Who to sign long-term

You can win in several ways in baseball but the current hotness is to "rebuild" sign a bunch of your young players while they are young so they don't cost as much and hope that if you sign 6 that 2 work out and money wise that still probably saves you enough money to spend on FA. 

Of course because people LOVE to go into the comments to say "It's not up to the Nats..." "Scott Boras won't let them..." I'll note here that what we want to see is a concerted and public effort to make these signings. If the public part bothers the players so be it. The fans need to know the team is trying in good faith.  So shutta ya traps! 

 Let's look at the bats 

James Wood

Pros : He's so young! He's so good!

Cons : He's so expensive (relatively) because he's already good. 

Decision : Sign him dummies. If you aren't trying with guys like Wood then what's the point honestly. Call yourselves the Potomac Pirates, the Rockville Rockies and be done with it. 

CJ Abrams

Pros : He plays the IF, is fun to watch, and is clearly the second best bat on the team right now. Still plenty of time until he hits FA (2029) so you can get value

Cons : From reports attitude can go up and down. Plays SS but pretty poorly. 

Decision : Could go either way. I think you need to get either him or House signed though. 

Dylan Crews 

Pros : Nearly everything about his fancy stats and college performance suggest the guy has star potential. Getting comfortable in the OF where he should be good. Super fast. So seems like there'd be a place for him even without a bat. 

Cons : Always had great fancy stats and lacking actual stats.  

Decision : Wait probably. I think the discrepancy between performance and potential will create too big a gap between what the Nats should offer and what Crews would take. But check-in. 

Brady House 

Pros :  He's already a solid fielder in the IF and there's a lot to like about his swing. Good runner.  

Cons : He's a bit too much of a free swinger and needs to strike out less if he's not going to walk more or else that average/OBP will hang on him

Decision : I'd probably go with him first over Abrams just because an IF that can field that might hit strikes me as slightly better than an IF that can hit that will never field. But I'd like them both to be honest. 

Robert Hassell

Pros : if you look at the fancy stats you could argue he's a better Brady House right now. Good field, slightly better approach and swing, faster. Seemingly finally coming around. 

Cons : The biggest difference between House and Hassell is the 2 year gap. Hassell HAS to come around now or might not ever.  Also a big difference is Hassell plays OF where the Nats have choices and it's easier to stick a FA. House plays IF.  Even if Hassell is coming back one injury derailed him for 2 1/2 years. What happens the next time?

Decision : I've always liked Hassell but I'm a realist here if you can get him for reasonable 4th OF money, sure try it. If he wants more pass bc I worry one more injury makes him a big nothing. 

Daylen Lile 

Pros : Young and holding his own in the majors at the plate for a couple months. If not a OBP machine, at least it patient at the plate. Hits a lot of nice line drives and balls up. 

Cons : Not great in the OF, probably the least "prospecty" of your choices. It's not like the team is lacking in young OF that you gotta nail this one down. 

Decision : Pass.  Prove me wrong Daylen 

Anyone Else? 

Nunez can't hit and isn't that young. Tena can't field and is mediocre at the plate. Lipscomb is overmatched. Young is an excellent fielder but is showing regression at bat and is an non-intuitive baserunner. Garcia is an average hitter and can hold 2B who flashes some good hitting stretches. 

Decision : If you can get Garcia down through age 30 or so, I'd do it. One of the things teams do is find ways to cheaply not have problems and Garica at 2B isn't a problem. I think he probably will be as he ages out though and he doesn't have the bat to be 1B or DH so you don't want him here forever but if you can not think about 2B through 2030, even if it's just as "could be worse" I think that's good.  Young and Tena are worth carrying around but only bc you can do it for the minimums. I wouldn't pay for it past into FA. 

No Mo Lowe

The Nats brought up Dylan Crews today, back from injury and ready to get some more at bats.  To clear a roster spot they didn't cut 32 year old signed for a single year Josh Bell, who is hitting average from the DH spot. They didn't cut 31year old, well he can field if he can literally do NOTHING else, signed for a single year Paul DeJong.  They didn't cut 29 year old, never was catcher Riley Adams who doesn't do anything well.  Instead they cut 29 year old Nathaniel Lowe, who before this year was a solid bat and solid glove and the combination in a weak generation of first basemen, put him as a Top 10 player at that spot. 

Lowe has had a terrible year taking tremendous steps backward in every facet of the game.  Worse he's been worse recently. It's easy to see why the Nats cut him...yet

 At a decent contract for next year and with a long track record of decent play and an age that questions whether this is really a fall from playable to out of the game or just a very bad very long stretch, and we three better choice I'm not sure it was the right move. 

You hear a lot of cheering from Nats fans though, taking this as a bold move showing they aren't going to hold on to bad players but again, Bell is a DH barely hitting average, DeJong should be retired, Adams should be AAA organizational depth. They have other bad players they aren't cutting. This can't be what this is really about. 

It's not about bad players but about space. They need a place to rotate all these young bats and it won't be backing up the infield where DeJong is and it won't be at C where Adams it.  It will be at 1B/DH and if you have to choose between Bell and Lowe... well I can see choosing Bell. He's a well-loved teammate and maybe you bring him back next year to fill a LH bat and well maybe you just like him better.  And you really can't cut Adams with Ruiz hurt...

But it's also about space for next year I guess. Lowe would be at 1B and maybe they are already thinking about where to put everyone, or moving Wood over to DH/1B or something or trying Yohandy out there. So if that's the case, if we see a kid at 1B next year, ok then I get it.  But if it's just Bell shifted over in 2025 or another cast-off then I don't. 

Call Forwarding

 Alex Call was the last domino to fall - over to the Dodgers for a couple arms. As noted before Call was actually turning out to be good but if there was one place the Nats didn't have space for a player like Call it was OF where they want to play Wood and Crews and cycle through whoever else they want to look at.  Keeping a 4th OF is a luxury on a team like that. 

 

Sean Paul Liñan was a solid looking arm for High A that the Dodgers pushed to AAA to see if they had something really special. They didn't - he got hammered. Basically he has one GREAT pitch but everything else is lacking right now.  That's enough to dominate lower level hitters and get punished by better ones. But still a 20 year old with promise and a nice get. 

Eriq Swan is Elijah Green the pitcher.  He seems super athletic and can easily throw the ball up near 100 MPH. Can he control it? Nope. Is his pitch super unhittable for being that fast? Not to the level you'd want to see at his level. You are just kind of hoping things come together. That wouldn't be bad if he were 19 but he'll be 24 as the post-season closes and is not quite getting it done in High A.  Here's to miracles, I guess. 

Pretty good haul for not having anything to give away, and by that I mean you got two guys in Ronny Cruz and Sean Paul Liñan that have an outside chance to turn into good major leaguers and a guy in Christian Franklin with a decent chance to have more than a cup of coffee. Is the likely outcome nothing of import? Of course. But I'll take this. 

More importantly I'll take not trading Gore. Now spend in this off-season