Photo Sol Tucker/Nats.Talk

Top of the 5ᵗʰ inning belonged to Foster Griffin in that sold-out stadium. His improbable season was honored with an All-Star invitation. Hard to believe it was almost three weeks ago when Griffin showed the baseball world at the All-Star game that he belonged. His entire MLB experience before this season was a total of 8.0 innings. Technically, the lefty is still a rookie. His age, 31, would make you think he was a grizzled veteran. His road was more circuitous than others to get to this point.

This all comes 12 years after Griffin was drafted in the first round in 2014. He had that pedigree, and none of that mattered when he needed TJ surgery or years later when the Blue Jays released him after the 2022 season. On that mound in the All-Star game, his inning was electric. Two straight strikeouts as part of an impressive 1-2-3 inning. The rookie had the best showing of any of the NL pitchers in the game.

What happened last night to Griffin was hopefully just an outlier on a great season. He gave up 6-earnies in arguably his worst game of the season given the magnitude of the game. A Washington Nationals win and they go to 1-game over .500 instead of dropping 1-game under .500. That was the reality of the situation in a 6-2 loss.

When you have a Golden Goose laying golden eggs, you want to keep that going. Griffin set a Nats record of eight consecutive starts giving up at most one earned run, and that came to an end in his previous start. The pitch counts and innings seemed to be taking a toll if you looked at how he has shoved to get through his previous start.

What Griffin could-and-can count on is his seven pitch mix that often is enough to get out of jams. Hitters didn’t know what pitch was coming next. But last night, a cutter that didn’t cut and a sweeper that didn’t sweep, were the two big blows that made Griffin look like anything but an All-Star on this night.

Did this have anything to do with fatigue after pitching 108 pitches in his last outing? That wasn’t even his season high which he hit at the end of June with a 112 pitch count. Who knows. Sometimes you never know. You do worry though at some point if all of that mileage on his arm could catch up with him — or was this as his manager, Blake Butera, said that last night’s dud was more about the weight on his mind about the trade deadline. You sure hope it’s the latter.

“Foster’s been going through a lot. All the talks that he’s been involved in with his name out there on social media, and what’s real — and what’s not real. And dealing with a lot mentally. … I was proud of him to be able to go out there and do what he did up until the 6ᵗʰ inning.”

— manager Blake Butera said

Griffin’s ERA jumped over 3.00 after last nights shellacking from his 2.68 coming out of his first game after the All-Star break. For his sake, he better hope that it was just the trade deadline stress. If it was arm fatigue, I guess we will know in his next start that is scheduled for after the trade deadline. Right?

For anyone who has watched Griffin pitch, he is stoic on the mound. He doesn’t show a lot of emotion. His journey from TJ survivor to out of MLB after a DFA and then to Japan showed that he could pitch. He’s come so far at the age of 31. Rumors of an 8-figure contract proposal from President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, wasn’t accepted. We are just a little over two full days to the end of the trade deadline on Monday.

Sometimes you bet on yourself and that adds even more pressure to deliver. Last night, Griffin didn’t deliver when the Nats needed him most. The result, a 3-game losing streak. And after last night’s game, Griffin talked to the media.

“Truthfully, I’m human, right? It’s not easy. The last week or so has been — it is what it is. But we’re professionals, right? It’s part of the job. [We] still have to go out there and play and execute. So that’s not an excuse for how things went tonight. But that’s just the situation I’m in right now.”

“All I can say is that I love everybody in this room. My teammates, they’ve accepted me from day one. Even the front office has really taken a chance on me coming back from Japan. So I’m super appreciative for all of that. We don’t know what the next few days hold, but I appreciate all the support from my teammates and people outside as well. But I’m just going to see what happens.”

“I will say, to [Paul Toboni’s] credit, he has been very transparent — but there’s only so much he can relay, I think. The trade deadline is in a few days, and I’m sure he’s had calls, etc. But nothing has really happened yet. So I’m sure there’s not a whole lot that he can relay to me at this point. That’s his job. And, like I said, my job is to go out there and pitch games right now.”

— Griffin said after the game

When all is said and done, Griffin will get paid to continue pitching. Nobody knows the amount. Every team needs starting pitching. That is part of supply and demand. And the rest of his season might determine the demand — and his demands.

There is a reality that the Nats’ All-Star pitcher could be traded any minute or we could hear that they agreed to a contract extension. Those seem to be the two most likely outcomes right now. We came up with five outcomes:

1. Extend Griffin’s contract
2. Retain Griffin for the remainder of the 2026 season
3. Retain Griffin for the remainder of the 2026 season and tag him with a Q.O.
4. Trade Griffin for the best offer you receive
5. Trade Griffin for the best offer you receive then re-sign him after the season

We wrote before that a 3-year $50 million deal is in the ballpark of what could be a reasonable contract extension for the Nats left-hander. Others think that is too high. Barry Svrluga of The Athletic tweeted at 3 years and $45 million last week, and now he has lowered his number to “That should be three years for, say, somewhere from $36 million to $42 million, at least.” The only number that matters is what Griffin is willing to accept.

If Toboni and the Lerner ownership group want to create some excitement in the fanbase and keep some hope, start with a Griffin extension. Or maybe Luis Garcia Jr. would be willing to sign an extension. That is a golden opportunity for the Lerners — regardless of whether or not there is a lockout of the 2027 season.

Few go from their rookie season at 31 years old and try to turn that into a free agent deal — and that is exactly what Griffin will attempt to do unless he signs an extension with the Washington Nationals. His MLB résumé is still being written. We will see where this goes. That’s the beauty of baseball — there’s always a story that is so unique that it feels like fiction, kind of like that Grimm Brothers fairy tale written in 1812.