The Washington Nationals Have A New Sense Of Direction… And It’s ANALYTICS!

The Washington Nationals Have A New Sense Of Direction… And It’s ANALYTICS!

In Mike Debardalo’s first time meeting with the press conference, he addressed the situation and finally the Nats have a new direction. [Music] You are Locked on Nationals, your daily Washington Nationals podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. And thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. We are part of the Locked On podcast network where is your team every single day. And later on in today’s Locked On Nationals program, Mike Rizzo spoke for the first time since being fired as the president of baseball operations here in DC. I’ll give you some things that he had to say later on in the show today. This second segment, how should the Nationals structure their front office because they are going to have a new beginning here for at least the rest of this season? How should they go about it and will they be heavy in analytics? Well, that question is going to answer itself because Mike Dearlo, he went in on what he expects from his staff, what he expects from this team. But before that, today’s episode, well, thank you for making us your first listen. We got to talk about Mike Debardlo because he is the Nationals interim GM and I have to tell you this, he talked about a new direction of analytics and this is a thing that the Nationals have not done in the year of 2025. They are finally getting back into it and you should be thrilled. Mike DeBardlo. He is the interim GM for the Washington Nationals. And for people who do not know, he has degrees from TUS and Colombia. He has a background in analytics. He was hired as a intern back in 2012, worked his way up all the way into the Nationals, basically their assistant jam role, ran their analytics. And just for more of a background in this, he was actually the guy who set up the Juan Sodto trade. He was the one who did the work, who stood up in a meeting and said, “We should consider trading Juan Sodto.” Now, obviously Mike Grizzo had his hand in that deal. Obviously Mike Grizzo was the one who said, “We’re going to make this deal and it’s on me.” But to think for the fact that we have always said Mike Rizzo is the guy who made that deal, right? Yes. But now the interim GM is the guy that we really credit this rebuild for. Because if you look outside that Lanto trade, there was never any direction in the draft. There was never any direction on this baseball field that we call Nationals Park. There was never any direction in the coaching staff and there was certainly never any direction from the nationals ownership group. But now we are starting to have that with Mike Dearalo for the rest of this season. And before we crown him king, let’s say this for now. While he is doing things differently, and we’re going to get into what he is going to do differently as we go on today, we have to keep this in mind. This is a interim tag. People are crowning him king before the Nationals have even taken the field without Mike Grizzo and Dave Martinez. But the one thing that he did address is the analytics. And we mentioned Spencer Nusbomb’s article a few times over the last few days and how the Bardlo is going to integrate analytics into their everyday operations. And a source told Spencer Nusbomb of the Washington Post that he will integrate analytics into our day-to-day workstream a lot more. He’s going to be pushing for us to kind of catch up on the tech side. I think that we’ve done the work, the diligence to know what is out there and what we would like to do and now it’s just kind of operationalizing it from there. That is the sense of direction that I want. The biggest knock on Mike Rizzo over the years is that he’s kind of like this dinosaur age scout. It worked for a while. We had the decade run in the 2010s. We won a World Series. You had all this success. You were the second best team in baseball that decade, probably outside the San Francisco Giants at least in the National League. But as far as wins go, the Nationals were the best. And Mike Grizzo, he built up that team. But now in 2025, the game is different. And when the game changed, the Nationals did not. While they did change with their ownership because while the owners didn’t change, they certainly changed the way that they spend their money because they did not. So that’s another conversation for a different day. But this is a fresh of breath, a breath of fresh air at this point in time. How can you not feel encouraged with the direction that they are going? How can you not feel encouraged at least for the fact is that they are going to be using analytics? And this is not to say that they have never used analytics and that they have always pushed it to the side. That’s not the case here. But what we have known with Mike Grizzo and Dave Martinez is that they have always been a little behind. They come from that old school age and now this new direction really which is a few years late of analytics. You are now following that rule and Narlo comes from a background of economics and quite frankly nerd stuff that that I wish I was smart enough to do but I’m not at this point in time. This is kind of the opposite of Mike Rizzo and this is what the Nationals should be doing. You should see analytics used on a dayto-day basis. You should use analytics to help your team, to help your struggling young guys. Maybe just as an example, let’s just use this. Alex Call doesn’t get the best leads over at first base. Some guy in the saber metric system analytics and their department whatever you want to say it is may notice like well you’re actually a few inches going forward as far as your mean. You should be going back a little bit more and then jump when this guy lifts his leg at a certain angle. When this pitcher is there when he has his arm back against second base that is when you should be running. Those are the kind of situations of which would probably help the Nationals. And I’m not saying that they have never used this in years past. I’m sure that they have. But you have to think to yourself this. Mike Rizzo comes from that scouting background. He has never been this analytically driven guy. and he has been the guy making all the decisions for the Nationals for quite frankly the past decade plus at this point. The Nationals are now heading in this direction of analytics. And I’m not saying it’s because of Mike Dearlo. He’s not going to be the guy to come in and save this organization and make a postseason push this year. That’s not going to happen. That’s out of the card. You’re the second worst team in the National League for a reason at this point. But what we can do and what we can expect is them finally going this analytical route because again this is where the Nationals have missed time and time again right now with the Nationals. They need help. They need help in a lot of different areas. They need help in their front office. They need help on the field. They need help in their miners facilities as well. That’s a whole other conversation to be had at this point. But this organization is behind. And I think and at least I’ll even say I know it’s because of the lack of investment or even the lack of interest in analytics over the years. And if you use these things, then bad ownership, it really kind of goes out the door. While you would see this team spend and while it is a necessity in baseball in order to win, in order to win World Series, you have to win and you have to spend. But also those teams who spend and those teams who are successful, the teams like the Dodgers, the teams like the Mets and the Yankees, the Cubs right now, they use analytics and they are some of the front runners in baseball as far as analytics go. be like that. And right now, again, the direction of the Nationals under Mike Grizzo, while he was great for a whole decade with this team, he was amazing, he did not have this analytical background, and you don’t have to have an analytics background to be an analytical driven organization, but it certainly does help. And coming from Mike Debardalo, he made it very clear within the Washington Nationals that this is going to change. And we’ll get into more of some of his quotes here later on in today’s show. But let’s take a break right now. 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Open phone, no missed calls, no miss. And thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. If you haven’t done so already, check us out wherever you get your podcast on Apple, Spotify, and of course the video version over on YouTube. Again, just look up Locked on Nationals. And later on in the show today, Mike Rizzo spoke out for the very first time. He joined the Sports Junkies this morning for his regularly scheduled programming. And we’ll get into some things that he had to say about the organization and more. But right now, how should the Washington Nationals be structuring their front office? And before we really kind of answer that, I think I kind of answered it in this first segment. The way that they should structure this front office is number one going the analytical route. I cannot stress enough how frustrating it was year after year after year with the Washington Nationals not going all in on analytics. I cannot stress enough to you and to all the fans out there how frustrating it was to see teams that are way worse off than the Washington Nationals blow by them in every single category. And I do believe in good part was analytics and now seeing what Darlo is doing and what he wants to do and the vision that he has for this team and he understands that. a quote that he had yesterday in his kind of intro press conference in the dugout over at St. Louis I thought was really impressive. This is what he had to say. The fra the fans are right to be frustrated. We’re all frustrated. We have we have we have a lot of interesting exciting young pieces to build on. We have a lot more we need to build on. Simply stepping up our game is not enough. We need a real change. I’m excited to bring a fresh approach, a fresh voice to this role and integrate more data, more technology, more innovation into our decision-making across the organization at all levels and hopefully improve the performance of our players as well. Music to my ears, everybody. This is the direction that the Nationals need to have. This is the structure that you need to have. And I’m not saying it starts with take the interim title off GM Mike Darlo and give him the president title. No, no, no, no, no. But the direction and the structure of this team should start with analytics. Let’s face it, I’m not convinced that the learner ownership group will spend. I’m not that convinced that they are going to sell anytime soon either. I would think they might kick the tires maybe after CBA is agreed to after 2026. We’ll see what they do, but the structure should start with math analytics in the year of 2025 and getting ahead of the curve here. the Nationals have not done that and I think Debbarlo is taking the first step in doing that and I think if let’s say the play does improve and you have individual performances down in the minors and you have guys who may have been left in the dust all of a sudden really kind of come up out of nowhere and really start performing and turning things around and it’s no by no means going to happen overnight. It’s not. But if you can have this simple structure here, you are going to start developing players more. You are going to have finally a vision for some of these prospects. I want to use Sver King as an example here because if you remember last year, my big question with Siver King was this. Can the Nats develop him? And forget the fact that the Nationals have historically not developed first round picks well under Mike Grizzo. Forget that for a second. But when they took him, I was like, “This is not a Mike Rizzo pick. Mike Rizzo never cuts deals with anyone.” Well, when you have Bradley come over from the Baltimore Orioles and who is reportedly the guy kind of running the draft at this point, you would think to yourself, well, maybe new things will come. and they did. And I’m like, okay, that’s great. This is what good teams and good organizations do. They cut deals. They spend more money later on for guys who are first round talents to get them out of their college commitment and vice versa. The Nats never did that. And they did that last year and I was thrilled. But then you think to yourself, but can they develop them? And right now under Mike Grizzo or at least for the past year I thought to myself no he can’t develop him. He does have talent. I do see it but we are not the organization for him. And now if you do invest in analytics if you do use the numbers for yourself and if you do use these numbers wisely overall then yeah I can now see that happening. I can understand why you take and you take Sver King. There is a new influence in this building. And yeah, it might be the figurehead of Mike Dearalo, but I also just think it’s the numbers and the analytics because that is what today’s game is about. We have seen the Nationals try to reach out to that. They have gotten Danny Hos from the Arizona Diamondbacks to come over here. He’s a very analytical guy. Brad Colic from the Baltimore Orioles. Again, a very analytical guy, but nothing really changed the past two seasons. And maybe it takes a little bit longer than just two years. Maybe it does, but it’s going to have to happen now. And you’re going to have to have this team take this new step and take a pretty big one. By the way, you’ve seen some development at the major league level. guys like Abrams, guys like James Wood and McKenzie Gore, but I hate to say it, those three guys don’t work out the Nationals in the off season. And they were also drafted and developed by the San Diego Padres’s, which is a pretty good draft and develop organization there. The Nationals are going to have a huge search this off season. I think Mike Dearlo might be in that conversation. But one thing that he is certainly going to help with at this point is going to be taking those steps in analytics because that is what Mike Rizzo has not done these past few years. And that is what this national team they simply need to do. You need to invest in that high-tech technology. Whether it be getting that $500,000 arm where it has guys like you can face Zack Wheeler on a daily basis, figuring out his fast ball and how he generates so many swings and misses with it. You could figure out how to hit Clayton Kershaw’s curveball and how to get hits off it. I mean, these are things that the Nationals simply have not done over the years. And it’s not all because of Mike Rizzo, but I also think that myself because again from what we have seen with the Bartalo and he has made it very clear that they’re going to be going in a new direction with these analytics and using it every single day. They’ve said it themselves and it’s not anonymous sourcing anymore. The Bartalo has said it. They are going in a new direction with analytics finally. This is what we need. It’s not going to happen overnight. You’re not going to see the Nationals rip off 20 straight wins. You’re not going to see this team in the postseason in 2025. But you now have hope. You can now sit back and kind of think to yourself, maybe someone is getting to the Learner family. Maybe they will invest in analytics. Maybe they will go allin and invest in analytics. And if they have some good results and you start to develop and you start to see much better play and better lineup construction and better just endings overall, this team might be going somewhere. And that right there, that feels good. And thank you all for making Locked on Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. And yes, look up Locked on Nationals wherever you get your pods on Apple, Spotify, and of course the video version over on YouTube. Again, look up Locked on Nationals. Mike Grizzo spoke with the sports junkies this morning. Let’s jump into some things he had to say about the Washington Nationals and more after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. And summer sports are in full swing. Whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already follow following the action. 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If you have missed the shows all week, you can catch plenty of podcasts out there because again, Sunday night when the news broke, we reacted to Mike Grizzo and really the future of what it holds for the Washington Nationals and much more. So catch that. And on Monday’s show, we talked about Dave Martinez all 30 minutes about how the Nationals got to the point where they had to move on from your longtime manager and 2019 World Series champion manager Dave Martinez. And on yesterday’s show, we talked about the learner family and how they are part of the struggles here in DC. But now we get into Mike Rizzo. And Mike Rizzo, I was not necessarily expecting him to say too much, yet he did. This is the kind of the overwhelming question because he was asked, and Mike Rizzo knows this, by the way. Mike Rizzo has seen this ownership group spend and spend and spend and be in the top 10 of Major League Baseball as far as their payroll goes. He was asked if he believes that ownership will ever spend again. And quote unquote, he said, “If it’s time to go, it’s time to go.” That’s basically all that he said. He also said, “You got to do the best with what you are given.” That quote was paraphrased there. But when he said that second part there, the you got to do the best with what you are given, there’s something there. I think that that was kind of a shot at this ownership group without it kind of sounding like some big massive shot. But he has to do the best with what he has given. And what he has been given the past few years has been nothing. You have to go make chicken. You know what out of chicken? You have to make chicken salad out of you know what. You all understand the quote there. In my opinion, that was probably the best quote that Mike Rizzo had to have because Mike Rizzo, while he has always been this great scouting background and while he has always been really good at giving out some pretty big contracts over the years, whether it be to Jason Worth, M. Sherzer, Daniel Murphy, trading for Gio Gonzalez and then extending him to be a longtime Washington National. There are a lot of moves in the past that Mike Russo has made that I’m like, that’s a great move. The past few seasons, he has not been able to do that. Now, we don’t know really how much he was kind of handstrong at at this point in time. I think a lot of people probably expect that it was a lot more than what whatever we anticipated, but Mike Rizzo did not air out any dirty laundry. In fact, he was asked about getting a new job and kind of seeing if he has his hopes set on that. And he did acknowledge that he wants to be a general manager again. He wants to hoist another World Series trophy and have another parade. Now, it’s not going to come here in DC, but still he did acknowledge the fact that he wants to do that and he does believe that he still can do that. And I also believe that Mike Grizzo will do that. It’s kind of funny. I was asked this the other day, and I think this kind of branches off our current conversation, but I think it’s a good one. Who gets a new job first, Dave Martinez or Mike Grizzo? I’m not totally like people out there think that Davey will never manage again. I don’t think that at all. I think Davey could easily manage another team. If you give Davey Martinez the keys to a Ferrari, he’s going to drive it. And the one thing that we can’t acknowledge, the one year in 2019 where Davey had a healthy team, where Davey had a playoff team, he won a World Series. That’s not nothing. And I think a lot of people look over that fact. But outside of that, 2018 was an injury-riddled season. It was his first year managing. You kind of have to throw that one out the door. 2020 was COVID. 2021 they blew it up. And even then when they were healthy and then when they weren’t struck with COVID, they were actually a good team. They were right around above 500 there and they were in the wild card picture. Then in 2022, we all know it happens and out at that point, you throw the results out the door because no one could have managed a team like that and expect to win. No one. But I think Dave Martinez might get another gig before Mike Grizzo because Mike Grizzo is not going to go to a small market. He’s not going to go to Pittsburgh. He’s not going to go to the Chicago White Socks and he’s not going to go to Oakland. That’s not his forte. He needs to go to a big market. And I don’t know if there’s going to be a big market job opening up sometime soon here. I just can’t believe that at this point. I wouldn’t be surprised even if the Yankees move off of Aaron Boon this off seasonason if they fall short yet again and they kind of need to loosen up the clubhouse a little bit and they’re like, you know what, Dave Martinez, Davey kind of goes against the Yankee way. He kind of does things his own way. I think it’d be a really interesting shakeup there. But as far as Mike Rizzo goes and what he said today, he also had another thing on analytics and if we talked about it a lot for the first 20 minutes of today’s show and how important it is for the Washington Nationals and Rizzo was asked kind of about his thoughts on analytics and the thoughts on Debardo making all these comments about how we’re going to change and we’re going to use analytics every single day and Rizzo said this about it. Embrace analytics. Embrace scouting. embrace whatever you have to embrace that you for you to have to win. That was kind of a comment that it was like, okay, you don’t necessarily get it, don’t you? Because you need analytics in today’s game. You probably should have just given I mean, I think he gave a company line answer there, but you probably should have been like, “Yeah, I need to be better on analytics.” Because we all know with Mike Rizzo, he’s not an analytical guy. He has never been that way and he likely never will. But I thought Mike Roso did really well today. I thought he towed a company line. It’s pretty clear and pretty evident that he wants another job. He was never going to come out and bash the Learner family. He’s a class act. That’s what we expect from him. But I thought it was still really cool. It was kind of the clarity that we all needed. It was a clarity that we all wanted from a guy who has been here since 2006. the guy who has been the main decision maker in town since 2009. He won us a World Series and it was almost sad listening to hear him talk because again we share a lot of fond memories with Mike Rizzo and we credit him for what he did in the 2010s and we should. Mike Rizzo was excellent at one point in time. So as far as Mike Rizzo goes, legend. Love Mike Rizzo. Love what he has done. Love what he has done for this franchise, for this fan base. and I thought he did really well on today’s performance, but didn’t really say anything too juicy about the learners. Eh, I would have loved to heard that. Thank you all for making Lockdown Nationals your first listen every single day as we are free and available wherever you get your podcast. I will catch you guys on the flip side. Enjoy Nationals baseball tonight as we take on the Cardinals after losing game one as Miguel Cairo is your new manager. So, we’ll have that and more on tomorrow’s show. But until then, have a good one. Go Nats.

Nats interim GM Mike DeBartolo made one thing very clear in his intro presser, the Nats will EMBRACE analytics in their day-to-day operations. Ryan discusses why the organization has lacked in that department for years, and how they will have to play catch up. We also discuss Mike Rizzo speaking for the first time since he was fired, and what stood out in his interview.

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