LOVERRO: Rizzo wheels and deals another winning draft for Nationals

OPINION:

After the New York Mets selected catcher Hobie Landrith with their first pick in the National League expansion draft, Manager Casey Stengel was asked why they made that choice. “You have to have a catcher because if you don’t, you’re likely to have a lot of passed balls,” he said.

He’s right, you know.

The Washington Nationals took that advice to heart. They picked three catchers in the Major League Baseball draft, one of them being a gift from the Kansas City Royals — or a theft by Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, depending on your point of view. From where I sit, it looked like a theft, and, really, the story of the Nationals’ 2024 draft.

The day before the draft, Rizzo traded reliever Hunter Harvey to the Royals for their second-ranked minor league prospect, Cayden Wallace, and a competitive balance draft choice — the 39th selection in this year’s draft.

That pick turned out to be catcher Caleb Lomavita, out of the University of California, Berkeley — the top catcher in this year’s draft, according to Baseball America. Lomavita, 21, was a Dick Howser Trophy semifinalist for the best college player this year. He batted .322 with 13 doubles, 15 home runs, 52 RBI, 51 runs scored and 12 stolen bases.

He had one passed ball this year.

This is a player who, for all intents and purposes, didn’t exist for the Nationals 24 hours before the draft. Washington wasn’t going to use their first selection, the 10th pick in the first round, on Lomavita. That would have been too high, and he might not have been available by the time they got another chance in the draft five picks later.

But then Royals GM John Picollo gave Rizzo his gift — a present that also included Wallace, a third baseman who was the Royals’ second–ranked prospect. He was Kansas City’s second selection in the 2022 draft. He has been sidelined this year, first with an oblique injury and then a fractured rib, but in 201 minor league games, he’s batted .265 with 18 home runs and 119 RBI, with 29 stolen bases and 112 runs scored.

Again, another player who didn’t exist in the Nationals farm system the day before the draft.

For these gifts, Rizzo gave up a player he picked up off the scrapheap in March 2022, pitcher Hunter Harvey, a former first-round pick in 2013 who then revived his career here in Washington as a quality reliever with two strong seasons. But this year Harvey has struggled, with a 4.20 ERA in 43 appearances, and the time may have been right for Washington to part ways.

Rizzo didn’t rob the Royals blind. They are in the American League wild-card race and they need bullpen help. But they paid a robbery price.

The Royals might put a block on future phone calls from Rizzo. I’m betting San Diego won’t let general manager A.J. Preller take any more from the Washington GM after the Juan Soto deal that sent shortstop C.J. Abrams to Washington, where this season he became an All-Star. That trade also netted Washington starting pitcher Mackenzie Gore, baseball’s top prospect James Wood and two other promising young players.

That was like baseball’s version of the Lufthansa heist.

Washington had the 10th pick in the first round and selected 21-year-old outfielder/shortstop Seaver King out of Wake Forest, one of the best hitters in college baseball. King batted .308 with 21 home runs, 64 RBI and a .954 OPS. He played most of his games in the outfield, but impressed the Nationals with his play at shortstop, according to Danny Haas, the team’s new vice president of amateur scouting.

This would have been a lot sexier choice if he had been named after Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. But he told mlb.com that “I think I was supposed to be a girl, and they had something picked out. And then I wasn’t, so they had to pivot.

“He was a pitcher,” King said. “I don’t really care about those guys too much.”

Got to like that attitude. Still, it’s a great baseball name.

Of course, there’s no guarantee he’ll be a king in the major leagues. Projecting talent in baseball is the most difficult of all.

But this draft can be qualified as a win for the Nationals, if for no other reason than Mike Rizzo pulled the top catcher available and one of the top prospects from another team out of thin air.

• You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.