We all knew it was going to happen, I just don’t think we knew it was going to be this bad. Even worse is it’s going to continue until Mike Rizzo is given the go ahead to actually solve the problem. I don’t think I’ve written a blog this year where the bullpen was not the center of discussion. The Nationals have lost a Major League leading 5 games when entering the 9th inning with a lead. In the past 3 games alone, the Nationals bullpen has given up 12 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings. Every single one of those runs was given up in the 8th innings or later and the Nationals, unsurprisingly, are 0-3 in that stretch. The starters are gassed. Dusty Baker feels like he has no choice but to ride them as long as he can, most times into the 7th or 8th inning. Who can fix it though? Who can make this right? Unfortunately, only one or two people can. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not Mike Rizzo and it’s not Dusty Baker.
Ted Lerner is worth an estimated $5.5 billion, making him the 3rd richest owner in baseball. The Nationals as a team, have the 9th highest payroll in baseball coming in at approximately $170.5 million. By no means, are the Lerners cheap, as evidenced by the 7 year $210 million contract given to Max Scherzer or the 7 year $175 million contract given to Stephen Strasburg (even including the substantial deferrals). The Lerners are however extremely finicky about where they spend their money. Any Scott Boras client can just have a blank check. A manager? Nice try, the Lerners think they can find somebody who can do just as good a job for half the money. After all, the product is on the field and not in the dugout, right? Wrong. I’m not going to go any further into the Dusty Baker contract situation. Ultimately, he’s going to get an extension at close to market value (probably about double what he is making now). This is, however, a prime example of the Lerners thinking when it comes to spending on this team.
A little under a month ago, Bob Nightengale from USA Today wrote that the Nationals and the Chicago White Sox had worked out a trade that would have brought closer David Robertson to Washington before Spring Training started. Now, before we go into specifics, lets recall that going into Spring Training, the Nationals didn’t have a closer. This would have brought back a bona fide closer. I’m not saying he’s on the level of Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, Andrew Miller, or Mark Melancon. I am saying though, that this is a guy who has closed games for 4+ years. A guy who has been to the playoffs. A guy who has pitched in and won a World Series. The Nationals would have sent Jesus Luzardo and Drew Ward, their number 10 and 12 prospects, respectively, to the White Sox in exchange for David Robertson and approximately $12.5 million. Luzardo has not pitched ONE day in the Minor Leagues because he’s coming off Tommy John surgery. The Lerners axed this deal because David Robertson was owed $25 million over the next two years. Of that $25 million, the White Sox were willing to pay half. The Lerners weren’t content with highway robbery though, they wanted more. They refused to pick up the remaining $12.5 million over two years that would have been on David Robertson’s contract. Mind you, they will be paying Rafael Soriano $2 million per year from next year until 2024, but why pay for a player who may actually help you bring a World Series to Washington?
The Lerners are a problem. I can’t go so far as to say they are bad owners, there are plenty of those out there, but they surely are hindering this team from taking the next step. Mike Rizzo is doing his job as best he can. He’s trying to work out a solution for this bullpen. But as a GM, how are you supposed to convince a team not to ask for Victor Robles or Erick Fedde in a trade AND pick up the entire salary of the reliever they are trading? You can’t, it’s impossible. If you want to point to the MASN dispute as a reason for the unwillingness to increase the payroll midseason, that’s fine, but I’m not having it. This team is profitable with or without the increase in TV revenue. By no means are the Lerners hurting for cash. The only ones hurting for anything are the 17 guys on this team playing their asses off night in and night out only to see the 8-man circus out in the bullpen come in and blow another game.
So, what do you do when you have uncooperative owners and a bullpen that just flat out sucks? I wish I had the answer. I wish Dusty Baker or Mike Rizzo had the answer. I guess you just continue to ride it out and hope that somebody in the bullpen eventually steps up. Going on 2 ½ months of this nightmare makes it unlikely that somebody in the bullpen will just suddenly flip a switch, but stranger things have happened. You could just keep bringing minor leaguers up in hopes that one or two of them give you quality innings and get outs. Or, a very unconventional idea, is to use a rotating starting pitcher as your closer. Whichever starter is scheduled to throw his bullpen that day would become the team’s closer for the game. Sure, it’s extremely bizarre, but until this mess gets sorted out, it may just work.
Oddly enough, one man who probably could fix the problem immediately is Scott Boras, which is just plain sad. If Boras walked into Ted Lerner’s office and told him you need to trade for a closer, he would OK the next deal that Mike Rizzo came to him with. The obsession that the Lerners have with Scott Boras is borderline disturbing, especially because the Lerners will ignore suggestions from their own GM, and then turn around and listen to an agent who has no association with the team. But hey, on the bright side, Boras is Bryce Harper’s agent and as we all know, Harper is a free agent after next season.
Oh – and for the 100th
time this year, please trade for some bullpen help.
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