00:00From Spencer Nussbaum in The Athletic.
00:03Hi.
00:03Nationals outfielder Dylan Cruz emerges as popular name in trade talks per sources.
00:09The Major League Baseball winter meetings are going on right now out in Las Vegas.
00:16Vegas right now sounds like a nice place to be.
00:19And I'm going to read from this Spencer article.
00:22A number of teams have expressed interest in Dylan Cruz,
00:25according to multiple people around the sport who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
00:29The Nats have not taken the former number two pick off the table in trade talks,
00:33as they have with James Wood, Cade Cavalli, and now Jacob Young.
00:38Remember, they just signed an extension for Young.
00:41Several teams have also expressed interest in Nats outfielder, Dylan Lyle.
00:45The one rival executive said they got the impression that to actually move Lyle,
00:49the Nats would need to be blown away.
00:52Multiple rival evaluators believe Cruz, 24, is more likely to be dealt than Lyle this winter.
00:59I have a couple of thoughts.
01:01Nowhere in this article does the name C.J. Abrams come up.
01:06And particularly, I'm going to reread this sentence.
01:09The Nats have not taken the former number two pick off the table in trade talks,
01:13talking about Cruz, as they have with James Wood, Cade Cavalli, and now Jacob Young.
01:18So it seems like, for Paul Taboni's crew, there's three guys that are untouchable.
01:23Wood, Cavalli, Jacob Young.
01:26That means Cruz certainly, and C.J., appear to be on the table.
01:32Yeah.
01:33His name wouldn't say it, though.
01:35Why?
01:36I think, but not being on the untouchable list makes me wonder.
01:42They're not going to pay him, I don't think.
01:44But more specific to Cruz.
01:48These guys didn't draft Cruz, right?
01:51No.
01:52Cruz, the number two overall pick,
01:56In what the Taboni-Butera era hitting,
02:01they want their hitters to hit it their way.
02:05Yeah.
02:06Right?
02:07Mm-hmm.
02:08Get the ball in the air.
02:11Cruz doesn't really do it.
02:12Last year, his final stat line in 2026,
02:14remember, they sent him down to the freaking minor.
02:16Yeah, they did.
02:17Hit .223 with 13 homers and a .663 OPS.
02:21Not great.
02:22He is a well-above-average fielder and base runner,
02:25even though he made some errors in the field last year,
02:27playing center.
02:28There were some plays where you're like,
02:29what the hell?
02:33But the belief by some in baseball is that he has untapped upside.
02:38And he's got a lot of years of control left.
02:42I feel like they're going to move Cruz.
02:43As I've always said, Jay,
02:45there's always somebody else that they think they can fix you.
02:47For sure.
02:48Yeah.
02:48And they need pitching.
02:49And if you've got your number two overall pick,
02:53who's not getting it done at a high level,
02:54and there's some other pitcher out there who's a former number eight overall pick,
02:59who's not getting it done at a high level,
03:01and both guys have a lot of years left on club control,
03:05I feel like something like that makes a lot of sense.
03:09Doesn't it?
03:09Definitely.
03:11And I'm just curious.
03:12I'll ask Stallion this one.
03:13The Nats have their preferred style of hitting,
03:17which is fairly common around baseball, right?
03:20Yeah.
03:20They want power.
03:21You want power up in the air.
03:23Yep.
03:24That's the analytical way nowadays.
03:26What happens?
03:29What happens for Dylan Cruz of Milwaukee gets them,
03:32where they don't do the same thing everybody else does,
03:34and they encourage people to go to the opposite field?
03:38I don't know.
03:38What if somebody gets this kid?
03:41One thing I do not like is the revisionist history surrounding,
03:45yeah, he went number two overall,
03:46but he was never going to be that good.
03:48Going into that draft, he was the guy.
03:50People thought he was going ahead of skeins.
03:52Yeah.
03:53Then seemingly relatively late in the process,
03:56Pittsburgh decides they're going with skeins.
03:57The Nats get Cruz.
03:58There was never a debate about one and two in that draft,
04:01and now it's just supposed to be accepted.
04:03Oh, he's not that good, though.
04:05I don't know why everybody's acting.
04:06But if he goes somewhere else and he starts tearing it up,
04:08doing it the other way,
04:10wouldn't that become a problem where you're trying to force a guy to do it,
04:13force a person to do it how you want to do it?
04:15Can they have –
04:17you can have guys batting different ways
04:19and trying to do different things on the baseball team.
04:22I mean, that's certainly the world we grew up in.
04:25I mean, most times you see –
04:28hell, everybody didn't bat like Barry Bonds.
04:31Everybody didn't bat like Uzi or the other big dude
04:35that was hitting home runs back there with him.
04:37They didn't bat like him, but they had multiple people.
04:39Each row, everybody on this team didn't bat like him,
04:41but they won games.
04:43Why does everyone have to do it the same way?
04:45I don't really think –
04:46like, you're right in a sense.
04:48Like, here's the thing with the Nats.
04:50I think this last season,
04:52they proved that they are able to develop talent.
04:54Like, their offense was so elite,
04:55and guys like Jacob Young,
04:58first three years of his career hit five home runs,
05:01and then this past year hit ten home runs.
05:03Okay.
05:03And he improved hitting the ball,
05:05his power improved.
05:06But what if just Jacob Young needed some help
05:10because he wasn't the best at first?
05:11Well –
05:12But this other guy might be damn good doing it his way,
05:15but you're trying to make him do it another way.
05:16No, you're right.
05:17But, like, also, again, the sample size.
05:19Curtis Mead.
05:19You guys probably didn't know of Curtis Mead
05:21before the spring training.
05:22I'm not arguing with their attack mode
05:25because the results –
05:26I am.
05:27I'm arguing –
05:28One –
05:29You can't brush a whole team with one damn brush.
05:32Do you think Cruz can't hit
05:33or he can't hit the way they want him to?
05:35That's my question.
05:36I think that there's some real questions
05:38about his hitting long term.
05:40Like, it's not just under the Nationals.
05:41Like, he's not hitting for average.
05:43He's not really hitting for power.
05:44Or he's just not getting the job done at this point.
05:47And you saw everybody in this Nationals lineup
05:49get the job done this year.
05:51Let him go.
05:51I think the best path here is a trade.
05:54And I think it's going to happen.
05:55I think it's going to happen, too.
05:56I hope it happens.
05:57And then if he gets a chance
05:58and he can't get it done,
06:00tip to their cap.
06:00If he starts getting it done,
06:02then they're going to have to rethink their thought –
06:03their process.
06:04I think it comes down to this also.
06:06Like, you know this, B-Mitch.
06:08Some athletes just need a change of scenery.
06:11Like, Gino's –
06:12Yeah, he needs to get away from you.
06:14Yeah, you're right.
06:15He might need to.
06:16But, like, some athletes just need a change of scenery.
06:19It seems like with Cruz,
06:23they can spin it any way they want.
06:25When they sent him to the minors
06:26to open the year last year is a message.
06:30And I can't imagine the Cruz family
06:33is thrilled with how last year went
06:35and really how it's gone in Washington.
06:38And that just seems like it's going to go.
06:41It does.
06:42Who do you want back?
06:44I mean, right now, I'm looking at the Mariners.
06:46The Mariners have, like, six starting pitchers.
06:48And it's been reported that they're trying to look
06:50to move off one of them to get a bat.
06:53And so I think right now –
06:54Is he considered a bat?
06:56Well, I mean, like –
06:58I'm not trying to be flippant.
06:59No, no, no, you're right.
07:00Like, but I think their GM, Jerry DiPoto,
07:03I think he is so arrogant.
07:05I'm getting really deep in the weeds here.
07:06He's very arrogant.
07:07Like, he thinks he could fix someone.
07:09Like, he is going to do that.
07:11Like, that is his mindset.
07:12And I think he's going to look at someone
07:14like Dylan Cruz.
07:15It's a big name.
07:16He's going to sell some jerseys.
07:17And he might look at them and say,
07:19hey, we could use this bat.
07:21And if they're willing to give up,
07:23like, a Bryce Miller type,
07:24you look at the season he had this past year,
07:26the past two years,
07:27hasn't been as great as he was in 2024.
07:29But he's still someone with a lot of upside,
07:31has three years of control left.
07:33If I'm Paul Taboni,
07:34I'm calling the Mariners trying to get Bryce Miller.
07:37That is my guy.
07:38All right.
07:39He's playing the flag.
07:41B, you think Cruz gets traded?
07:42Yeah.
07:43I do, too.
07:44You think Abrams gets traded?
07:48What are they asking?
07:49I don't know.
07:50See, that's the thing about them.
07:52They have a tendency to just, you know,
07:54blow themselves
07:55and make people give,
07:57just want to stop dealing with them.
07:58All right.
08:00I wanted to talk about Cruz
08:01because that feels like something that's heating up.
