Mike Rizzo gives Grant & Tobi his feelings on the Nationals' offseason

Grant Paulsen and Tobi Altizer are in West Palm Beach through next Monday – hopefully with Danny Rouhier to join them once he’s feeling better – to get all the latest from Nationals spring training, including a special show Sunday ahead of the Nats’ Spring Breakout game.

First up on the docket as they got there Thursday was GM Mike Rizzo, who explained a lot about the offseason plans to the guys – and summed it up as ‘pretty good.’

“We thought we had a pretty good offseason; we looked at what happened last year, and we’re really encouraged by our young pitching, but part of the young pitching is also young defense, and we played poorly defensively last year, so I thought so we wanted to shore up that end of the game,” Rizzo said. “So, we went out and got a Gold Glover at first base, which we think will help all the all our young infielders, having a guy you can count on to catch the ball and make plays and that type of thing, to go along with another year under their belt.”

That goes for the outfield, too, and Rizzo is hoping the defense will be much better overall in D.

“I think you're gonna see a dynamic defensive outfield with Wood, Young, Crews, Alex Call, and then you got Hassell behind them, so we're pretty flush with good athletic defensive outfielders,” Rizzo said. “And CJ Abrams, the first half CJ is the defensive guy we need at shortstop, and Luis (Garcia) made a big jump defensively last year, and we see that's even getting a little bit better from what he was last year.”

Oh, and in addition to that improved D, Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Bell will bring some veteran thump in the middle of the young lineup, too.

“We got two veteran, middle of the lineup guys in Lowe and Bell, who we think will take a little onus off the young hitters and take a little weight off their off their shoulders,” Rizzo said. “So we did that, and then attacked the bullpen with some good power arms we think that can control the back end of the game, so we’re feeling good.”

Listen to Rizzo’s entire visit with Grant & Tobi above!