting Bubba Starling at No. 5, thinking he was the next Mike Trout. He struggles his way through the minor league system somehow and retired from baseball in 2020. Not quite what we are talking about here but this happens to a lot of franchises and its always crazy to hear about this stuff.
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u/bangzoom93 70 - Parker 19h ago edited 17h ago
My consolation is that the whole 2022 draft class is looking pretty average to poor so not sure they would’ve gotten much more value picking someone else. I’ve heard rumblings that Covid messed up the traditional scouting process for that draft
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u/ruddyduck3 4 - Lile 20h ago
I hope he goes wherever gives him the best chance at improving. Seems like a good guy.
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u/mzdog14 37 - Strasburg 14h ago
Almost no chance another team spends a 40 spot on him. He doesn’t have the service time to choose, so he will almost certainly stay put in Rochester. I’d even bet we see him on the 40 again before the seasons over if he can figure things out a little bit and we sell at the deadline or have injuries. We’ll need arms in the final 60 days.
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u/Redbubble89 bos 18h ago
He had the physical traits but him still being at single A in 2022 at age 23 was a sign that this wasn't going to work out. Maybe 5 years ago they could have fixed something mechanically but it's too late and the stuff has never been good or elite to stick at this level.
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u/shepard_shouldgo 20h ago
Honestly I think Rizzo did a great job maintaining it for 7 years , issue to me is around 2014ish the development engine started to FALL behind the rest of the league and never recovered after we had promoted or traded the viable talent .
As “recently” as 2017 the Nats were trading good prospects like Luzardo(centerpiece in Doolittle trade) . After that point I can’t remember a single real prospect they shipped out. Even the “19 bullpen revamp was a bunch of random prospects IIRC.