Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo went around and hit all the big headlines facing the team during his weekly appearance Wednesday with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender
On Josiah Gray's elbow surgery
The Nationals right-hander is set to undergo season-ending elbow surgery on Wednesday after being diagnosed with a partial tear of the UCL in his elbow.
"I told Jo-jo when he left for the airport, 'You're not dying this isn't a death sentence, we've been through this 1,000 times before it's Tommy John surgery so let's get after it and get the surgery,'" Rizzo told The Junkies. "'[Dr. Keith Meister] is a good surgeon, he's done a million of these things, we've rehabbed a million of them. Guys that have had this have had 10 and 15-year careers, All-Star careers, MVPs all sorts of things, it's not a death sentence by any means.
"'It's gonna be a year of loneliness and hard work and determination and you're gonna find out who you are as a person because you're gonna be stuck in West Palm Beach for a long time in the hot summer days working out by yourself practically. It's time to have a gut check and get through this thing and come out of it a better pitcher than you went into it.
"'You're gonna have a healthy elbow, you're gonna work on every other portion of your game and your body and when we start throwing again it will be a big mechanical tweaks so that we don't hurt the elbow again, so you gotta be up for all that.'"
Rizzo said Gray is an athlete, a competitor and is "all fired up" and ready to take his rehab on.
"I told him, I said, 'hey, this time next year you might be my big trade deadline acquisition you coming off the injured list to pitch for us,'" Rizzo said.
On July 30 trade deadline
The Nationals have been fielding and making calls for a while now, and those conversations resulted in a deal that sent Hunter Harvey to Kansas City last week. And the indication is there could be some more moves coming.
"Since the Harvey deal teams been calling us about certain players," Rizzo told the Junkies. "We've got a good bullpen that a lot of people like that can help a contender. We've got a couple of bats that teams like that could help a contender. If they feel like we've got some pieces for a championship run for them, so, they've been calling and we've been listening and that's kinda our job.
"We're not gonna make a trade to make a trade, we're not gonna make a bad trade in our minds, but we will be aggressive if the right thing comes up. We feel obligated to make the right moves to move us forward."
On MacKenzie Gore's struggles
The left-hander has "great stuff" and one of the consistent hard-throwers in the league, but there recent recent form hasn't been great, pitching to a 7.01 ERA in his last 25.2 innings over six starts.
"He just needs to harness it," Rizzo said of the 25-year-old's great stuff. "He could throw a gem and then lose the strike zone. He's all about consistency. He's a terrific athlete and he's gonna have to hone that delivery and stay online and just pound the strike zone.
"He's shown when he pounds the strike zone he's tough to hit. You look at his batting average against and his barrel rate and his exit velocity as a pitcher he's tough to square up. And he just needs to pound the strike zone like he was his first seven or eight starts of the season and get back on track.
While the ERA is high, his fielding independent pitching – a metric that measures prevening home runs, walks, hit batters and causing strikeouts – is a reasonable 3.76.
"He's got huge upside and I'm confident we're gonna win every time he goes out on the mound," Rizzo said. "I've got zero issues with MacKenzie's thought process, his work ethic and, obviously, the stuff is electrifying. He just needs some consistency and I think you're gonna see a guy that's gonna be a star in the making."
On DJ Herz's recent outing
"Pitched fairly well," Rizzo said of the left-hander's start on Tuesday. "He got two breaking balls up in the zone and he paid for it. But I really like the way he's come on this year. We gave him a little timeout and sent him to the minor leagues to just really to give him a break during the season because we hope that he'll finish the season out strong for us and he's never been at an innings limit where he's gonna be at here.
"So we wanted to be careful with him and several of the other guys, too. We're gonna have some pitching management issues when we come down to the end of the season, but he, like a lot of our young pitchers have been really good this year."
Herz got dinged for a pair of solo home runs on back-to-back pitches in the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres. His final line: 5.0 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts on 79 pitches (51 strikes).
But Rizzo liked what he saw, "He was up to 95, 96 mph yesterday with the makings of a good breaking pitch and he's got a wipeout changeup already and been throwing really consistent strikes in the big leagues.
"So, no complaints about Herz last night," he said.