The Nats are done for the season.
In reality they were done for the season at the start of the season and the way the ownership approached the building of the team should have made that clear. But as we didn't expect anything from the season we didn't know they were committed to NOT trying until that actually became an issue.
The Nats right now are were the management expected them to be. A team stripped of the usable veteran parts they picked up with one "star" bat in the lineup, though if you asked them that star would have been Wood with Abrams traded and not Abrams with Wood injured. Still I think it's a good sign they didn't trade Abrams and recognized the team, at least offensively, is closer to competitive than not.
What's next is 1) taking care of James Wood and 2) doing their best to answer questions about the team for next year. Who's got a slot taken care of and who will be fighting for a role next year. You can see what they want offensively - Ruiz at C, Abrams at 2B, Nunez at SS, House at 3B, Wood + 2 of Young, Lile and Crews in the OF, a couple of bats from Chaparro, Ortiz, etc. make themselves favorites for 1B and DH. Pitching is more of a mish-mash : Will anyone joine Cavalli in the rotation next year? How many of these RP look like guys you want to say "ok that spot is covered" for?
But functionally on the field answering these questions mean more losses than wins and the slow air leak out of the fun balloon we've been playing keepy-uppy with all season. The good times for 2026 are over.
5 comments:
Why Nunez at SS next year and not Seaver King?
So let's look at the candidates to be in the 2027 rotation. If there even is a 2027.
- Cavalli
- Alvarez
- Kent
- Herz (will he be healthy?)
- Gray (same)
now here's the problem with the Lerners. "That's 5 starters right there, didn't you say you only needed 5? Why should we even think of paying all that crazy baseball-player money for anyone else when we already have 5 pitchers? Plus you got Sykora and Susana and all those guys we traded for. What am I even paying you for? You spreadsheet twerps are a dime a dozen."
Given that the team is fairly close to being competitive (unlike at the beginning of the year, when the general was that this team was closer to the worst in the league), I predict that the Nats will spend more in free agency. Not a ton more, mind more, but I think it will be north of 2026 FA spending.
It’s not like they’ve never spent in the past. There seems to be a belief that the Lerners will never spend any FA money ever again. But history tells us otherwise
“General belief” that is
“Mind you”. Wow, should have proof read my original comment!
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