When it comes to making an acquisition – either a trade or free agency – how much does fitting in with the team impact a general manager's decision? That was the first question posed to Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo during his weekly appearance on 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.
Yes, The Junks kicked off the conversation with a question related to a big piece of NFL news: The Pittsburgh Steelers trading wide receiver George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys. So, when making personnel decisions, how does the MLB general manager balance the talent of the player with some negative personality traits and potential locker room trouble-making?
"Well, I think you have to weigh what's your clubhouse leadership group all about," Rizzo said. "I think there's certainly a conversation with those people before you do any type of move like that. It certainly would be if I were making the decisions. Your leadership group will have to weigh in if they think they can accept him in the clubhouse and that type of thing.
"And his talent level has to extremely outweigh the baggage that he brings to a locker room or a clubhouse. If all those boxes are checked and everyone's on board with it, then you go with it."
In terms of the manager, who is more involved in the clubhouse than the GM, Rizzo said Davey Martinez is a players guy and not a hard ass.
"They love him, he runs a beautiful clubhouse," Rizzo said. "I think you could see the chemistry and the character have always been there, regardless of the record. They're always playing hard, they're always playing for each other, that type of thing.
"Davey is the type of manager that can mold into a clubhouse a person that has had some issues elsewhere and make it work. Davey does a great job of doing that, mending the personality groups inside the clubhouse."
Brad Lord (likely) headed to 'pen
Lord took the loss in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk over six frames with four strikeouts, and will likely be headed to the bullpen with Michael Soroka returning from the IL on Wednesday.
Rizzo said the plan is to have the right-hander be a multinning guy in relief and they will keep Lord "as close to stretched out as possible" in case they need another starter down the road.
So far, Lord has made nine appearances (six starts) during his debut season at the big-league level. He has pitched to a 4.45 ERA (1.447 WHIP) in 28.1 innings with 21 strikeouts to 11 walks.
Josiah Gray 'on schedule'
After undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, the young right-hander remains on schedule and, by September, the club expects to have a decision to make about where he should go to begin the process of returning to the big leagues after that.
Rizzo also spoke about James Wood cracking his 10th home run of the season and Kyle Finnegan notching his 12th save of the season. Hit the audio player above to hear with the GM had to say.