The Kevin Sheehan Show - Wizards GM Will Dawkins

Episode Date: June 27, 2026

Kevin opened with the latest from the Brandon Aiyuk video series. Did Aiyuk reference Jayden Daniels in his latest message? Wizards GM Will Dawkins joined Kevin to discuss an exciting week highlighted by the selection of AJ Dybantsa in the NBA Draft. Al Galdi jumped on to talk about the Nats' horrific bullpen, the Commanders, and more.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Head to www.Chime.com/SHEEHAN. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.   So if you are looking to make Mother’s Day perfect, or just want to impress your friends and family with an epic meal next time you host, go to www.GOLDBELLY.com and get free shipping and 20% off your first order with promo code sheehan.   Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with my link www.ThriveMarket.com/SHEEHAN for $20 off your first three orders plus you’ll get a FREE $60 gift.   Search Whatnot—W H A T N O T—in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheyenne Show. He is Kevin. On a real serious note of, can anybody tell me if I really have a warrant out for my arrest in California? My brother said he's trying to throw in time.

But if I got a warning, bro, I don't have to stay out here again. Guess who? He is just relentless. another two or three, I think, social media videos since yesterday's show. The one I just played, I'm pretty sure there was a Jaden Daniels reference in it. I'll try to translate for you here in a few moments. The show's presenting sponsor is always, Window Nation 86690 Nation, WindowNation.com, if you need new windows.

On the show today, Wizards GM, Will Dawkins will join me in the next segment. Following him, Al Galdi will be my guest. Al will jump on to talk about another blown bullpen save last night for the Nats. That is three brutal bullpen losses in a row. I'm sure we'll talk some football team with Galdi as well. So I'm going to play again what I played coming into the show. The latest from Brandon Ayyuk. This is from today.

You may not be able to make it out, But I think I found someone who translated it on the internet. And I think it makes sense. And I think it's a reference to our quarterback and his friend from Arizona State, Jaden Daniels. Listen carefully. On a real serious note, though, can anybody tell me if I really have a warrant out from my arrest in California? Because my brother said he's trying to throw in Cali. but if I got a worm bro, I'm going to stay out here again.

All right, I'm going to take you through this video from Brandon Ayyuk and help you specifically understand the middle portion of the video. I think it's hard to decipher, but I also think it's the part of his message that references Jaden Daniels. But before I do that, let me just summarize where we are on this Brandon an IUC video series. I think there have been three social media videos since the recording of the show yesterday with Tommy. There was one last night in which he's wearing a commander's hat. He's in the entrance foyer of a home and he's saying, I'm back in action and back on tour this fall. Go to

www.com commanders.com to get your tickets and watch us rock out. It was actually kind of funny. It's the first of his videos that actually shows that he's got maybe a sense of humor about this whole thing. Because most of the videos have been directed towards his current team, the 49ers. So that was last evening. Today, I believe there have been two videos, the first of which is Brandon Ayyuk telling the world that he no longer has an agent. In fact, he fired his agent back in November. Shocker, he doesn't have representation. I think we've had, you know, an idea about this for a while because I think it was reported maybe two, two and a half months ago that when no one could find him, they went to his agent.

His agent said, I haven't talked to him in a while. Yeah, I mean, it's obvious that he doesn't have anybody right now helping him navigate. this situation. So that was video number one from today, him saying that he does not have an agent. And then the one that I just played for you, I think is the last video of the day as of now. Of course, there could be more to come. And he's like in a white hoodie sweatshirt when he says, you know, on a real serious note, though, can anybody tell me if I really have a warrant out for my arrest?

in California. Yes, we can all tell you, Brandon, and I think you know this already, there is a warrant out for your arrest in California. It's a misdemeanor warrant, arrest warrant, for the speeding incident that he videotaped and put on social media, where he was traveling at 90 miles per hour plus around Levi Stadium in San Francisco. Does anybody believe that he doesn't know that he has an arrest warrant out for him.

By the way, on this particular video, there is some print that is superimposed on the video, and the print reads, they're going to have to come catch me in D.C. So he's ducking the arrest warrant right now. All right, here's the part that I think is a reference to Jaden Daniels. He says, quote,

you know, after he says, can anybody tell me if I really have a warrant out for my arrest in California, he says, quote, because my bro say he's trying to throw in Cali, but if I got a warrant, bro, I might just stay out here then, closed quote. The part where he says, because my bro says he's trying to throw in Cali,

I think he's talking about Jaden Daniels. Remember at minicamp last week, Ben Standig asked him about throwing in California, and he said he was. And he said, will there be any new additions? And he said, well, maybe just stay tuned and maybe that'll be out on social media. And people actually took that to mean maybe he's going to be throwing with Brandon Ayuk. Maybe Brandon Ayuk will join him, which, by the way, is not against NFL rules. You can throw with players. you can work out with players from other teams.

That's not considered tampering. But I guess Jaden's, you know, I think he invited Brandon Ayuk, at least if you believe this, to throw with him out in California. But there's an arrest warrant out for him in California. So he may not be going back to California anytime soon. He's going to have to go back to California because that's where the 49ers training camp is. And that leads me to more news that just came out or was confirmed today. He does have to apply for reinstatement.

We have talked about that since that guy Grant Cohn from the 49ers came on with me on radio about a week and a half ago. This is a requirement before he can be reinstated into the league. He is on the reserve, on the reserve left squad list. He's essentially considered a guy that went AWOL, a guy that has not reported to work. And this is, you know, like the last couple days of this conversation. And yesterday I made it very clear that I think I am now, I've moved over to the side of the juice ain't worth the squeeze. it was the combination of the recent videos what Richard Sherman said look

people close to the situation much closer than we are people like Dante Wittner and T.J. Hushmanzada and Richard Sherman and George Kittle and others he doesn't have a lot of support right now and there are a lot of people that seem to know a lot more about him that are saying beware this guy doesn't have all his marbles Now, he's got a few supporters.

LaShawn McCoy is out there supporting him. The guy Grant Cohn that I had on radio didn't necessarily only support Brandon Ayyuk. He said that he's not handling it well and he doesn't know how well he's doing and he's concerned about him, but he also holds the 49ers equally culpable for this whole thing. You know, for me, it's not even about what he's doing on social media. You know, it's not, you know, what he's doing on social media has nothing to do with the kind of football he might be capable of playing. You know, it's not like when he's emptying money out of that backpack and throwing it all over the closet floor, that means, you know, all of a sudden he's not going to be a good route runner or a good blocker or he's going to run 4-8 instead of 4-4. that's not what it is at all.

You know, I had somebody, more than one person, say, you're getting spooked by social media videos. It has nothing to do with how he could play. I get that. But it's what it reflects, you know, and what it reflects more than anything else, is that he's been more interested in bashing the 49ers than expressing a desire to play football.

And then beyond that, it's his inaction because he has taken no action to express his desire to play football. The reports are he is not applied for reinstatement, which is something he has to do. He did not show up for the OTAs. He could have done that. He could have applied for reinstatement. He could have shown up for the OTAs. And he could have forced the 49ers hand. You know, at training camp, if he doesn't show up for training camp, if he doesn't apply for reinstatement and then show up for training camp and get medically cleared, what is he doing?

That's to me, forget the fact that the way he's handled this is a reveal on character. It just is. And by the way, losing $30 million of guaranteed money because, you know, you know, you know, you. you didn't post for a knee check once a month is a big reveal on judgment. More than anything else, what's been revealed is he's very immature. There is no question about that. But I think the most important thing and the most important takeaway from all this is his lack of action.

His lack of action says, I'm more interested in being an entertainer, in bashing my former employer, then I am in playing football. Because there is a path for him that he could have already taken to getting back to playing football. If he had applied for reinstatement months ago and shown up for OTAs and the 49ers didn't want to risk him in OTAs because, God forbid, he gets injured and then they're on the hook for his base salary, you know, moving forward, or whatever it is, he could be literally in Washington right now

as a player on the team. He could be. Now, that assumes the 49ers would cut him and get frustrated with him being, you know, there at OTAs, and maybe they'll get frustrated with him being at training camp. We'll see how it plays out. But he's got

to take some action. He's got to prove to somebody, I would hope, Adam Peters. He's got to prove that he's actually interested in what he says he's interested in, that he can affect the change with some action. And he's been actionless when it comes to the substance stuff he could be doing to get back, you know, to football.

I mean, we don't know about his true physical, you know, abilities. We've heard what George Kittle said. We're certainly not sure about his mental capability. There's so much we don't know. this is definitely one of the weirdest, strangest sagas in recent memory with an NFL player. And the truth is, we don't know enough to have, like, the strongest opinion. Doesn't stop us from having strong opinions, but nobody really knows what's going on except for the 49ers. And I'm not even sure Washington really has a grasp on everything.

that's going on. And meantime, Stefan Diggs played last year. He's working out and he looks ready to roll. But the upside of Brandon Ayyuk, the ceiling, the impact, is much greater in terms of its potential than it is with Steph Diggs. And the risk environment would be very low. But this is, Tommy said it yesterday. I thought it was the best point made about these videos and the way he's behaved.

He has made it more difficult for Adam Peters to pull the trigger on this if that's been his intention all along. Because now he's really got to put his neck out there. You know, he's got to stick his neck out there and tell the owner, I got this. If it doesn't work out, it's on me. If Brandon Ayuk hadn't, you know, produced one social media video, that makes them look a little bit off,

makes them look very vindictive, very immature, and the kind of guy that an owner who's watched the culture change in two years from horrific to very positive, this is a guy that is a risk, even if it's not an expense risk. And if Brandon I, you hadn't done any of these videos and had stayed sort of out of the limelight, you know, and gotten his reinstatement and got the 49ers to release him,

it's a pretty easy sell. Yeah, you've got to explain what happened in San Francisco. You've got to explain why the league, why the 49ers were able to avoid all of that guaranteed money, and the league's union didn't come to protect him. There's still a lot of explaining, but the last two weeks, it's just gotten to the, the point where I'm sure the owner's like, I don't know, man, we got a pretty good thing going here culture-wise, and this guy is a three-ring circus. So if you're going to do this, you better be right. All right. We'll get to the GM of the Washington Wizards, Will Dawkins, next after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, listen up. America is turning

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I know there's some news that we can't talk about until free agency and the lead calendar begins. early next month. But let's start with AJ, the number one pick overall. AJ DeBonsa from BYU. Take me, take my listeners kind of through the process and how you ultimately landed on A.J. DeBanza. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Happy to be on, as always.

Like you said, a really exciting week for us and being able to come up with new wizard players and have conversations, like you said, some will talk about. But the draft was really exciting for us, especially AJ, adding someone as dynamic as he is to our basketball team. We feel really lucky to have that opportunity. And once we found out, I guess it was beginning of May, you have the number one pick. You just make sure that you go back and you do your research and you spend a lot of time reviewing everything you've gotten on the person.

And then we spent time on campus at BYU. We got back to his closest teammates and had real conversations to learn about them. And I think at that point, you bring him into town, you have him here for 48 hours, taking him the dinner and watch film sessions with him, get him to meet the people so that he can get a feel for the environment, and then put him to a workout on the court and have them just answer some questions. And the good part about AJ is he wanted to come in, he wanted to visit, he wanted to be here and get on the court and show why he should be number one.

And shortly after that visit, I think we all got in the room and realized he was our guy. When you won the lottery, because you obviously knew the worst case going into the lottery in terms of where you'd pick. You knew what the best case was. You ended up getting the best case in the number one pick. Do you have a list of like, I don't know, just I'll throw out a random number, 12 possible players that immediately gets paired down

to a much shorter number of players now that you've got number one? Yeah, it was weird because it was more of a calming presence over our group. I don't know myself specifically on that day because we knew our worst case was five. Right. And we also knew how talented this draft really was. So I probably had six or seven names in my head that I could walk away from this draft feeling really good about.

And then a few that you feel great about. And when you get the opportunity to hear one, you jump into that list of, wow, we get to pick before anyone else and have our best player available for the first time since I've been here. So again, it was exciting, but it was a peaceful time because these guys are good young men and good basketball players. and we knew we get a great player in our worst case at five and got our best case at one. When did you know it was going to be A.J. DeBanza? It's weird because when Michael and I first got this job a little over three years ago, when we sat down with Mr. Leonsas and the ownership group and just kind of put a plan together if we were to go this route for a rebuild,

we targeted the last few drafts. As a drafts, we wanted to make sure we could pick up a high-level talent. and his name was on there, even three years ago. Really? He's always been someone, yeah, he's always been someone that our grassroots staff knew about and always made sure we were paying attention to. So we knew how gifted he was going to be. A lot had to work out for him to continue to grow and play on that path.

But he's been one of the top targets for a while, and you get an opportunity to kind of get into the draft and they've added other guys that we had to really take deep thought about, and we brought some of those guys in. and he was the last one to come in and probably a couple days after that workout middle of June, we felt pretty good about him being a guy. I mean, I'm a big look ahead, you know,

to future mock drafts kind of a guy and he was on that list, but so was Darren Peterson and certainly Cam Boosor was. I mean, if you go back two years, I think Booser was sort of the consensus kind of, you know, 2026 future mock draft number one overall. So DeBonce has been on your radar for a while,

but I'm assuming Peterson and Boozer were on your radar for a while as well. Absolutely. And that's why we hire different departments. We're blessed to have a really robust staff, some that focus on just pro, some that focus on just amateur while they're in college, and others that focus on just grassroots so that they can be experts in those areas, and they give you all the information on those guys.

I probably get one or two pockets during the year of the summer to go see them. And, of course, those guys had great, great high school careers, and we've been following them, too. Other than basketball, you know, how they play on the court, what are the, you know, one, two, three most important things that you have to learn about the player and the person? Yeah, I think it starts with the person first, if I'm being completely honest. We've got to add the right person with the right character and qualities that we look for off the court because we really want to protect our environment and enhance it. So I say the character, the work ethic, just the passion for getting better is important. Someone who wants to learn is curious and inquisitive because that's really how you make those steps. But then once you kind of get through that and you feel good about it, it's what kind of drives them, what motivates them, how can they connect with their teammates?

They do a few assessments off the court where you learn more about their physicality and their ability to move, kind of their mental progress and things at that age or so. it is a well-rounded, robust process we put them through, but at the end of the day, they ought to be able to play basketball and we do some stuff on the court, too. So, Will, I think NBA fans understand that in your sport, championship teams are almost always led by true elite-level superstars. You know, it's hard to find many championship teams over the last 20 years or so that didn't have an obvious top-five MVP-level player on it. And I think there's also this impression that the best chance to swing for one of those players is with the number one pick, even though, as you know, the best players don't always come at number one.

They come in the middle of the first round. They come in the second round. We've seen that recently with Brunson and Yokic a few years ago. And that is kind of the setup for this question. Did you guys view picking number one overall as a spot where you needed to take the player that had the highest ceiling, you know, the most potential to be a superstar four, five, six years down the road? Is that the way you approached it? Yeah, I think with AJ, he's someone who would go at the top of a lot of draft.

So when you run across a town like him, you know he's special and you can identify it. But we're always going to pick the right person first. But then the attributes that we look for, we're trying to just double down on size, athleticism, high-level processing, ability to make. plays with the ball and without the ball and be a two-way player that plays on defense, and he does all of that. And our scouts, we talk about it all the time. We're not weathermen.

We're more weathermen than newscasters. We don't just want to tell you what's going on right now for the next couple of years. We want the seven-day forecast, the seven-year forecast. And we pay more attention to the weather on these players and trying to predict who's going to be the best player seven years from now, not just a few days from that on Summer League. And we think AJ's that guy. I'm a weather enthusiast, and let me tell you, they can barely tell you what yesterday's weather was, let alone six, you know, seven weeks, seven months or seven years down the road.

I don't think they were accurate. I said they gave it to you. Yeah, hopefully, hopefully you hit on this long-range forecast. Who does he remind you of, current player, past player? Yeah, he's definitely a mix, because he's got elite size at 610, but ball handling skills. he gets the Tracy McGrady one from time and time, which I get. But I just think he's someone that can create for multiple players. And I think once Richie Saunders went down, he started seeing double and triple teams and starting making the right read. So I think he's a big guard that makes plays kind of like the Grant Hills,

Tracy McGrady's kind of in that vein, but has a little bit more length, a little bit more athletic season to be a two-way defensive player as well. So he's going to be AJ Devonso, but you see little parts from other players as well. Let me just tell you about an observation I made about him during the course of the year and then leading into this draft. He tested off the charts athletically. But for me, like I don't see in the games like a Tracy McGrady, a Blake Griffin, a Vince Carter type of explosive athlete. I've been more focused and drawn to sort of his skill. and his process.

I know he's long. I know he's big, and he's, of course, is athletic. But I think when people see that he tested, you know, ridiculously high, you know, at the Combine, they're thinking, Tracy McGrady. McGrady was an explosive athlete. Do you see AJ that way? Yeah, I think the best part with him is he's, his athleticism.

He has it like those guys, but it's translatable. It's functional athleticism that he can tap in. to get low, get over screen, get to an offensive rebound. And then he has those moments where he jumps and puts a put back dunk on someone's head that he throws that raw athleticism. So we do a lot of tests, a lot of biomechanics, and he tested the best of any athlete we've brought in to the last four drafts, just in terms of his functional athleticism.

At the end of the day, we think that means more than just the raw burst that some of the other players have. Got it. I understand it, but for us, it's even more impressive. for him. Yeah. No, but so you understand what I was trying to describe, like from, like I think about, you know,

Dominique Wilkins and Vince Carter and some of the real quick, springy explosive athletes, and you're saying it's functional athleticism as much of more so that's important than that explosive springy athleticism.

I grew up where Vince Carter was one of my favorite players. I got to need about a UMass basketball camp when I was a little and followed them forever after that. Him and Dominique, those guys had the pop, but also the power to finish, like you said, with Blake Griffin. So I think this one's a little different. Yeah.

He's a fluid, fluid athlete that has those moments where he can get up like that. But yeah, it is definitely different. You know, he compared himself to somebody I'm very familiar with because I'm a Maryland guy, but he compared himself to Len Bias. And I always will have said that Len Bias wouldn't have been Michael Jordan. He was actually much more like Dominique Wilkins, because he was a forward. Jordan was a shooting guard, and Jordan had a much better handle,

but bias was an absurd shooter and was, you know, as athletic and powerful, as you said, like Sean Kemp powerful, you know, at the rim. Anyway, all right, how does he fit? How doesn't he fit? It's kind of how I thought. He really amplifies the group. obviously he's coming into a situation where he doesn't have to dominate the ball when you have other established players

like Anthony Davis, Alex Vard, Tray Young, Heshawn George, Tray Johnson, like playing next to him. He doesn't have to carry the offensive load right away, but his size, his versatility allows us to switch defensively and have seven-foot wing span out there at all times. And then multiple decision makers are hard to guard, and with his size be able to pass over the defense score, create out of the mid-range, out of the low post attacks, which is there's a lot of

left to grow and be in his game, but there's a lot we like about him. So he fits with a lot of our lineups, and eventually he'll be even more of our offensive engine as he gets more comfortable in the league. I know you've got to run, but I got two more quick ones. First of all, just tell me about Anthony Davis and what you're expecting from him with this organization, hopefully, in the upcoming season. Yeah, I would say we've had great conversations all summer just like all of our players with Anthony. He's aligned and he's starting his back workout to make sure

he's ready to go for the season, just like all of our other players this jump season. So we anticipate Anthony to be a big part of what we're doing moving forward. I think there's some buzz right now around this franchise that has not existed, quite honestly, for nearly a decade. I mean, there have been moments

when Russell Westbrook was here briefly and Beal was leading the league in scoring, but these teams weren't threatening in terms of being a contender. It's been since May of 2017, when they lost a seventh in deciding game in the conference semifinals in Boston, that there's been real legitimate hope and buzz around this team. You told me the last time you were on with me, it's time to start a new run here and the goals will be different. And the environment for developing these players has to be with winning in mind, et cetera. So I'll finish

with, in your most realistic dreams, not wildest, dreams, but most realistic dreams, what do you think the result could be in the upcoming 2026, 2027 season to keep that buzz going? Yeah, I would say I feel the buzz. When we took the job, we were told it was a basketball city, and I could just tell even we were going through some of our lean years, the fans understood, and they were able to get behind some of the players. And nothing's going to change for us this year.

We'll get our group together and continue to work hard and not to be. skip any steps and kind of get better day by day. But the goal is just be more competitive. Be more competitive night in and night out, kind of stack the days and see where we had. But we anticipate being in more games. We anticipate when we roll into our arena, teams take it more seriously,

and that comes out of learning curve. But again, I think we'll be much better at the end of next season than we are at the beginning, and hopefully we reach that point sooner than later. But again, we're trying to find sustained success. So whenever we get close, we're not just there for a year or two. our guys are in it pretty consistently.

So however long that takes it'll take, but I think the fans should have hope and believe that we're getting better. Thanks for doing this. Hope you're well. Let's do it again soon. Sounds good. Thanks again. Wizards General Manager, Will Dawkins, everybody. When we come back, my good friend Al Galdi,

will jump on with us and we'll talk about the Nats' bullpen issues and probably some Brandon Ayuk as well. We'll get to that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, I've been telling you about Chime for over a year now. Chime has become America's number one choice for banking. They've changed the way people bank offering the most rewarding fee-free banking. They're not like traditional old banks that charge you overdraft and monthly fees. They've got thousands of fee-free ATMs.

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All right now is my good friend. Al Galdi from the Al Galdi podcast. You can get that wherever you get your podcasts. Galdi also does a Nats podcast. It's called the Nats Chat podcast. He does that with our friend Mark Zuckerman. You can follow Al on X at Al Galdi. And we will talk about Brandon Ayuk, but I'm reaching out to you because I need someone on today's show that can speak intelligently about the Nats bullpen situation.

I mean, three horrific outings in a row against the Phillies. It's one of the worst bullpens we've seen, I think, in a long time. And I'm wondering when enough is enough. I understand that this season wasn't supposed to go the way it was supposed to go, that there's a big, long-term rebuild in motion, but at what point is there risk in not doing something about the bullpen? Well, I think that's the question. I think that things are going to happen. The question is to what extreme are things going to happen? Like, there are things that you can do whether you're rebuilding or not.

You can aggressively acquire guys via waiver claims. You can aggressively option guys to AAA and summon guys up from. AAA and just keep that revolving door moving until, you know, you find a few guys who you trust. The big thing, though, is going to be the trade deadline. And we're still weeks away from that. It's not until August 3rd this year. And I think these next few weeks are so important because if the team does remain in playoff contention, and it's crazy that we're saying that, but the team is legitimately

in playoff contention, then I think if you're Paul Toboni, you do sort of steer off that path of this was supposed to be season number one of a restarted rebrand. And, you know, you try to get some bullpen help, and it doesn't have to cost a ton. I mean, no one is going to campaign for this team giving up a high-level prospect for a reliever, but relief pitching help doesn't have to cost a ton come a trade deadline. And if you can get, you know, a few guys who can help you out, that may be all you need. You don't need the bullpen to be great. You just need it to be decent.

And the problem right now is that the bullpen is horrible. This reminds me in a lot of ways of the commanders where it's like the offense is what leads the way. The offense, in theory, is great. You just need the defense to be decent. And the problem is that the defense in recent years has not been decent. This bullpen is atrocious. It's one of the worst bullpens we've ever seen. And that's saying something that that's had so many bad bullpens. This is a bullpen that gives up a ton of home run. This is a bullpen that doesn't strike guys out. That's a horrible combination. And that's what we're left with here right now. And these last three nights were brutal because that's had a chance to win this series, maybe even sweep this series,

and instead ended up losing three and a four. Yeah, I mean, so it's very obvious just how bad it is, but you're talking deadline, and the deadline, as you mentioned, is August 3rd. If it continues this way, you're going to get to the deadline, and you're going to be out of it because of your bullpen. So would you have, or would you expect them to have more of a sense of urgency trying to do something well in advance? I think the urgency has picked up.

I'm not like anticipating a move today or tomorrow, but obviously you can make a trade weeks before the deadline. You don't have to wait until August 3rd. And so, yeah, I mean, look, I think if you're Toboni, you're making calls. I think you're making calls anyway, regardless of the state of things, just because that's how things work. And I think it just becomes the question of what's the price. But, you know, teams aren't dumb, right?

Like, they know that the Nats bullpen is wretched. They know that the Nats may be desperate for bullpen help. And so if you're Toboni, you know, you don't want to get suckered into paying too much for something. It's a tricky spot because nobody, including the Nats, ever expected this team to be this good this season. In a lot of ways, the Nats are a victim of their own success

because the plan was never for this bullpen to have to protect so many leads. But the offense has been so good, like, shockingly good, that this team finds itself in wildcard contention. And so it's like this fascinating dilemma of, okay, I don't think, look, I certainly would not advocate for Tobonit to abandon

the long-term plan. Everything this new regime is doing so far is so good. I mean, to me, you've got to stick to the course, but you know, you can sort of take some liberties and say, all right, hey, we're in it this year. It may not take much for us to make the postseason as the third wild card. We just need the bullpen to get better. I mean, what would be wonderful is that if you saw in-season improvement with the bullpen. It's a funny deal. A few weeks ago, the bullpen actually was doing fairly well, and it has, like, unraveled in recent weeks. You know, right now, I don't know that there's anyone who you really feel good about. And that's the other thing with the bullpen.

You know, one or two guys would help, but I don't know that one or two guys fixes this thing. Like, this is a bullpen that top to bottom has problems. And that's, it's really hard to fix that during a season. You can overhaul a bullpen in an offseason, hard to overhaul a bullpen in season. Yeah, I mean, like, before I called you, I was just thinking about it and looking at the last three results, going back and looking at some of the others. And I'm like, you know, no one expected them to be here, as you described. It's been a magical season based on the expectations.

And certainly it's been that offensively. The starting pitching's even been much better than anybody thought. And I wonder that, you know, if the players start to look to, you know, the general manager and the front office to do something about it, because they want to be in this thing. and they're providing the opportunity to be in this thing. And then we get to the eighth and ninth inning, and it's gone south. I mean, these three games, I mean, I don't know how many times teams have rallied three consecutive nights down to their last strike. Well, they were in the first two that they came back from.

But this really has to leave like a lasting mark. And I just wonder if you could actually, in your process of trying to. to rebuild, you could lose some people in that dugout by not doing something to try to keep them competitive since they've been playing so well. I would hope that that wouldn't happen. I mean, I think something that does work against that happening is that a big part of the offensive success is the new regime, the way that these players are talking about how they are being coached, how they are being prepared.

it is like night and day, man, from the way things had been. This is like a rebirth here, and the Nats finally are in on analytics and sports science. The Nats this season, it's not just that they have the number one offense in baseball in terms of runs scored, number one in baseball in first inning run. This team is so well prepared to face opposing starting pitchers, something that got totally lost from the loss on Thursday. The Nats face arguably the best pitcher in the sport right now, Christopher Sanchez, and get him for four runs in the bottom of the first inning.

He ended up allowing five runs in the start. Made the guy look like a journeyman when he's having this all-world season for Philadelphia. So, like, I mean, I understand what you're saying, but to me, if I'm a Nats position player, I don't know how you don't have buy-in with this front office, with this regime, with this coaching staff, because this team is in a position that, again, nobody thought, and these players are performing at levels that they hadn't previously.

CJ Abrams is having a career season offensively. You know, a guy named Curtis Mead, all of a sudden is Mike Schmidt as the everyday third basement. We're seeing Luis Garcia Jr. on track for nearly 30 home runs. We're seeing Cape Irreuis flugging 500. Cape Verre Ruiz, who is considered a bust as a catcher, has actually been one of the best offensive catchers in baseball so far this season. Not theme Nunez who couldn't hit, you know, to save his life, all of a sudden, this guy in the month of June has an OPS in the 900.

So many good things are happening offensively. And of course, the players get some of the credit. I mean, I don't want to completely rob them of that. But like so much of this is the coaching and the process and the way the front office is preparing these guys. So I would hope that that would work against any sort of anger from the players about the bullpen. With Nunez, it's the stolen basis too, which he's amongst the league leaders in.

Have you been kind of following the Dylan Cruz saga since he came up? it started very slowly, but all of the sudden, he's really hot. I mean, I think he's something like 10 of his last 24 bats. He's got hits. So this is a promising development because earlier in the season, people were down on him, and obviously he didn't even start in the big leagues. Yeah, for sure. And the odd thing with Cruz has been that he, during his stints at the major league level,

has hit balls hard. He just has not elevated balls. so he is not hit for much power. And what we have started to see, although you still need to see a lot more of it, is he is doing a better job of elevating bulls. So in recent weeks, he's had some homers, and he's had some doubles.

Now, again, he's got to do a lot more. He's got to sustain it. But we're seeing him do that. And the other thing with Cruz, and this has even been the case when he hasn't hit, he runs the bases really well. He's super aggressive. He defensively has done well.

It really is just a matter of his exit velocity, being put in the air and not the ground. And if he can do that, then I think he could still end up working out. It is frustrating. You know, when he got drafted with, remember, the number two overall pick in 2003, the book on him was that he was major league ready, that this is not a guy who's going to take long in the minors. He was supposed to hit the ground running in the majors, and that obviously has not happened. So it is concerning that it is taking this long. It shouldn't be this difficult for a guy that highly touted to be a hit, you know, to be the player he was drafted it to be. But, you know, if you look at MLB, there are a lot of different paths to greatness.

You know, just because you get off to a bad start doesn't mean that you end up being a bad player. I still have hope for the guy, to your point lately, he certainly is contributing. It's just a matter of him sustaining it, because that's obviously what's going to be to tell of whether he's the player who you want him to be. James Woods, 0 for 15 with eight strikeouts in the last three games. And the only reason I bring it up is that he did have a major drought last year. Is there anything that anybody's concerned about because he hasn't hit a home run, I think, in two weeks?

Yeah, so he actually got off to a rough start to the regular season. Then he caught fire, and now he's cooled off here lately. And, you know, he's not even necessarily hitting balls hard right now. He's not drawing walks right now. This is kind of reminiscent of the slump he went into in the second half of last season. He's a great player. I would fully expect him to come out of this. I actually think this weekend might be a perfect.

opponent in the Orioles and Camden Yards. The key for him and Abrams, you know, the two guys who have been the offensive leaders by far, is that these two guys in previous seasons had been streaky. These guys, for the most part, this season have not been streaky, especially Abrams. Every time you think Abrams might be starting to dip, he has a big series, and he comes right out of it. And I think that's so key for him. And with Wood, it's kind of the same thing.

He got off to the slow start, like first week, let's say, and then he got going. And so it was like it wasn't really that flow of a start. And now he's dipped down in recent games, but, you know, if he can get going again in these next few games, then it's not really that much of a dip. So, you know, that's the key for these guys. Nobody questions how good they can be. It's just a matter of maintaining it. I think with Wood, he's at his best when two things are happening.

He's drawing walks and he's going the opposite way. He's going to strike out. I actually am not that bothered by him doing that. But like the real tells for Wood are when he's drawn walks and he's going the opposite way and we haven't seen a ton of that here lately. All right, let's get to Brandon Ayy with Galdi. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Get a chance and you don't mind doing it.

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following the podcast is important for us as well. Just hit the plus button or the follow button. All right, we continue with Al. All right, what have you been talking about on your podcast as it relates to Brandon Ayyuk? Yes, this is the summer of Iyuk. Happy summer of Brandon Ayuk. Well, the one thing that I come back to, and this is kind of my North Star in this old saga, is Washington in Adam Peters, and Jaden Daniels and Wes Welker and Anthony Lynn has guys who have extensive paths with IUC.

And in the cases of Peters Welker and Lynn, guys who also have extensive paths with the Niners. So whatever Washington chooses to do, you'd like to think will be based on intel and knowledge and accurate information on where IUC is at physically, where IUC is at mentally, and what is the truth about what happened between him and the Niners. And that's what I fall back on. None of us have all the information here, right? We're all kind of guessing about what is true, what is false, what actually happened, what might have happened, et cetera.

I don't think anyone would say that he or she wants IUC on Washington if IUC isn't right physically or mentally. So how do you figure that out? It's tough. I don't know how you figure that out. But, you know, if there's a team that can figure it out, you'd like to think that it's our team given Peters and Daniels and Welker and Lynn and other people potentially too who can have some intel here.

And so that's what I come back to. But beyond that, yeah, I mean, I'm still open to him coming here. But of course, it has to be that he's right physically and he's right mentally. And, you know, the metal thing, I'm not sure how you figure that out. Like without, you know, giving him, you know, an evaluation of some kind. I don't know how you get to that. I'm willing to buy that he is well mentally and that what he's doing on Instagram is just him kind of trolling the Niners.

You know, it might not be the wisest course of action, but it doesn't mean that he's, you know, really dealing with a serious issue. But, of course, this is not normal behavior. And, you know, if someone told you that there was an issue, I don't think anyone would be shocked by that. And if he does have an issue, I don't think Washington should want him. Like, it's not Washington's job to fix him. You know, that onus would fall on his family and the NFLPA, et cetera.

So, you know, the truth here matters. I just hope, like, heck, that Washington has that truth. and, you know, hopefully with Peters and the rest of those guys, our team does have that truth. Yeah. No, you're right. Nobody has the entire truth. Nobody has all of the information. And it's really hard, even though it's never stopped us in the past, but it's really hard to have definitive opinions when you're missing so much of the information, which is the case here in this very weird, strange saga with this player. Outside of the two buildings, the building in Northern California and the building in Northern Virginia, I don't think anybody knows enough to know for sure what the right thing

to do is. I would even suggest that the building in Northern Virginia is lacking some information on this right now. They'll have to get all of that information before making a decision if it comes to that. But this is obviously a hard one. Anyway, all right, let's finish with this. Did you want DeBanza? Yeah, I wanted DeBanza. You know, Peterson, it's interesting. As time went on, it felt like more and more people thought that Peterson was the better prospect. Like I saw Jay Billis felt that way. Jeremy Wu of ESPN felt that way. So I just felt like with Peterson, there were the questions about what happened this past season. And this is not a pick that the Wizards can afford to miss on. Like the pressure on Tuesday night for the

Wizards to get that pick right was immense. Like, you know, you can't overstate it. And the bar here is so high, right? Like, you're not taking whoever you took it one to be like a nice player or a good player. Like, you're taking him to be a transformational player and elite player, a guy who can lead you deep into the playoffs, if not to an NBA title. And I just felt like with the Bonsa, there was more certainty there, you know,

to the extent that you can be certain. There's more of a high floor, high-feeling scenario with him, because there aren't the questions about, you know, personality or want to. There's extreme athleticism with Devonsa. Athleticism usually speaks to upside. And so, you know, I just felt more comfortable with him being the pick. But if Darren Peterson is right, it's entirely plausible that he ends up being the best player in this draft. The worry some part is this.

And, you know, if you know NBA draft history, which I know you do and a lot of people listening to, you know that it's not common that each of the first two picks, is a hit. Like usually, there is a right call and there is a wrong call. And so, you know, like you'd like to say, well, maybe just both guys end up being great. Well, maybe. But history tells you that that's probably not the case, that there probably was a right call or a wrong call. And it's so important that the Wizards made the right call. I do like this regime of Michael Winger and Will Dawkins a ton. So far, I do like what those guys have done in the draft. So, you know, I trust their judgment on this. It sounds more and more like the Bonsa,

was the guy for a while. You know, we can't be certain of that, but just sort of listening between the lines on some things. It kind of sounds that way. So I'm excited. This is the best I felt about the Wizard since May 2017. I'm pumped for next season. And I think there's a real chance here that finally our team might actually have some sustained

success. Thank you for doing this. And I'll talk to you soon. Appreciate it as always. All right. Have a good one. Al Galdi, everybody. That'll do it for the show.

Enjoy the weekend back on Monday. What's up everybody? It's your boy, Beattie. I'm back in action and back on tour this fall. Go to www.com. Get your tickets and watch us. Watch out.