In our quest to look forward we often can only remember the latest things. For the Nats that means looking to who they could draft in 2026 and checking up on last years #1 pick Eli Willitis. But the development of the next great Nats team, if soon will rely on the last few drafts. These are the ones I glossed over in my "why did things go wrong" as I was talking about the bust starting in 2020. But it's when the team took a renewed effort into getting these things right and it's worth lo...
about 11 hours ago
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Not you guys but Nats news. Anyone care? Zuckerman is doing his thing over at Substack asking a good question - who's going to be the closer. I'd bet on Clayton Beeter, who I like in part because it's unlikely the Dodgers (a great minor league operation) and Yankees (a minor league that readily develops decent relievers) are both wrong about the guy having solid skills. Cole Henry could also be the choice as a long time org favorite. But given that closer doesn't matter as much as ...
2 days ago
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The Nats brought in Drew Smith. He just went through his second Tommy John but says he's fully recovered. He's been a live-arm guy who has always outperformed his fancy stats. If one was to theorize it could be because his fastball is fantastic and when he needs to dial it up to get an out he can do it. But his other pitches aren't good and when all you can do to succeed is dial up the fastball well, that's how you get a guy with two Tommy Johns and under 200 IP over 6 ...
7 days ago
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Last week the Nats signed Miles Mikolas as their first "FA to sign to trade later" of the off-season and honestly I like the deal. For those that don't remember Miles as one of the quality St Louis starters undone by the Nats staff obliterating his offense in the 2019 NLCS, a little background. He was initially a failed starter for the Padres that went over to Japan and had some success. The Cardinals brought him back to the states in 2018 and he performed great, then o...
9 days ago
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Baseball will start this week but will it? The Nats are a team in limbo in every way. They have no home station. They have no home coverage. Under new leadership they have no direction (yet). They have an ownership as stable as the next rumor that they are trying to sell. They are a baseball team this year because they were a baseball team last year and baseball teams just don't go away. This Spring will be an exercise in finding the bright spots. In again looking for what mi...
16 days ago
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The Washington Post sports department is no more. That really sucks for Nats fans and leaves the Nats coverage in limbo, especially after MASNs dissolution earlier in the year. This begs the question - who is covering the Nationals? I mean REALLY covering them, not covering them like me, giving out free content that's worth the price of admission. I don't know about local TV stations which will presumably continue their usual light coverages of the team and local sports talk which will continu...
20 days ago
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Teams rebuild all the time. If you aren't blessed with an owner willing to spend your team cycles through times when they spend more and times when they spend less based on the talent they have. What you don't do is rebuild from a rebuild. This is what the Nats are doing and it means one simple thing : The Nats screwed up. So the question is where and when and like many things that are wrong it's not just one moment, but a series of bad decisions and bad luck that lead them to this...
22 days ago
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I do have more to come but you know - snow storm . So for today - what do you expect back for CJ Abrams. They don't HAVE to trade CJ but it seems EXTREMELY unlikely that they will be competitive in the time before he becomes a FA. Are they going to be good enough to convince him to stay? Do you take that chance instead of selling him on a decently high note with a couple years of control left? The way I read the Nats management the answer is no. So what do you want back...
about 1 month ago
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To the Rangers for 5 prospects. I'll delve into it more when we have the names but the Rangers system is weaker but in part due to injury and bad 2025s - which yes, I know but these guys can turn around pretty quickly. The name that is in there Gavin Fien, a guy that's arguably Top 2-4 in the Rangers system but also arguably outside the Top 100 overall. He is supposed to hit well and profiles to be a decent fielding 3B or a 1B/RF type (good enough glove to play SS in HS...
about 1 month ago
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First I'd like to thank the Nats for doing next to nothing this off-season so we can get through all this without being interrupted. Much appreciated The Nats 2024 was a stop gap year in relief where they brought in some older guys they never meant to keep and traded out some assets at the end of the year. Outside of Kyle Finnegan and Jose Ferrer there wasn't much of a plan. They signed a weaker set of guys in 2025 and hoped for the best. It didn't happen. The Nats had arguab...
about 1 month ago
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2024 was a pleasant surprise for the Nats in terms of the SP as while Gore didn't develop as he should, Trevor Williams pitched like a near ace for the third of the season he was healthy and Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker, and DJ Herz all surpassed expectations. Yes, that only meant they were all "usable" but a staff of an near ace, a stretch 2, and three average arms is pretty good, especially on a shoestring budget So the Nats basically pushed to repeat the year with FA pick up Michael So...
about 1 month ago
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Josh Bell returned to the Nats as a cheap DH option for 2025 to bridge the gap between competitiveness and not. A well-liked vet who had a couple of quietly solid years with the Nats in 2021 and 2022 Bell had bounced around unable to get back to levels you want a guy focused on hitting to be at. The reunion looked very dicey as Bell started extremely slow and followed up a good May with a terrible June. But Josh's second half was better and he ended the season very hot putting up a .292 averag...
about 2 months ago
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The holidays are over and it's time to get serious. But what does that mean? For the Nats we still don't know. After the trade of Jose Ferrer for Harry Ford the Nats made two moves. 1) Traded Jake Bennett for Luis Perales. This was a "good prospect for good prospect" trade where the Red Sox looking for a certain type of pitcher, were willing to give up a good prospect of their own. Perales is arguably "more certain" than Bennett - younger, closer to the majors and both ...
about 2 months ago
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As much as the infield is a mess of question marks and prayers, the OF for the Nats at least has some sense to it. Building over the past few years of trades and drafts the Nats OF in 2025 ended as something that the team would like to carry for several seasons. James Wood followed up his fine half-season rookie campaign with a full season of solid baseball, making the All-Star team with a great first half before a second half swoon and focus on his weak defense knocked his season ...
2 months ago
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Gore still here? Ok we can move forward with this. 2024 was a mess for the Nats at 3B. They thought Trey Lipscomb who had an intersting end to 2023 might step in or for some reason known only to them, that never-was and clear never-would-be Nick Senzel might hold it down. These failed leaving Ildermo Vargas and Jose Tena manning the hot corner at the end of that year and leaving 2025 up in the air. The Nats responded by signing way too old Paul DeJong and hi...
3 months ago
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The Nats don't have a lot of good pitchers. Gore yes. Brad Lord probably and... uhhh Cavalli likely, Beeter looks good... uhhh Henry? Anyway Ferrer was a young lefty (and MAN they do NOT have a lot of lefties) with good fancy stats that I also liked. But they sent him away to Seattle for a catcher, Harry Ford. So first what does this signal? Rebuild... probably Ferrer is only 25 with plenty of team control. Given the Nats lack of LH relief he's the type of guy you...
3 months ago
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It 2024 CJ Abrams flashed greatness, with a .295 7 homer April and hitting .373 / .464 / .663 in May earning him a trip to the All-Star Game and getting Nats fans excited about his potential. The only problem was... well... he might have been the worst fielding shortstop in baseball in years. The plan for 2025 was to start him at SS and hopefully watch him solidify his position as an MLB offensive star while playing some better defense. This didn't quite happen. His 2025 at the pla...
3 months ago
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After a rebound in 2024 to good stats at the plate and in the field, the Nats 2nd base situation was well set. Luis Garcia can play there so Luis Garcia will play there. Ideally he would have stepped up again in 2025 but the opposite happened and a slight regression knocked him back to basically average at the plate and 2024 turned out to be the unsurprisingly fluke with the glove. But at least it was something that passed the season without worry. That's something right? Presumed ...
3 months ago
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A lot of things went wrong in 2025 but none were so clearly made to work NOW and so clearly a failure then the Nats' answer at 1B. The Nats brought in Nathaniel Lowe with a trade* to man the position in 2025-2026 likely with an eye for having him possibly be there beyond. He had been a sneaky good 1B, one that ranked 5-10 overall with consistent solid hitting since arriving in the majors and glove that he worked into average to good. There was one thing they didn't consider though... Nat...
3 months ago
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Huh. That was a longer break than I thought. Thanks for the kind words in the comments. Yes, I'm not as motivated to post as I have been in the past, but rest assured I won't end the blog with a ghosting. First I'll try a couple new things if I really can't keep up what I've done in the past. Then I'll let you know if that ain't working for me. Speaking of what I've done in the past - Off-season position reviews. The Nats catcher situation was bad. Having your ca...
3 months ago
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If rooting for (or against) former Nats in the playoffs is fun for you heres the list Blue Jays : Max ! although they left him off the ALDS roster as he struggled at the end of the year. Jacob Barnes would also get a ring if they are generous (release by Tor in August) Yankees : Amed Rosario is it, though they have regular season Nats villain DJ LeMahieu and post-season Nats hero, Trent Grisham. Tigers : "Garbage" Kyle Finnegan was acquired by Detroit in a trade. Tanner Raine...
5 months ago
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I like to do this annually - figuring where the team got lucky and unlucky and seeing how that factored into this season and what might be read into 2026, given return to forms are often seen for people way under or over performing. LUCKY Prospects can surprise but Daylen Lile hitting well enough to win player of the month of September and setting himself up for a starting role in 2026 was well above and beyond expectations. It was way more likely that Amed Rosario was ...
5 months ago
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So if you want to know what we guessed in wins it's here . I had them at 71. The group leaned into a bit higher but the winner in the clubhouse would be Matt with "high 60s" Not quite! We all lose by Price is Right rules. We'll spend the week going over the season (promise!) but the general tone of it was one of disappointment and now a bit of concern. The team is in the midst of a rebuild but also starting over with a new GM and new manager and that could easily ...
5 months ago
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There will be a rundown of everyone at the end of the year so no particular reason to go over Nunez's power surge or Wood's power drop (before today) right now. Instead let's meet some newer guys since there are a lot of new faces around Jorge Alfaro - in the "we gotta try something behind the plate" world that the Nats are in - here is Alfaro. If the name sounds familiar we was a big-time prospect about a decade ago for the Phillies, a key piece to the Rangers trade f...
5 months ago
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Daylen Lile is hot right now. He's been up almost half a year and is closing in on 300 PA. in that he's hit a solid .282 / .327 / .450 line and it's only been better in the second half .318 / .360 / .523. How excited should you be from a guy that probably entered 2024 the 6th Nationals outfielder to watch on some lists* He's a legit prospect (2nd round pick) and while is isn't super young he's right in there with Wood and House which is frankly young enough for anyone that isn't a ...
6 months ago
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