Washington Nationals' Playoff Chances & Trade Deadline Strategy

Let me ask you this, Joe, if you took the Washington Nationals and their record, you put them in the American League, guess who would be in the playoffs? It'd be the Washington Nationals, you know, it just shows you what kind of season Washington has had. You got to give them a lot of credit too. They're not going to get it because they're in the NL and it's a little bit tougher. They're still in the wild card mix. Their percentage is probably under 10% to make the playoffs. So I would guess the idea for them is probably to look toward next year. But I found it funny today, Joe, I don't know if you saw this, but there were some reports that said that the Nationals, instead of trading Foster Griffin, are looking to extend Foster Griffin. So let me explain to you why this is happening. Well, let me explain why this is happening now. It's to drive that price up right here at the deadline. They're trading this guy two or three days, that's definitely happening. If they were going to extend him, don't you think they would have extended him already? You think they're going to run through this deadline on an expiring contract? No way. So it's a great move to put that news out there because it gets other teams to go off because he's arguably, Joe, as far as left-handed pitchers are concerned, he may be number one available on the market right now. He's cheap, he's good, he doesn't throw 98, so you know he's going to be healthy the rest of the season. You think he is? I would take that guy and put him right there in my rotation number two or number three on any team. He pitched great when he was here. I saw him pitch. It's great for Washington all season long, but come on, Joe, you know the messaging here. This is like if you are Houston, let's use Houston. Houston calls Washington, hey, what do you want for follow-up? Oh, we're thinking of extending him. What are you offering? Oh, you're going to have to pick it up here a little bit because we may just keep him. I'll stop. Washington's going to do the right thing here and they're going to cash in on this guy too. I think that he's going to get, you're going to get, he's not Scoogle, but you're going to get a lot back, I think, for Griffin. Great signing, by the way, for Washington and by the way, they just got Connelly early from Boston, right? So it's not like they're really missing a ton. Early just goes into the rotation and then Griffin goes to some other team to help them and then if Griffin pitches well, he'll get a big contract in the off-season too. Works out well for everybody. And they loved Jake Irvin, who was actually, you know, he's had some control issues in the past, but he pitched actually pretty well in April and May before he ended up going down on the 60-day IL, but getting a guy like that who misses a lot of bats, getting a guy going like that in there, and like you said, they have maybe an embarrassment of riches for them that they can take a guy who costs nothing and get the world for him at the break and still get some pitching in return because, listen, Atlanta right now, six and a half games over Philly in the National League East, right? Washington, eight and a half games behind the Braves, and I think they're tied with Miami, but both are just two games out of that final wild card. So, you know, this is a big series for Washington versus Atlanta. It's big for Miami against the Mets too, but most of the guys that we're talking about who might be traded would be traded whether they win or lose these games is what you're thinking. A hundred percent. I know it doesn't affect Washington at all. For Miami, I mean, look, I suppose on Monday, Joe, you can ask me if the Marlins go four and O against the Mets this weekend, which I don't think is going to happen, but if they were to go four and O, we can revisit that conversation. But beyond that, I think they've determined, both teams have determined exactly what they want to do.