It has been their mantra since buying the Nationals from Major League Baseball in May of 2006.
The Lerner Family — headed by managing principal owner Theodore N. Lerner and his son, Mark, along with partner and team president Stan Kasten — has continuously preached the need for player development.
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But on Friday, the Nationals failed to sign first-round draft pick Aaron Crow, a right-handed pitcher from the University of Missouri whom they chose ninth in the June draft. Instead, Crow is pitching for the Fort Worth Cats, an independent league team, after the Nationals and his advisors, the Hendricks Brothers, couldn’t agree on a contract by Friday’s midnight deadline. Only two of the other 46 first-round or supplemental-round draft picks failed to do so.
So, is the Nationals’ plan to build a winner through the farm system still in place? And can the organization, which for now eschews signing big-name free agents, convince fans that player development is still the top priority?
“It’s a delay — and I hate delays when we need to get good as fast as possible,” Kasten said in his first public comments since losing Crow. “But it doesn’t change our big picture and we’ll continue to move on.”
Crow was the second pitcher selected, a 21-year-old bulldog the team’s scouting department had watched closely for two years and who it believed was “the type of pitcher that would lead us to a World Series down the road,” assistant general manager Mike Rizzo said on draft day.
The Nationals bristle at suggestions from critics that they will not pay top dollar for young talent. And they have plenty of ammo to counter that argument. Last year the club doled out $7.9 million in bonus money to its draft picks, the fifth most of any team, according to Baseball America. Even without Crow, this year’s bonus numbers amount to more than $5 million.
As compensation for losing Crow, the Nationals receive the No. 10 pick in next year’s draft and are in the running for the No. 1 pick also.
“It will be costly. But we’re obviously prepared to do that,” Kasten said. “Again, our history of signing guys and our history of flexibility and creativity in signing guys is a very good one. So there’s no question my expectation is that we will continue to sign our top [draft picks].”
