After years of reconstruction for the Washington Nationals, general manager Mike Rizzo is again talking about the light at the end of the tunnel as the young core continues to get more and more big league experience.
"You can see the future pieces on this team, that doesn't take Branch Rickey to figure out, who's the keepers and who's the guys that you have to improve [on]," Rizzo said on Wednesday when asked by The Sports Junkies if he could tell how close the roster was to taking the form of a contender.
Rizzo added that every GM can always look at their roster and find the gaps they'd like to fill and that "you can never have enough starting pitching."
"Do you have these pieces that you think you can fill these spots [from] the minor league system, or do you have to go externally to get them?" he said. "Those are always the questions that you ask yourself and your staff to figure out.
"And I think as this season gets clearer and clearer, I think that those questions will be clear."
Rizzo said that the improvement is evident and that the way the ballclub is competing is evident, and is now 29-30 after a slow 1-6 first week of the season. "We've got a lot of young guys competing for us," he said. "I think you see the young talent base, I know the opposing teams do, they mention it to me all the time.
"When you're able to compete against and beat a team like the New York Mets, built the way they're built, it shows what these guys are capable of doing. But we're just scratching the surface."
Robert Hassell III review
Through 17 games of his big league career, the former first-round pick and hopefully piece of a future contender has 15 hits in 63 at-bats (.238) with a .540 OPS and the GM is encouraged by what he's seen
"I think he's doing fine," Rizzo said. "He's not overwhelmed with the situation... he's putting some competent at-bats together, he's playing good defensively, kinda trying to learn the nuances of all these ballparks, especially the visiting parks. Nationals Park was a new ballpark to him, too, when he got there.
"It's a learning process. Throw him into the deep end of the water and play him every day, center field and right field, hitting against left-handed pitching, right-handed pitching. And you're getting baptism by fire."
Rizzo added that he thinks the 23-year-old's attitude "has been great," and his make-up allows him to compete and fail and it doesn't really "hurt his mindset or his psyche."
Listen to the full conversation on the audio player above, including Rizzo's thoughts on MacKenzie Gore's quality start on Tuesday and a quick injury update on Dylan Crews.