Washington Nationals sign crafty lefty Foster Griffin from Japan

Paul Toboni has made his first free agent signing as Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations and it is an outside the box move. He signed Foster Griffin to a 1-year $5.5 million deal. If you have not heard of him, I do not blame you. Griffin has spent the last three years in Japan where he has dominated.

With this deal, the 30 year old Griffin should have a spot in the Nats rotation. While pitching in Japan, Griffin was highly productive and now he is coming back to North America to challenge himself. Griffin was actually a first round pick out of high school in 2014, but things never quite clicked for him.

He had a couple cups of coffee in the big leagues in 2020 and 2022, but he did not impress. However, Griffin has reinvented himself in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants. He did not do it by becoming a fireballer like Cody Ponce. Instead, the southpaw really learned how to pitch. Griffin has a deep 7 pitch mix that worked like a charm in Japan.

In three seasons in Japan, Griffin posted a 2.57 ERA and struck out 318 batters in 315.2 innings. Last season was his best year, putting up a 1.62 ERA in 78 innings. Griffin will not blow anyone away in the big leagues, but Paul Toboni is betting that his craft and deep mix will allow him to get outs.

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Griffin’s best pitch is a slider that he will have to lean on heavily in the MLB. The fastball is only 91 MPH, so he cannot afford to make mistakes. He also has a cutter, a curve, a changeup, a splitter and a sinker. This is a very different pitcher to the one that last pitched in the MLB in 2022. Back then, Griffin only threw a fastball, a cutter, a curve and a changeup.

NPB analysts are fairly bullish on Griffin. They project him as a back of the rotation innings eater at the MLB level. The lack of velocity creates some limitations, but this is a guy who really knows how to pitch.

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Griffin should push someone like Mitchell Parker out of the rotation. Griffin’s deeper mix and command give him an edge over Parker. It is interesting that this is the direction Toboni is going with his first free agent signing.

Instead of going with a proven back of the rotation arm like a Michael Lorenzen for example, Toboni is going with a bit of a mystery box. It is a riskier move, but it does come with more upside I suppose. There is also less of a book on Griffin around the league because he is more unknown.

Maybe Griffin can do what Erick Fedde did in 2024 and surprise hitters with his new mix. If that happens, the Nats could flip him for a nice package at the deadline. Happy to see this activity and I am interested to see how the Foster Griffin experiment plays out.