We got a column a week ago from Barry that was basically "Is this it?"
It's getting late as pitchers and catchers will start to trickle in next week and the Nats still seem like a team whose off-season is only 75% done and that's factoring in the lowered expectations.
The Nats solved the 1B issue in their typical "savvy but let's not go crazy" way and stuffed the rotation with... well stuff... in the hopes that a strong rotation emerges from the intriguing if not inspiring raw materials.
But the bullpen seems 2-3 arms short, 3B is to be manned by hopes and dreams and the DH question was answered with a shrug.
The answers being so limited and the questions still remaining all point to the same thing. The Nats aren't trying to compete this year.
That's disappointing for a team now 6 years removed from their last winning season. A lost season (say under 75 wins) this year is completely possible and it would give DC the longest stretch it has seen without hitting 80 wins.
Fans got their championship and it's lucky that they did bc I think they'd be turning on the management otherwise.
But this is the lot we've been given this year. Wait and see... again. Evaluate... again. Look to next offseason... again. The first time, after 2023, was understandable. That would have been aggressive. This time, when the window should be opening with some young talent on hand, feels overly cautious if one wants to be generous. Next time will be unforgivable if it happens.
But there's still time to try something and we don't evaluate until things are over. And it's not bleak. It just remains cloudy and dull when if could have been sunny and exciting.
I think the current plan is to "wait and see" what we can get for trading Abrams, Wood, Gray and Gore in their walk years.
ReplyDeleteMLB Rumors take on the Nats was that with three other strong teams in the division, it makes sense that they are waiting another year for their window. If it’s a combination of that, and there not being great free agent options available, I’m probably okay with it. But my fear is that the lack of action is driven more by a severely limited budget.
ReplyDeleteSome people may hate to hear it, but this is my thought as well. It’s pretty delusional to think this team is just one or two free agent signings away from all of a sudden leapfrogging teams like the Phillies, Braves, Mets. How many players on the nationals would even crack those teams? It’s not the answer we want to hear, but it’s the truth. This team is still another year away, and that is with the assumption that a good bulk of these young players progress as we hope.
DeleteWith a full 40 man roster and only one week until they can open spots by moving players (Gray, Thompson, possibly others) to the 60 day IL, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Nats had handshake deals with a couple of relievers that will be announced as soon as the roster spots are cleared.
ReplyDeleteYeah which is why I don't want to fully sign off on the "this seems terrible". I think there will still be issues but if they grab a couple of those Floro/Law types at the end its a... team.
DeleteBut, like you say, the kind of handshake deals to expect is stuff like bringing back Floro and Finnegan or something. We're not just waiting on process stuff to bring in Jansen and Bregman.
DeleteSo I'm still in the "this seems pretty terrible" boat, and will be until/unless we sign or trade for a major upgrade at 3B or DH (or, I guess, an SP1, but that's even less likely than adding a big bat).
The Lerners seem to be taking the wrong page from the Dan Snyder playbook: drive away fans by removing any enjoyment we used to get to watching the Nats
ReplyDeleteFangraphs has them at 73 wins, which is basically the same as last season.
ReplyDeleteSeems like they are waiting for the MASN stuff to clear up one day and sell. I read something that stated the Nats have the 4th lowest payroll in MLB for active players (meaning you back out the Strasburg contract). That is pretty awful if true.
ReplyDeleteSportrac indeed shows the Nats as 4th lowest for Active Roster payroll, with only A's, Marlins, and White Sox with less on the books. Once you strip out $50mil for Stras (sigh) and Corbin/Scherzer (deferred), the spend looks pretty thin.
Deletethoughts on Poche? doesnt seem to move the needle at all.
ReplyDeleteAs a counter to this doom and gloom, I want to remind everyone that it is not a given that we are going to be bad. Stars (on other teams) fall short, our kids step up and outperform their projections, we get the streaky good Josh Bell, and so on. I don't mind Harper saying the odds are against everyone advancing at once--that's true--but teams over-perform enough of the time to make a season of serious progress within the realm of possibility, We have talent, it just needs to deliver.
ReplyDeleteI think the pitching staff is going to be far more credible than the consensus here. I find myself far more concerned about the offense--which, with Crews, Wood, and Lowe along with Abrahms, Garcia, and Bell, has a lot of potential but it is mostly on paper potential rather than on-field achievement.
I have been a season ticket holder since the Nationals made the scene, a lifelong resident of the DC area who attended games at Griffith and RFK stadiums, and still feels a sense of awe about white seats.There is a great but unproven core on the current club and on the farm. What happened to the insightful and productive strategy of signing an ace, Scherzer, and the crafty veteran who sill could produce, Werth? Why not follow this strategy in 25 and build with veteran leadership who can model how a winning player thinks, feels, and produces? I was a big fan of the Lerners during ten year playoff run and World Series victory, but I am tired of going to the park and enjoy the game with only 5,000 fans attending. We are the diehards who are passionate and loud. We deserve better, and the ownership and front office better wise up before more fans get frustrated and spend their money elsewhere.
ReplyDelete@bobbyc: I get your point, but the pedant in me notes that the lowest attended Nats game (11,135) was a Thursday afternoon "get away" game against the Pirates on April 4 - a cloudy, drizzly day. Given the weather and the opponent, that's the only game that I could find on the schedule where actual attendance may have been as low as 5,000. The Nats averaged a bit over 24k per game. Not great (22nd in MLB), but about the same as the Twins, Reds, and Guardians.
ReplyDeleteAlthough rather late to this party--anything happening? how goes the Nats' rebuild? weren't they a year away two years ago?--my inner pedant began to tingle the moment I saw the word "pedant" used by someone other than me.
DeleteIn truth, @bobbyc may be correct about his 5,000-fan attendance observation. Until 1992, the National League calculated attendance by turnstile clicks. Since then, the NL joined the AL in calculating attendance by ticket sales, not by cabooses (or caboose, as in moose?) in the seats.
(Believe me, I know what 5,000 looks like: I've watched the Expos in Olympic Stadium.)
Not trying to start an argument here. Just yielding to my addiction to being a pendantic prick.
Anon - no worries but to answer your question, anyone that thought this team was a year away two years ago is either delusional being belief or has the IQ of a slobbering, cross-eyed squirrel.
DeleteEven last year saying that would have been overly optimistic (at best), but now it’s realistic if things go more or less as hoped.
@Anon from 8:57: h/t from one pedant to another. Note that in my original comment I stated that the crowd at the drizzly chilly weekday getaway game in April (announced attendance 11,135) may well have had an actual attendance below 5,000. I use games like that as a barometer of Nats season ticket holders, as they will be regarded as selling seats even if people stay home and games like that will have de minimis walk up business.
DeleteI can’t imagine how much money that I don’t know what to do with that I would need to have to be a season ticket holder for this team since the pandemic
DeleteApparently I can, since I've been involved in various Nats ticket plans since the 2005 season. I've had my own for a dozen years now. I'm a baseball fan and a DC native, so I'm enjoy going to games in good times and bad. But I'm not going to tell other people when or how to enjoy things.
DeleteJohn C - to me maybe a smaller ticket package personally wouldn’t be bad depending on the discount etc. But I’m assuming what anon means (or at least how I would interpret it) is that given the amount the nats charge it’s very questionable. I mean there are times I’d have rather gone to see the Harrisburg senators over the nats due to the combination of prospects at Hburg & how poor the nats have been. I can see that being a rare case occasionally, but it happens for too often. And I can sit close up in Harrisburg for the same price as upper deck at nats.
DeleteWOW, the Nats dodged a bullet in Rendon signing with the Halos. Breaking news has him missing this season as well with hip surgery. That has to be ONE of the worst free agent deals in history.
ReplyDelete