Monday Quickie - (former) Nats in the playoffs

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 Rainey pitched two terrible innings for the Tigers, and has not yet been released I don't think - but he's not in the playoffs or anything. 

Mariners : Super fun Davey mortal enemy Victor Robles is the only one here

 

Phillies : You know by now that the Phillies are built on the back of the Nats with Bryce, Trea, Schwarbs all in the starting line-up.  Former Nats prospect Jesus Luzardo starts for them and Joe Ross was also on the team this year.  The Nattiest team in the playoffs!

Brewers : Almost Nats free but ol' friend Erick Fedde threw some decent innings for them before being DFA'd to Nashville right before the end of the season. 

Cubs : Nats free! Yes Mike Soroka is on the Cubs!  Nats are everywhere! 

Dodgers : You know mid-season acquisition Alex Call is playing important innings for LA in the playoffs. Did you know that they gave Eddie Rosario a brief shot at DH this year? Worked out like you think it would. You know Blake Trienen is still blowing games in the pen but did you remember Luis Garcia was a Dodger this year before he was a Nat before he was an Angel? 

Lucky or Unlucky : 2025

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 at the end of his career than he would have the best season of his career at the plate but he did the latter. 

Uh... that's it

UNLUCKY 

Nathaniel Lowe was consistently good for his career. After being traded to Red Sox he was good again. He just was a dog for the going nowhere Nats. Who can know a man's heart? 

Neither Irvin and Parker were over their heads last year and could reasonably be expected to maintain their average performances but instead they were both flat out bad. Roll one snake eyes sure, but two? Unlucky. 

At 25 with a full season behind him, Jacob Young was more likely to get better this year but instead he crashed out of the Nats plans. 

No one expected Trevor Williams to be the pitcher he was for 13 games last year but going straight back to terrible was also a surprise. 

AS EXPECTED

This teams was built to be bad except for a few players. Wood, Abrams, and Gore were talented and they performed. Garcia, Bell, and a few arms in the pen were ok before and ok this year. The rest was a collection of mediocre to terrible players who performed mediocre to terribly and kids who could not and did not break out. 

 

So what does this tell us? The Nats were slightly unlucky this year which explains the slightly low win total in comparison to what we thought it might be. They weren't a good team but if everything with expectations broke even they should have gone over 70 wins. 

What can get better in 2026 just by running the same guys out there?  Well Williams/Irvin/Parker should end up with 2 averageish pitchers I guess. And... 

Well then that's it and really you are just looking at hoping kids like Crews and House and Cavalli do a lot better with a year under their belts.  Simply put there isn't much here to expect anything interesting from the same group run out again. Let's hope they don't do that.