Washington Nationals

While he awaits the start of the 2020 MLB season, Washington Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin joined Bleacher Report for an AMA session.

The two-time MLB All-Star is coming off an excellent first year with the Nationals in 2019, going 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA during the regular season before helping the team secure the first World Series title in franchise history.

He was the winning pitcher in the Game 7 win over the Houston Astros.

Corbin spoke to B/R users Tuesday to discuss the World Series, his teammates, Bryce Harper's free agency and more.

The following is the full transcript from the AMA session.

       

@alexshrader00: What was your reaction when you heard Bryce Harper was going to Philadelphia?

Going to a division rival is something no one expected would happen. We played early on and fans gave him a hard time, so that was fun to see.

       

@rock__man: Did you guys have to frequently switch up signs during the World Series?

We didn't know what they were doing, but we knew they were trying to get an advantage. Sign stealing has been a part of the game forever. We all had a little card in our hat with five different signs where we could mix them up. It's such an advantage to know which pitch is coming. It's difficult when you know they have that advantage.

      

@JCTheLit: What MLB legend do you wish you could have played with?

I never have thought of this, but I think Babe Ruth because he's the face of baseball. It would be interesting to see someone like that from long ago. It would be pretty neat. Mike Trout, for sure. He could go down as the best player ever. I think he will. Just the talent he has is unlike any other player in the game. He's still really young, and look at his numbers.

     

@Steve_Perrault: What was going through your mind during those 3 innings you pitched in the World Series clincher?

I knew going into the game that I had a chance to pitch. I had no idea when. I had no idea how long. I kept telling our manager I was feeling good, and when I look back, I realized how special that was. After we got that 4-1 lead, Daniel Hudson shut it down, and that point we were excited when we padded the lead in the eighth inning.

       

@just_in_time: What do you think the current vibe is among players considering these unusual circumstances? What's the mentality like?

Guys want to play baseball. Guys are trying to stay in shape, help out as much as they can, and it's definitely tough. The quicker we can get out there so people have something to do, I think it would help out quite a bit.

        

@Chasefor28: When you guys were struggling early in the season, who was the most vocal in the clubhouse in terms of staying positive, letting everyone know you guys could turn it around?

Davie's leadership definitely helped. Guys never changed their mindset. We tried to go 1-0, which was our motto. He helped out for sure. It was unlucky because we had a lot of great players get hurt, but getting them back was a huge boost.

      

@chasem575: In your opinion, which young star (on a team other than the Nats) has the brightest future?

Juan Soto or Ronald Acuna. Look what Pete Alonso did. Things like that are pretty special and haven't happened before.

      

@myousif: Which player in his prime would you least like to face?

Barry Bonds

       

@SportFanBeast: What's your favorite movie?

The Santa Claus with Tim Allen. I watch it in July. I think he's so funny.

       

@yaakgma: What's your favorite stadium to play in?

Yankee Stadium was pretty neat, growing up from Syracuse, New York.

       

@JackPail: If you could strike out any other player who would it be and why?

My favorite growing up was Tino Martinez, so I think that would be cool to strike out your favorite player as a kid.

       

@ThomasC25: What are your thoughts on trash can banging?

It's such an advantage to know what pitch is coming. When you see young players who were really affected by this and never really got an opportunity again. Or even players or myself seeing games that I pitched and you hear the banging, it's pretty difficult when you know they have that advantage.

        

@gjolly21pailgang: What is your favorite pitch to strike someone out with?

Slider for sure.

        

@krock35: What's it like to play with Scherzer and Strasburg?

That was a main reason I signed here. To watch what Max does on and off the field, and those days in between is pretty special with how competitive he is. And just how consistent Strasburg is. They're kind of like the total opposite. Max is a really intense, high-energy guy, where Stras kinda keeps to himself and goes out there and shows with his performance what he can do.

        

@avrumisaffrox: What is your goal for this year?

I think back-to-back would be special. A team hasn't done that for a long time in baseball, and obviously every team's goal is to win a championship, and we're the only team that can go back-to-back.

       

@LBJ23MVP: What was the first thing you did after you won the World Series?

We definitely celebrated. We got kicked out of the hotel bar, so we found another bar that we were at until 7 a.m. That was a blast. The next day was Halloween. We chartered back in the morning to D.C. and got to hand out candy to the kids, but we were all in rough shape.

        

@KCG_45k: Most underrated player on the team?

I don't know if he's underrated, but Trea Turner. He hits for power, steals bases, I think more and more people are realizing what he is. He just moved into my neighborhood actually.

       

@wolanfootball: Why do you think the baby shark mantra caught on so well?

I think one of his kids picked that song. He became the favorite player of the Nationals. People came just to hear that song. A lot of guys hoped he would DH so they could hear the song more.

        

@charlieplumb: What made you choose the Nationals instead of the Yankees?

A huge thing was the rotation. Pitching with Stras and Scherzer is pretty special. Also, looking at the young talent they have.

       

@Jasper_Pail: Who do you think are the top 3 starters of all time?

Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg.

      

@WhatsUpItsNick: Are you a fan of the infamous Soto Shuffle?

He's the nicest guy. The best teammate. That's just his personality. It's fun to watch. A lot of people look forward to seeing it.

       

@jacktewart: What player or Nats staffer deserved that title the most, besides Zim?

I'm happy for a lot of guys. We had an older team. Howie Kendrick, with his postseason, Kurt Suzuki and some of those veteran players that never got to put the ring on their finger.

        

Universal AMA Questions

What is your favorite game or play of your career?

With the Diamondbacks. I almost had a no-hitter against the Giants. Brandon Belt had a check-swing hit. 

      

Go-to pre-game song or soundtrack?

I had a Drake song last year. I listen to Zedd or Tiesto. I like listening to that type of music before I'm pitching.

         

How far do you think the moon is from Earth?

1.5 billion miles. I have no idea.

For Washington Nationals fans worried the impeding restructure of the 2020 season means the stands will be empty when the team raises its 2019 World Series banner, fear not. Dave Martinez has your back.

The Nats manager told the Associated Press (h/t ESPN) the traditional celebration will still take place once they're able to do so with a packed stadium.

"I'm sure that I speak for everyone in our organization: We're going to celebrate, somehow, someway. ... We want to hang the banner with fans. We want to get our rings with fans. When? We don't know. How? We don't know. But we want them to be involved," Martinez said. "For me, this is a big deal. A big deal for everybody. So we want to include everybody."

It's still unclear how Major League Baseball will save a season currently on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. Two of the most prominently discussed plans include hosting all games in Arizona in isolation and realigning the divisions to keep teams separate by geographic areas of the country.

Yet no known plan at the moment accounts for starting the season with fans in the stands.

That means any type of World Series celebration in Washington D.C. at the start of the year would theoretically take place without the fanbase that cheered the team on along the way able to partake.

Typically events are held during the season-opening series with ring ceremonies and a banner raising among the key highlights. The sight of that in an empty stadium would be among the eeriest images in baseball history.

So Martinez and the team will work to make sure it doesn't happen. Not until everyone can partake in it.

In the meantime, the manager is focusing on making sure he's prepared to take over the team again whenever MLB gives the OK.

"For me," Martinez said. "There's been scenarios where I said, 'If they give us two weeks, this is what we've got to do."

Knowing that the team is still waiting to receive their rings may work out as a motivational ploy in his favor.

The Washington Nationals will wait until fans return to Nationals Park before they officially commemorate their 2019 World Series title.  

"I think as far as raising the banner and the distribution of rings, we're going to wait for our fanbase to be involved to do those types of things," president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo said on MLB Network Radio (h/t NBC Sports Washington's Matt Weyrich). "Those are once-in-a-lifetime things to do and our fanbase is such a big factor in helping us win that thing. They earned it, they deserve to be involved in it and we're going to wait for them to do it."

It's unclear when the Nationals will get to open their 2020 title defense, let alone take the field in their usual venue.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted the start of the season, and teams may have to compete behind closed doors in order to get things going again in a timely manner. 

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported MLB and the MLB Players Association have discussed a plan to stage games in and around Phoenix in empty stadiums.

If things progress to a point at which teams could play in their home cities, the Nationals celebrating a World Series victory without fans in attendance would undoubtedly feel deflating. The wait will be worth it to raise the banner in style.

The Washington Nationals won the World Series last year, but general manager Mike Rizzo thinks there should have been another addition to the trophy case. 

"This guy was fifth in the Manager of the Year voting?" Rizzo said of manager Dave Martinez on The Sports Junkies (h/t Ethan Cadeaux of NBC Sports Washington). "What league were they watching?"

Martinez finished in fifth place in the National League Manager of the Year voting behind St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, respectively.

"I do believe that Dave Martinez did not get nearly the credit he deserved for guiding that team to win the World Series," Rizzo said

While he didn't win the award, Martinez had an incredible season from the dugout.

His Nationals were 12 games under .500 following a fifth straight loss on May 23, 2019, and appeared well on their way to a lost campaign. They then ripped off nine wins in their next 11 games and gradually worked their way back into the National League East race.

They finished in second place behind the Atlanta Braves but defeated Counsell's Brewers in the NL Wild Card Game, Roberts' Dodgers in the Divisional Series and Shildt's Cardinals in the National League Championship Series before defeating the Houston Astros in the World Series.

That Martinez steamrolled his way through three of the coaches who beat him out for the Manager of the Year award in the postseason is surely fitting in Rizzo's eyes.

"If he wasn't the best manager in the [National League] out of anybody, then I haven't been around long enough," Rizzo said. "The skipper on the Cardinals won it, good manager, but he didn't have the year Davey had. He wasn't the manager Davey was for about four-and-a-half months and then through the playoffs."

The fact the award is a regular-season one and didn't account for Martinez's postseason success undercut his chances, but he reached the mountaintop every manager is trying to get to at the start of every season.

That is a much more worthwhile prize.

Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer says Major League Baseball and the Players Association are in discussions about implementing new rules to help prevent teams from stealing signs.

Speaking to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich, Scherzer said:

"Really trying to get in talks with players across the league to try to come up with as fair a system as possible. Replay has been in the game and enhances the game, but we've seen the unintended consequences of this. ... We need to come up with rules now that limit how many cameras we can have on the field, how much replay we can actually have. We're trying to decide how much access players should have to that during the game."

Teams have increased the use of replay and video footage available during games, with players being able to look at their at-bats as a way to make in-game adjustments.

The availability of video and replay has come to the forefront in MLB as a result of the Houston Astros' cheating scandal.

Per the results of MLB's official investigation, the Astros established a system during the 2017 season using a video replay room and a television feed from a camera set up in center field at Minute Maid Park to steal signs from opposing teams:

"Once the sign sequence was decoded, a player in the video replay review room would act as a 'runner' to relay the information to the dugout, and a person in the dugout would notify the players in the dugout or signal the sign sequence to the runner on second base, who in turn would decipher the catcher's sign and signal to the batter from second base."

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters earlier this month we can "assume that before the season starts we will have new guidelines with respect to the use of video equipment."

Rosenthal and Drellich noted it's unlikely that MLB will change rules to require players to remain in the dugout for the duration of games, but MLB and the MLBPA are "not said to be far apart" in their discussions for new video policies to be implemented before the regular season.

MLB's 2020 season begins March 26 with all 30 teams in action.

The Washington Nationals reportedly had advance warning about the Houston Astros' sign-stealing going into the 2019 World Series. 

According to Barry Svrluga and Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post, former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora—who was the Astros' bench coach and involved in the sign-stealing in 2017—reached out to good friend and Nationals manager Dave Martinez to warn him ahead of Washington's matchup with Houston.

What's more, a number of Los Angeles Dodgers players reportedly told Nationals infielder Brian Dozier, who played in Los Angeles the previous year, about the sign-stealing.

Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer also reached out to reliever Tony Sipp, who spent part of the 2019 campaign with Washington and pitched for Houston from 2014 through 2018. A source told Svrluga and Sheinin that Sipp warned Scherzer the Nationals had to be concerned about stolen signs even when there wasn't a runner on second base.

This comes after a November report from Svrluga that revealed each Nationals pitcher had five different sets of signs they could cycle through during the 2019 Fall Classic. To keep them straight, the catchers had cards with codes for different sets of signs in their wristbands and the pitchers had cards in their hats.

Washington won the back-and-forth World Series in seven games.

Major League Baseball ultimately punished the Astros by fining them $5 million, stripping them of their first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021, and suspending general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for one year. Houston fired both Luhnow and Hinch shortly after the suspensions were announced.

That Cora reached out to Martinez is the most notable development in the latest report.

The Red Sox parted ways with the manager after his role in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal was revealed. ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Cora's punishment was "coming" and "going to be harsh."

Luhnow's statement following his firing even implicated Cora, saying, in part, that "the video decoding of signs originated and was executed by lower-level employees working with the bench coach."

Cora had first-hand knowledge about what the Astros were doing and apparently used that knowledge to warn his friend when the opportunity presented itself.

The Washington Nationals have retained their longest-tenured player after agreeing to a one-year deal with Ryan Zimmerman on Friday, pending a physical, according to the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga. 

The contract, which reportedly contains a $2 million base salary, could be worth as much as $5 million through various performance bonuses. 

The first baseman has spent his entire professional career with the Washington Nationals, including 15 years at the major league level. In that time, he earned two All-Star selections and one Gold Glove award while totaling 270 home runs and a .279 batting average.

His career with the team culminated last season with a World Series title, with Zimmerman hitting an important home run in Game 1 against Gerrit Cole and the Houston Astros.

Though the Nationals declined his 2020 option worth $18 million, they thought highly enough of him to re-sign him on a new deal.

Injuries have kept the 35-year-old from being a full-time contributor in recent seasons; he only played 137 games over the past two years combined. Zimmerman ended the 2019 campaign with a .257 batting average and six home runs in 52 games.

However, he's only two years removed from an impressive 2017 season in which he finished with a .303 average, 36 home runs and 108 RBI while gaining MVP votes.

Though it was the only season since 2013 that he played more than 120 games, it showed he can still be an impact player when he stays on the field.

The Nationals are likely banking on this upside while keeping as much of the clubhouse intact as possible after securing the first World Series championship in franchise history. At the least, Zimmerman can provide help off the bench for a deep lineup next season.

Trea Turner has three years remaining before he can hit free agency, but he is willing to consider a contract extension with the Washington Nationals for the right price.

"If the deal's right, if I like it, I'm not scared to take it," Turner said, per Todd Dybas of NBC Sports. "Same thing, if it's not right, I'm not going to settle. Everyone I think knows their worth, [they] at least think they're worth something—whatever that is, high, low, willing to take less or try to get more."

Turner avoided arbitration with a one-year, $7.45 million deal for 2020, but he can agree on a long-term contract that takes him through the remaining arbitration years. It would provide some security with guaranteed money, but it also could limit his earning power if he continues to improve.

"For me, I'm all ears. I'll listen and communicate," Turner said. "At the end of the day, I like it here. I don't think the grass is always greener on the other side, per se, and I'm happy where I'm at. If it comes to that, I'll be happy to play here hopefully my entire career if they'll let me."

Although the Nationals are still plenty satisfied after winning the World Series last October, they could be more motivated to lock down Turner after losing Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon to free agency in the past two offseasons.

Turner has certainly been a difference-maker on the field while hitting .291 across his five seasons with the team, topping 30 stolen bases in each of the last four years. He matched a career high with 19 home runs last season with 35 stolen bases and a .298 batting average despite only playing 122 games.

The 26-year-old has proved to be an elite leadoff hitter while playing quality defense at shortstop.

Outside of Stephen Strasburg, Washington hasn't been known for extending their own players before hitting free agency, but Turner could be another exception based on his willingness to consider a deal.

"I'm also weighing all options. I think everybody should," he said. "If you don't listen, I think it's a little foolish."

Free-agent infielder Starlin Castro has agreed to a contract with the Washington Nationals, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.

The deal is pending a physical and reportedly does not take the Nationals out of the running to sign third baseman Josh Donaldson. According to Rosenthal, Castro will play second base in Washington as the team begins its World Series defense in 2020. Joel Sherman added the deal is expected to be for two years.

A four-time All-Star, Castro now joins his fourth team after previous stints with the Chicago Cubs, Miami Marlins and New York Yankees.

Castro will earn $12 million on the deal, per ESPN's Jeff Passan. 

The 10-year veteran, who turns 30 in March, became a free agent after the Marlins declined to pick up his option for 2020. In 2019, Castro slashed .270/.300/.436 with a career-high 22 home runs and 86 RBI. 

Castro will replace Brian Dozier in the Nationals lineup with the team letting its second baseman walk in free agency. Production-wise, there shouldn't be too much of a drop as Dozier slashed .238/.340.430 in 135 games with the Nats. 

It's been a productive offseason so far in Washington after the team handed out a $245 million deal to pitcher Stephen Strasburg before adding Will Harris on a $24 million deal to solidify its bullpen. They also brought back World Series hero Howie Kendrick on a $6.25 million contract as well. 

However, after losing third baseman Anthony Rendon to the Angels, the glaring question has been who can replace him. With the team willing to spend the type of money it has this season, the Nationals have been squarely in the conversation to sign Donaldson.

Right now, he counts as the missing piece for a Nationals team that feels set up for sustained success. 

In the meantime, Castro gives Washington a solid bit of depth in the infield with prospects Carter Kieboom and Luis Garcia closing in on becoming everyday contributors in the big leagues. 

The Washington Nationals must have liked what they saw out of ex-Houston Astros reliever Will Harris in the World Series a few months ago.

According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale, Harris signed with the Nationals on a three-year, $24 million contract Thursday.

Will Harris was the #Astros reliever who gave up the game-winning HR to Howie Kendrick in Game 7 of the World Series, and was stand-up guy afterwards. Class act who will be great asset for the #Nats

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 3, 2020

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal was the first to report the agreement and added it is pending a physical.

Harris had been in Houston since 2015 and put together an All-Star campaign in 2016. Last season, the 35-year-old right-hander went 4-1 with a 1.50 ERA and 0.93 WHIP across 68 regular-season games.

Overall as an Astro, Harris tallied a 2.36 ERA and 0.99 WHIP with 63 games finished and 315 strikeouts across 309 games (297 innings pitched).

The defending champion Nats weren't alone in pursuing Harris in free agency, according to The Athletic's Brittany Ghiroli: "The competition for Harris’ services this winter was steep as multiple teams were interested in the righty for an annual salary around $7 million and the presence of a third year, coupled with the overall contract total, helped elevate the Nationals."

Washington had no choice but to address the bullpen. The Nationals ranked last in bullpen ERA (5.66) last season.