OPINION:
OK, this is getting serious now.
We are much closer to the trade deadline than Opening Day, and the Washington Nationals were four games over .500 and occupying a wild card spot going into Wednesday’s game. And Wally and the Beav — team president Paul Toboni and manager Blake Butera — are candidates for baseball’s executive and manager of the year.
You dispose of them in a three-game sweep like the Miami Marlins did, and they come back to win two against the Arizona Diamondbacks. They blow an eight-run lead — one of the worst losses in Nationals history — and they come back to pound the Seattle Mariners 10-1 and win two out of three.
Washington is 9-1-1 in their last 11 series — 12 of 16 series since April 25. Nearly every manager I’ve ever covered has said this is how you become champions — win one series at a time.
“There is a sense of confidence with our group,” Butera told reporters after Washington’s 6-4 victory Tuesday night. “We feel like we’re in it, no matter what.”
But no one saw this coming. Not Toboni. Not Butera. Not Nostradamus.
Former team president Mike Rizzo said going into last season that he felt the Nationals’ core group of young players were ready to take a step forward — perhaps win 80-plus games and play meaningful baseball in September.
That’s why Rizzo leaned on the owners last winter to spend some money to add a couple of mid-level free agents to the lineup and the rotation. The Lerners, as has been their modus operandi, said no. Adding Josh Bell and Paul DeJong were not what he had in mind. A lot went wrong after that.
Toboni came here from Boston to build a franchise methodically through player development. But the players that Rizzo developed have taken a leap forward and, like a Pennsylvania Dutch barn raising, seem to have built a winning team overnight — an offensive juggernaut, leading all of baseball in runs scored.
James Wood is among the National League leaders with 20 home runs, 48 RBI and was hitting .355 with six doubles, eight homers, 19 RBI, 22 walks, six stolen bases and 32 runs in his last 29 games before Wednesday. CJ Abrams leads league shortstops with 14 home runs, 53 RBI and a .370 on-base percentage. Jacob Young has crushed the ball, with eight home runs (he had just five career home runs in 1,006 plate appearances before this season). Daylen Lile picked up where he left off in his celebrated rookie season. Luis Garcia has stayed healthy and is swinging a hot bat. Tuesday night, infielder Nasim Nunez had two triples and scored three runs Tuesday night and has been a defensive wizard.
The new team president seems to have created an atmosphere for this rapid growth and success. He brought in an army of young coaches and talent evaluators with a new age style that didn’t just embrace analytics but loved it like two teenagers in the back of a Chevy. Plus he brought with him some “in bocca at lupo” (in the wolf’s mouth), the Italian phrase for good luck.
His bargain-basement pitching additions have turned in enough quality starts to keep the team from sinking in between disasters.
Tobone has done all this while surely pleasing his bosses with a $92 million payroll, 27th in the league, the neighborhood the Lerners like their baseball team to occupy. I’m not sure the new team president would have had it any other way.
If they had brought some veterans with stature into this clubhouse, I doubt that Toboni and Butera could have built the culture they are constructing without pushback. Four-hour infield workouts pre-game? That wouldn’t fly. Video sessions calling out players’ mistakes? You think Jayson Werth would tolerate that? How long before a veteran looked at Butera with his limited minor league credentials and dismissed him.
But with these young players, Toboni has been able to begin establishing a culture of accountability without backlash. Those young players may expect the same in return when the trading deadline comes.
Clubhouses in the middle of a pennant race look to the front office for support — a sign that their bosses believe in them by bringing in some help for the final two-month push of the season. It is an important part of building a winning culture.
It may upset the graphs and charts for the future of this team that Toboni’s front office likely treats like the Dead Sea Scrolls. But if Aug. 3 looks like the middle of June, this Nationals franchise has to make the commitment to win now.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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