One of the questions floating around this series has to do with Juan Soto as he's coming in as a Yankee. He'll be a FA in the offseason. Should the Nats go all in to sign him?
The pros and cons are all obvious.
On the pro side he's the most impressive young hitter of this generation (Trout is heading out of the middle baseball years. Shohei just turned 30 in early July. Juan will turn 30 after the 2028 season is over.) He's got possibly the best eye in baseball and can hit for average and power. He's still very young. At 25 he's likely a good long contract from any decline. He's never been a problem in the dugout.
On the con side he'll be incredibly expensive. Likely Boras will open at something like 15 years 1 billion, because he's Boras, this deal will be on the other side of 500 million easy. If your team isn't going to dig into deep pockets this could effect remaining signings. While athletic, he doesn't run great and he doesn't field all that well. However he seems to prefer being in the OF so you can't just stick him at DH and you best have good OF D to cover for him.
The Nats on paper seem like good candidates to try for Soto. They have a super low payroll right now, so have room for a monster contract. They could put him in OF assuming Crews is a plus CF like people think and Wood gets over his early issues and becomes a plus corner OF which people also think is possible. If anything happens they have room at 1B/DH as well.
But the Nats haven't committed to a bat like this in a long time. Arguably it was either Jayson Werth in 2010 or Ryan Zimmerman in 2012. They haven't paid a big time bat like this in over a decade. But they have spent money. It's just been on pitching. Sherzer, Corbin, the Strasburg extensions were all top of market deals. That begs the question - is it just coincidence or is it philosophy? And the follow-up - if it's not philosophy wouldn't the fact the Nats have a boatload of young bats and a canoe full of young arms change up targets? In other words doesn't the situation warrant a top starter or two not another bat?
That depends on how you see the future. The present says the bats need more help. But there's a sense that guys like Wood, Crews, Abrams, maybe House, etc. could become star level bats. On the mound there's a hope that Gore does that but that hope was diminished a bit by this year's simple ok performance so far. The other arms have been surprisingly decent but not #1 arms. If you buy into the bats could be great and the arms won't then arms make more sense. But if not - you fix what's broken and the line-up is broken more.
Soto back to DC is intriguing and it would make the team better. But is it the best path forward. Of course my answer is YES!* but as the start of a spending spree signing him AND the starter(s) you need. Not my money.
*Well really my answer is "Yes it is the best path forward for the Nats but the Yankees should outbid them"