Rizzo on Harvey trade, draft picks, trade deadline and more

It was a busy return from the All-Star break for the Nationals on Friday.

Josiah Gray announced a partial tear in his right ulnar collateral ligament that will require season-ending surgery. First-round pick Seaver King and third-round pick Kevin Bazzell officially signed their contracts and were introduced as Nationals for the first time. And the Nats started the second half with an 8-5 win over the Reds that had some early fireworks and late dramatics.

With all the pregame news, some things said by long-time general manager Mike Rizzo were left by the wayside. But they were no less important for the Nationals in the grand scheme of things.

Rizzo spoke to members of the local media for 12 minutes after introducing two of his top four selections from this year’s draft. The topics varied, but in the spirit of the draft celebrations, started with the trade Rizzo made a week ago today to add another pick in the first night of the draft.

In a surprising move at the time, the Nationals traded right-hander Hunter Harvey to the Royals for third base prospect Cayden Wallace and a Competitive Balance A pick, which happened to be No. 39 overall. The Nats used that pick to select catcher Caleb Lomavita out of Cal.

Why was it important to have that pick included in the trade?

“Well, I wouldn't gauge it as more important,” Rizzo said. “We found a deal that we really liked. We felt that the impact of the 39th pick along with the slot money that went along with that and with a really good player for a really good relief pitcher was something that we had to jump on. Obviously, that scenario goes away once the draft commences. So we felt that the 39th pick along with Wallace was a nice package for us to get for Hunter.”

Havey was a waiver claim from the Giants in March 2022 after struggling as a top prospect with the Orioles due to an extended injury history. But in three seasons with the Nationals, he pitched to a 3.17 ERA, 1.083 WHIP and 10.1 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate, becoming one of the most trusted and feared relievers in the league.

The ability to take an oft-injured reliever, develop him into a top arm and trade him for a prospect and a pick was huge for the organization.

“Oh, it's an organizational success story,” Rizzo said. “I mean, we took him off the waiver wire. His trials and tribulations were well documented. His injury history was well documented. We got him healthy. We escalated his repertoire and helped him develop some pitches to go along with the blazing fastball that he's always had. But really a scouting triumph, a player development triumph. The coaches at the big league level did a terrific job with him. And his makeup and his clubhouse presence was great. And to turn that into a really good prospect and the 39th pick, we felt it was important for us to do that for the future of the franchise.”

While the pick was clearly an important piece to the deal, what about the prospect? Wallace was the Royals’ No. 2 ranked prospect and now enters the Nats system at No. 6, per MLB Pipeline. A former second-round pick, Wallace came over while still recovering from an oblique/rib injury, but the Nats still had a good file on him from the draft two years ago.

“We heard good things about him,” Rizzo said. “I remember him. He was recently in the draft, so he was fresh in our minds. We liked him in the draft. So we had really up-to-date reports and our pro scouts did a great job of identifying him. Mark Scialabba did a great job of directing traffic, getting us to the right players and the right organizations at the right time. We had a really good book on him. Unfortunately, he hadn't been playing the last couple of weeks because of injuries. So our medical people were involved in the trade at the end. We feel we got ourselves an upside guy that can impact a baseball game. Plays really good defense a third. He's got a really good arm. He's got power potential and he's a really good hitter. So we liked the skill set. We did our makeup work on him and we thought that this was a guy that fits the Washington Nationals type of player and gives us another really good prospect to develop to become a big leaguer.”

Now that one trade has been made, will Rizzo suddenly get more busy leading up to the July 30 trade deadline?

“Well, we're always busy at the deadline,” he said. “Whether we're hunting championships or rebuilding or in the mix of both. So it's always an active trade deadline season and we're looking forward to the challenge this year to improve our club for this year and for the future. But we'll be busy, we'll be active, we'll be aggressive. It's all about getting pieces to put on that roster to get us our next championship.”

The Nats’ two biggest trade chips are Lane Thomas and Kyle Finnegan. Thomas is having a strong season following his breakout campaign last year and Finnegan was just recently named an All-Star while ranking second in the National League with 26 saves.

But what really makes them valuable is that they both, like Harvey, are under control through next season, which means Rizzo will have to be blown away to make a deal for either.

“I think he's still a heck of a player,” the GM said of Thomas. “There are a lot of teams that would really benefit from getting Lane Thomas. He's got as good of an arm as anybody in right field. He throws out a lot of guys, he's got power, he dominates left-handed pitching and is good against righties. So he's a really good player. We've got control of him, so we're going to do a deal that we're comfortable with. And if we don't, we won't do a deal.”

Finnegan is no different.

“The same way, exactly,” Rizzo said. “You got a guy that is one or two in the league in saves. That ninth inning, that 27th out is the toughest out to get in all of baseball. It takes a certain guy with stuff and with personality and moxie and guts to do it. We've found one and we're not going to get rid of it easy.”

Whatever Rizzo decides to do at the deadline, it will be the next – and possibly one of the last – steps in this lengthy rebuild process he started back in July 2021. Three years later, the Nationals have made progress. They’ve acquired a lot of young talent to inject into the farm system. They’ve developed top prospects into everyday major leaguers. And they are currently five games better than they were at this point last year.

All of that is leading to a possible end in sight. Maybe as early as next year.

“I think we're going in the right direction,” Rizzo said. “I think we're on time and doing the right things. I think that when you look at where we were when we started this thing in 2021, I think it's palatable. I think you could feel it. I think you could see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. … I think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think the fan base knows what we're doing. I think they appreciate the way that these guys get after it. You could see the progress and the process working as we move forward.”

* Rizzo did have an update on Robert Hassell III, who has been on the injured list at Double-A Harrisburg since June 12. Hassell is still dealing with an injury to his right wrist and thumb area, which hasn’t been fully healthy since his broken hamate bone surgery in 2022.

“Hassel is doing well. He's in West Palm Beach rehabbing,” Rizzo said. “He's in West Palm getting better. We're going to make sure that he's perfect when we send him back out there because this guy seems to be the 'Forgotten Prospect' and he's as good as anybody. This guy can hit, play defense, run the bases. And he's a hitting machine when he's healthy. He hasn't been healthy fully and tried to play through it. So we're gonna get him healthy, we're gonna get him back on track and he's going to be a guy for us.”