Rizzo makes pitch for scouts to return to ballparks in 2021

As Aug. 31 arrived earlier this year, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo faced a dilemma he never wanted to face.

Rizzo's team had just completed an abysmal month of baseball, albeit during the unprecedented circumstances of the 2020 season. Now, as trade deadline day arrived, the Nats were 12-19, three games out of the final wild card position in the National League and staring up at six teams ahead of them in the standings for that last-ditch ticket to October.

If they felt they still had the potential for a run in them, the decision was easy: Acquire some pitching help and go for broke. If they determined the odds were too great, the decision also was easy: Trade away veterans on expiring contracts for prospects who could make a difference down the road.

In the end, the Nationals did neither. They stood pat at the deadline, making no trades whatsoever. And to listen to Rizzo explain it now, some 3 1/2 months later, they did nothing in large part because they could not scout potential acquisitions in person.

"We weren't aggressive at the trade deadline last time, just because we didn't have current reports on a lot of players," Rizzo said earlier this week in a Zoom session with reporters. "Because we couldn't see them, other than on television."

Plenty of folks in the baseball industry suffered in 2020, from the minor league players, coaches and executives whose season was canceled to the stadium workers who could not work to the scouts who could not do their jobs in person because of the pandemic.

Though a limited number of personnel, including media, was allowed into major league parks to watch ballgames, scouts were prohibited from attending all games. They couldn't sit behind the plate, radar gun in one hand, pen and notepad in the other, and jot down all the critical information they glean from watching ballplayers play. They glean firsthand knowledge of big leaguers potentially on the trade block during the final weeks of August. And they couldn't file comprehensive reports of prospects who might be sought after in the event of a selloff of veterans.

According to Rizzo, that had a profound - and negative - impact on the Nationals' fortunes.

"In this organization, the scouts' eyeball view on the players is important to us," said Rizzo, a longtime scout himself before he ascended the front office ladder. "It impacted us last year, and hopefully it won't this year."

There are tons of unanswered questions about the 2021 Major League Baseball season, and that includes the continued question of scouting. Will scouts be allowed into parks, both major and minor league, next year?

It hasn't been addressed in any substantive way yet.

"I don't have a sense on that," Rizzo said. "I haven't heard about scouts returning to the ballpark. I hope and pray that they are allowed to go into the ballpark, because it makes a big difference for us."

If and when the Nationals are allowed to send scouts back out on the road, they'll do so with a slightly reduced staff. The organization has made cuts to several front office departments in recent months, citing the financial losses of this season, and included in that group are a handful of scouts.

Rizzo said the losses in scouting weren't as large as in some other departments, but he also made a point to mention the Nationals have "a very small scouting staff to begin with."

Small staff or not, Rizzo does have a deep well of experienced scouting eyes, a group of special assistants he trusts more than anyone else to feed him the information he needs before making big decisions. He's counting on that group to be allowed back into the ballpark in 2021, and to provide him all the necessary info that perhaps wasn't available in 2020.

"We'll make it work," he said. "Scouts are very adaptive, because they have to be. And when I make a call to see said player, they'll be seen. I feel confident about that."