Foster Griffin Delivers Another Dominant Start as Nationals Ace Continues Breakout Season
After the game, Foster Griffin informed me, “You are not done until the manager shakes your hand and says you are done”. That hand shake came one out into the 8th inning last night. Blake Butera grabbed the ball away from Griffin and the audience that suffered through a long weather delay roared in applause.
It’s been that kind of season for Foster Griffin. The clever lefty has been an absolute horse for the Nationals in his first season back from Japan. He has a 3.15 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in 91.1 innings on the season. That’s borderline ace stuff, or at least high end number 2 starter production for a guy that signed for 5.5 million dollars.
Griffin has had a lot of solid outings but tonight may have been his best. “There are only four or five outings in the season where everything is clicking, and tonight was one of those nights,” he said. Griffin was using his complete 7 pitch mix to perfection and the Phillies were befuddled. He recorded his career high with 9 strikeouts.
The cutter is always Griffin’s bread and butter pitch but tonight, it was very overpowering. He threw the cutter 29 percent of the time and struck out 8 of his 17 times with it. It was great to see all his pitches working together. He had his fastball and breaking stuff, like usual, but his changeup and splitter were also on tonight. That changeup was really baffling right-handed hitters.
Foster Griffin’s been a legit ace outside of back to back blow up starts in May. During those tough appearances, there was a question about whether the soft-tossing lefty had been figured out. But June has been his best month of the season thus far. Griffin has given up only one run in each of his four appearances this month.
And Griffin’s performances have resonated with his teammates, too.Luis Garcia Jr. was eager to point out that Griffin is amazing every time he takes the mound, not just tonight. You can count on Griffin to give you 6 or 7 innings pretty much every time out, too, he said. Garcia is quite dead on in this assessment considering Griffin has gone at least 6 frames in 8 of his past 12 bouts.
Curtis Mead was delighted by how Griffin kept Phillies hitters off-balance. “It felt like the swings (from Phillies hitters) weren’t as good as those guys are capable of,” he added. It’s even more impressive seeing what Griffin did against a lineup that has been beating the Mets the last couple days.Kyle Schwarber’s been on one of his home run binges but Griffin made him look dumb.
That’s the way Griffin has gone. He just makes hitters second doubt themselves with all the varied pitches he can throw. I’m not saying he’s Max Scherzer clearly, but last night felt like a Scherzer outing, down to the solo homer he gave up. I haven’t seen a Nats starter that in control of an outing that deep into the game in a long time.
One essential feature of Griffin’s outing: He didn’t walk anyone. That’s been a signature for him all season but especially lately. Griffin has only 5 walks in his last 7 starts across 40 innings. It makes me so happy that a Nats pitcher has the stuff to beat opposition hitters and doesn’t beat themselves.
Griffin will be an interesting decision for the Nats at the trade deadline. He is only on a year agreement thus there is a chance he might be traded. But the way the Nats are performing, shipping him out is not the lock it may have been earlier in the season. Spencer Nusbaum said Griffin is one of the faces of Paul Toboni’s trade deadline conundrum.
Toboni would be remiss not to at least test the market. But I also think it would be a mistake for Toboni not to check in with Griffin’s representation and see what an extension might look like. Griffin’s underlying metrics are more average than elite and stuff that does not pop off the page, and he may be more useful to the Nats than on the trading block.
So a Griffin trade is still certainly on the table, but an extension for 2 to 3 years should be too. It’s all about where the Nats are in a month and what number Griffin would be. I don’t think organizations are interested in paying Griffin the way other $3.15 ERA pitchers get paid in assets or money. That might make an extension simpler, but this might be the best we get out of Griffin. Just look at Erick Fedde, who had a wonderful first season back from Asia and then deteriorated.
This is going to be a tough call for the Nats front staff. But that is not the main focus at the moment. Let’s just close out by raving about how great the lefty has been for this squad. He was an under the radar pickup but has been one of the steals of the offseason. It’s hard to picture where the Nats would be without Griffin but they wouldn’t be playing for a Wild Card.
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