Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

• Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend!
• Steve stretched his into a four-day weekend so I'm in today and he'll take the usual Friday slot. Going to stay around an hour on this one as a result
• Let's get rolling

Cactusflair

• Why didnt the Nats actually try to improve the team in this past off season??  Felt like outside of Sirotka signing they did nothing.

Denise Dunbar

• Do you think the Nats' first pick in next week's draft will be even more telling after the Rizzo firing? It seems to me if they pick Holliday, they're saying the rebuild is ongoing for quite a while. In that instance, I think they should trade Gore if they can get a haul for him. Conversely, if they take one of the college lefties, to me that means they think they could possibly contend for a wildcard next year and might signal they plan to spend more this offseason. Interestingly, they sent out a season ticket holder survey about 10 days ago asking lots of questions about how satisfied we were with the direction of the team. I lambasted ownership, but not management, in responses. But I also wonder if this survey and its overall results factored into their decision making?

Anthony Franco

• Two of a number of Nats questions in here. Martinez getting fired didn't really surprise me but I was a little taken aback that they moved on from Rizzo. I get why it happened, but I didn't see that coming
• I actually think their offseason made sense. They felt they were still a year off from being competitive and didn't think a Danny Jansen signing or Eugenio Suárez trade would've moved the needle. Hard for me to disagree with that. They probably should've been involved at the top of the rotation market, but that's as much an ownership question as it is a front office one
• Obviously, their series of low-cost bullpen pickups especially blew up, but I actually think they've shown progress this year in the more meaningful stuff (Wood's emergence as a superstar, Gore's development, etc.)
• I wouldn't read too much into the #1 pick as a sign of their long-term direction. Even if they do take Holliday (or Eli Willits, I guess), it's not uncommon for top high school draftees to get to the majors within two or three years. It'd just be a sign that they think those guys are better prospects than the top college pitcher on their board

Opt-Out

• Is this the trade deadline someone with an opt-out or player option finally gets traded?

Anthony Franco

• Happened with Scherzer a few years ago, though he preemptively exercised the option to make it happen. I think someone will take the risk on Lugo this summer
• He's obviously going to opt out if he's healthy, $15M if he does blow out would suck but isn't catastrophic (it's what teams gamble on the current version of Scherzer and Verlander and Alex Cobb), and the supply of starting pitching is really light

Edward Cabrera

• What does a trade package look like for me and who do you think will be calling Bendix the most about it? Is there a world where Sandy and I get dealt to the same team?

Anthony Franco

• He fits anywhere really (aside from the deep rebuild teams like Colorado and the White Sox). Cheap, amidst a potential breakout, two and a half seasons of control
• Yankees, Cubs and Padres are the first three that come to mind but there aren't many places he could land that would surprise me
• Seems less likely that someone would do the Alcantara/Cabrera package deal. They're both good enough to support a strong return individually, and the Fish would probably be better off splitting them up and shopping each individually. No guarantee they move Cabrera at all
• 

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