DJ Herz is going on the IL. His ligament is sprained and that's not good news from probably the most interesting young starting pitcher. It's also a stark reminder that while Trevor Williams only gave the Nats 1/3 of a season and Josiah Gray got hurt in the early part of April, they virtually escaped injury once they were rolling. Decent pitching that comes out every day can do a lot for a team. Hell it almost carried the 2005 team to the playoffs!
Pretty disappointing for a number of reasons but we have to move on with what we have
And what we have with the rotation is now set for sure with Shinny gettng the expected send down.
Gore - Williams - Soroka - Irvin - Parker.
A lot rides on if Gore will EVER make the next step and if Williams' success is some sort of fever dream. Yes and No, it could be an interesting, if ultimately futile season. No and Yes and hey Miami, mind if we join you?
The rotation is the only thing set. The bullpen is still fighting over the last spots. Poche made it (as far as I can tell solely to be another lefty) and Law looks pretty certain to be out on the IL. Lord, Ribalta, Rutledge, Salazar and Sims are not locked in. All I've heard is that Sims is in, in the "let the veteran arm do his thing" which then means the Nats will have two guys, in Poche and him, that aren't that good and showed badly in the pre-season. Sigh. Ok look I like Salazar. I hope he makes it.
For some reason Riley Adams is still fighting with Andrew Knizer for the bench catcher and Adams would have to clear waivers. They got rid of Nunez and with Chappy hurt that leaves Tena and Yepez if Rosario is hurt.
Anyway - we'll find out just before game time Thursday for some clown show reason.
Eh let's get 2025 over with.
12 comments:
How many great players does it take to carry an otherwise mediocre team? If Gore and Williams are yes and no, how far can the Nats go if Woods puts up MVP numbers and Crews puts up ROY numbers? Maybe add in Abrams playing like an all-star all season. I don’t think there’s any chance of most of the team playing even league average, but are a few stars enough?
Garcia and Lowe aren't chopped liver. That means five bats at or above league average, with very good defenders at four positions (1B, 3B, CF, RF), and the middle infield maybe average. Iow, an average team. Which is good enough for fourth place in the NL East.
Yeah, and that’s why I am fine with letting the kids play this year and sitting out this off-season. Even if all these things go right, we are still going to finish fourth in the division. Better to save up for next season and get more trials of the younger guys.
in re: bullpen. Given the kinda big number of "he might make a decent starter", I really would like it if the organization would consider asking young starters to get some experience in the MLB bullpen. Kinda checks a couple boxes.
fwiw, St. Earl Weaver believed that a rookie starter did best in long relief. But then again, the game was different in his day …
^ this was meant to be in response to anonymous at 2:56pm
The caveats on the Nats good pitcher health last year are huge. You left out Cavalli. So, 2 out of the top 5 starters were hurt for the entire year and 1 pitched a third of the season. That doesn't really sound like good health luck. After that, they were lucky, but you can't really break luck up like that. Anyway, it doesn't matter how last season is characterized. Th DJ Herz injury is sad, but it is only really bad if he has surgery, which I guess we are all assuming he will?
I see he has been diagnosed with a UCL year, so that sucks
If Wood is an MVP candidate and Crews a ROY and Abrams an All-Star? Ok yes that team can push .500. assuming everything else around them isn't crap, but you've set up a best case scenario for 5 players and no worst cases. Those years can happen but let's not set the bar there
which makes the Bell signing and the various likely bench and RP first choices annoying. I think Nats are past throw 6 bad vets out there and hope one clicks for an A-ball guy. They're at throw 6 kids out there and hope one clicks for a starter for a couple years
I think the best way to look at it imo is the Nats had Gore, Williams, and a bunch of guys. Yes Gray and Cavalli were set in the OD Top 5 but Gray hasn't been good and Cavalli had 1 major league start. There were just in that bunch. Williams being hurt mattered. Gray and Cavalli kind of didn't unless you are sure they would have performed better than the guys that got the ball. I'm not.
Gray was the OD starter in 2024, and an all-star in 2023. I think it's a bit of a stretch to call him just-a-guy (even if his results / projections are as mediocre as can be, given those boundary conditions). Even if Parker was able to fill in without much, or any, reduction in performance, Gray's injury still counts on the team's ledger for "bad luck".
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