Foster Griffin didn’t just get through an inning at Citizens Bank Park. He put on the kind of clinic Nationals fans have been watching all season.
The left-hander came on in the fifth and needed only 10 pitches to carve through a dangerous stretch of the AL lineup. Yandy Diaz went down on three pitches, Dillon Dingler followed on a changeup, and Miguel Vargas sent a ball into the gap before Andy Pages ran it down to close out the frame. It was a clean, efficient inning, and it looked exactly like Griffin’s season has looked in Washington: calm, precise, and a little bit sneaky.
What stood out most was how he did it. Griffin used four of his seven pitches, leaned hardest on his cutter, and finished hitters with the changeup.
He didn’t throw a single fastball. Against some of the best hitters in the game, that felt like a deliberate choice, especially since the heater is not his best weapon.
Eight of his 10 pitches were cutters or changeups, with one sweeper and one curve mixed in.
That kind of outing also explained why Phillies fans booed him when he was introduced at the All-Star Game. A few months ago, that would have sounded absurd. Now it makes sense, because Griffin has already put together a pair of strong outings against Philadelphia.
His path to this point is the real story. Griffin was once a first-round bust who barely got a foothold in the majors before heading to Japan.
There, he took a different approach. Instead of treating it like a quick detour back to MLB, he embraced the experience, learned how to pitch, and added new tools, including a splitter.
He spent three years there, kept improving, and came back ready to test himself again.
Even after those numbers in Japan, the market didn’t exactly rush to him. He settled for a one-year, $5.5 million deal, with teams looking at a 91 MPH fastball and moving on. Washington gave him a chance to start, and he’s turned that opportunity into All-Star caliber production.
As he walked off the mound, it felt like the payoff for years of work, adjustment and patience. Griffin reinvented himself by going to the other side of the world and learning a different way to get outs.
There’s also the reality of where the Nationals are right now. With the trade deadline approaching and the bullpen meltdowns pushing them farther from the playoff race, Griffin could be one of the names on the move. He’ll be a free agent after the season, and the Nats have spent plenty of recent deadlines dealing rental pieces.
Still, he’d be a tough one to see go. He has become my favorite Nats pitcher since Max Scherzer left, and I love the way he thinks his way through lineups without overpowering anyone. The stuff is real, even if the velocity isn’t elite: the sweeper has serious movement, the changeup fades, the cutter is sharp, and the curve can finish hitters.
If Washington does move him, bringing him back in the offseason would make a lot of sense. This is the kind of pitcher you want in the middle of a rotation, and this year he’s performed more like a high-end No.
- Foster Griffin is the ultimate crafty lefty, and last night he showed the whole baseball world why.
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