NEW YORK — At a fundamental level, Washington Nationals pitchers have struggled in the three most important aspects of their jobs. They have not struck out enough hitters, limited damage in play or prevented walks. Fixing that, at its core, is the most challenging task that lies ahead for president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.
In the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field on Tuesday evening, Toboni said they are already seeing those improvements in the minor leagues. At the affiliates, they have seen an uptick in the quality of stuff, the velocity and the way they’re attacking hitters.
And yet: Toboni said it will take time to see significant improvements from the big league staff. Possibly a good bit of time.
“I’m not sure it’s going to play out here in a month, a year, even 18 months,” Toboni said. “But I am confident that, over the medium and long term, it’s going to start to show up. And when it shows up, it’s not going to be the end of it for us. We’re just going to continue to try and improve and drive those numbers over the course of time.”
This winter, Toboni inherited a group that did not have a track record of doing many of those things. Their relative inability to develop more velocity and nastier breaking pitches for years is part of the reason they’re so hamstrung now.
As such, almost all of Toboni’s offseason spending this winter — at least as it pertained to the big-league payroll — went towards the pitching staff.
The results have been mixed.
Foster Griffin and his 2.67 ERA has been a revelation, especially at a $5.5 million price tag. But Miles Mikolas is making $2.25 million and has an 8.49 ERA. Zack Littell, Tuesday night’s starter who was scooped up in the middle of spring training, has a 7.56 ERA and has given up more homers than anyone in MLB (11).
Toboni was asked about the decision to sign those three players, and his confidence in them moving forward. He said they will continue to stand by Littell, who he is confident will bounce back. He did not address how long of a leash Mikolas had.
They did nail the Griffin signing — or it looks as though they have so far — which gives some hints as to how they could succeed in the open market again. Since Griffin arrived from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, there isn’t a one-to-one comparison to traditional free agency. But this should give them an understanding moving forward of how available players can succeed when they have diverse arsenals and aggressive approaches.
“It’s been fun to watch him pitch in the early going,” Toboni said, “and hopefully, he can continue it over the course of the next few months.”
But that’s for another offseason. There’s still a big league season at play, one where the offense has shown up and the pitching has wavered.
In the short term, then, what is he using as a barometer for success on the mound?
“We’re attacking hitters at a decent rate, (but) I think where we were really struggling was putting hitters away,” Toboni said. “Just because that was a fact, doesn’t mean that we can’t attack hitters at an even higher rate. … I think the next step is, hopefully, to put hitters away at a higher clip, and our hope is that that happens over time.”
