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.
6 comments:
This is all so depressing.
Lowe doesn't have a decent contract for 2026; the Nats have the ability to retain his services by tendering him a contract. Which they weren't going to do, because his season doesn't justify the contact that he would have gotten through the arbitration process. He was making $10.3M this year, and even though he's having a terrible season offensively and defensively he would have gotten a raise through the arbitration process because that's how the system works. Even a small raise puts him in the $13-15M range. For a 30yo 1b who is hitting to the tune of an 86 wRC+ with a -5 DRS and a -4 OAA?
His track record will get him some offers. But they're going to be closer to Bell's 1/$6M than to his projected arb salary.
I mean, I get that the default assumption on any organizational decision is that the Nats f'd up. But this doesn't hit my concern meter at all. There's a lot of OTHER stuff that does, but DFA'ing Lowe isn't on that list.
This is pretty much what I was gonna say. Say Harper is right and Lowe is likely to be above replacement next year. They would still have to cut him at the end of the season and maybe rehire him a la Finnegan. Why not cut him now? This way, Bell can slide to 1B, and all the kid OFs could get playing time.
The guy hits a grand slam, and then gets cut. The business of baseball is brutal.
I have no reason to believe it beyond speculation, but I have to think Lowe's woes this season are a result of the Nats coaching staff. Everyone's talking about how Bell has found his groove again, but conveniently have forgetten why: he admitted himself that he went back to his old approach and abandoned the tweaks the team had been coaching him into. Time and again we get anecdotal evidence that this coaching staff is really really bad at their jobs. Cutting Davey was the first step, I can't wait for them to fully clean house
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