What the Nationals are hoping for in 2022

What the Nationals are hoping for in 2022
A year that saw so many negative developments has now ended, and not a moment too soon for anyone around here. When we look back on 2021 in the annals of Nationals history, there's not going to be much we want to remember, aside perhaps from the recognition that it served as the first step in the rebuilding of a former championship organization back into a regular postseason contender again. Now as 2022 arrives, we wait anxiously to see what the Nats will look like once pitchers and catchers...

Most significant stories of 2021: More COVID-19 outbreaks

Most significant stories of 2021: More COVID-19 outbreaks
As we reach the final week of the year, we're taking a look back at the Nationals' most significant stories of 2021. Some of them are uplifting. Some of them are depressing. All of them were significant in telling the story of the 2021 season. We continue today with one of the most frustrating developments of the year: The loss of a host of prominent players at various times due to COVID-19. ... After everything they went through to get through a compressed 2020 season, the first such season...

The Nats' surprising history of Christmas Eve transactions

The Nats' surprising history of Christmas Eve transactions
Christmas Eve and baseball. They go together like, well, Christmas and hot dogs. This just isn't historically the time of year to be thinking much about the national pastime. Especially when the national pastime is nearly one month into a work stoppage. And yet for the Nationals, Christmas Eve has been the source of a surprising amount of news. Big news. Go back through the annals and you'll find six significant transactions made by the Nats in the final 72 hours leading up to Christmas,...

Infield is totally revamped, but is anyone a long-term answer?

Infield is totally revamped, but is anyone a long-term answer?
The Nationals roster has undergone massive changes in the last two years, but it may be more noticeable in the infield than anywhere else on the field. Consider this: On the night the Nats won their first World Series title, they started an infield of Ryan Zimmerman, Asdrúbal Cabrera, Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon, with Howie Kendrick serving as designated hitter, and Brian Dozier and Matt Adams coming off the bench. At this moment, only 25 1/2 months later, not one of those players is...

Nationals face tender decisions with nine players today

Nationals face tender decisions with nine players today
After a frantic Monday that saw a handful of clubs handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to free agents like candy, every major league club now faces a busy Tuesday deciding whether or not to retain a bunch of its own players. By 8 p.m. today, teams must tender contracts to all arbitration-eligible players. Those who don't receive offers are non-tendered and immediately become free agents. So while the Nationals have been awfully quiet on the transaction front so far this winter, they...

What kind of payroll is reasonable to expect from Nats next year?

What kind of payroll is reasonable to expect from Nats next year?
The Nationals' lengthy run as one of baseball's most consistently successful franchises coincided with ownership's willingness to spend like one of the sport's richest franchises. In each of the last nine seasons, dating back to 2013, the Nats had one of the majors' 10 highest payrolls. They peaked, appropriately, in 2019, spending more than $205 million on players' salaries en route to their first World Series championship. And while the final tally has fluctuated a bit year to year, it...

After abysmal start, Bell proved to be hitter Nats expected

After abysmal start, Bell proved to be hitter Nats expected
PLAYER REVIEW: JOSH BELL Age on opening day 2022: 29 How acquired: Traded from Pirates for RHP Wil Crowe and RHP Eddy Yean, December 2020 MLB service time: 5 years, 53 days 2021 salary: $6.35 million Contract status: Arbitration-eligible in 2022, free agent in 2023 2021 stats: 144 G, 568 PA, 498 AB, 75 R, 130 H, 24 2B, 1 3B, 27 HR, 88 RBI, 0 SB, 0 CS, 65 BB, 101 SO, .261 AVG, .347 OBP, .476 SLG, .823 OPS, 124 OPS+, minus-1 DRS (at 1B), 2 DRS (at LF), 1.4 fWAR, 3.1 bWAR Quotable: "This is a guy...

Revisiting our 2021 season predictions

Revisiting our 2021 season predictions
Predicting how a baseball season is going to play out is no easy task. We've been trying to do it around here for years, and though we sometimes get a few things right, we're usually wrong with much more frequency. And never have we been more wrong than we were this season. Not that my colleagues on the Nationals beat were alone in that regard. Seriously, how many of you out there predicted they'd lose 97 games? (If you just raised your hand, you're lying.) Nobody expected the kind of...

Defensive drop-off after trade deadline hurt Nationals

Defensive drop-off after trade deadline hurt Nationals
The Nationals entered the 2021 season determined to be a better defensive club after ranking last in the majors in that department during the previous, pandemic-shortened season. And in late July, a quick glance at the sport's defensive rankings showed they indeed had achieved that goal. On the morning of July 30, the Nationals as a team ranked sixth in Defensive Runs Saved, a massive improvement from 2020. Of course, by the end of that day, their roster looked nothing like it did 24 hours...

Even after sell-off, Nats lineup remained productive

Even after sell-off, Nats lineup remained productive
A lot of things with the Nationals went wrong this season, horribly wrong. But not everything. And one thing that did work out in the end, surprisingly enough, was a lineup that was productive both prior to and after the massive trade-deadline sell-off. The Nats ended the season with the highest team batting average (.258) and on-base percentage (.337) in the National League. Their .754 OPS was fourth-highest in the NL, tied with the NL East champion Braves and only five points lower than the...

Soto headlines Nationals' annual team award winners

Soto headlines Nationals' annual team award winners
Juan Soto has three more days to make his case to win National League MVP honors. He already locked up a slightly less significant honor today. Soto was named the Nationals' 2021 Player of the Year, the second straight season the young star won the award given out annually in a vote of media members who regularly cover the team. Soto is joined by Kyle Finnegan (Pitcher of the Year) and Josh Bell (Good Guy Award) in receiving this year's honors, which are being presented prior to the start of...

Game 160 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox

Game 160 lineups: Nats vs. Red Sox
We have arrived at last at the final homestand of the season. Three more games to wrap up what undeniably has been a season most everyone around here wants to forget. But first, there are three games to play against a team that very much needs to win as many of these as it can. The Red Sox enter play tied with the red-hot Mariners for the second wild card berth in the American League, two games behind the Yankees, one game ahead of the Blue Jays. There are all kinds of scenarios that could play...

Kieboom cleared to play after MRI

Kieboom cleared to play after MRI
Third baseman Carter Kieboom, who was scratched from last night's starting lineup when left forearm soreness cropped up, has been cleared to play after a precautionary MRI earlier today showed no lingering issues. "Everything came back negative," Nationals manager Davey Martinez said in his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "He's going to go work out today (and) we'll see how he feels. But he's available to come off the bench today." Kieboom was hit on the left forearm by a pitch...

Why do the Nats keep getting burned by Rule 5.09a(11)?

Why do the Nats keep getting burned by Rule 5.09a(11)?
You would think by now the Nationals wouldn't find themselves in the middle of yet another argument over the interpretation of Rule 5.09a(11). Not after it was used against Trea Turner twice, including most famously in Game 6 of the 2019 World Series. Yet there was Josh Bell, pleading his case after being struck in the back by a throw just as he reached first base in the top of the 10th Monday night in Miami, and there was Davey Martinez, giving an umpire an earful in the Nats dugout before...

Late mistakes cost Nationals in 10-inning loss (updated)

Late mistakes cost Nationals in 10-inning loss (updated)
There is little sense at this point judging a Nationals-Marlins game on the performance of the two clubs after five or six innings. As much as they've faced each other in the last month, everyone should understand by now every game is going to be decided late, either by the bullpens or by some other manner of back-and-forth chaos. So it was again tonight in Miami, where the two teams at the bottom of the National League East standings engaged in another high-scoring affair that went right down...

Bell's work in outfield creates more playing time for Zimmerman

Bell's work in outfield creates more playing time for Zimmerman
Josh Bell starts in left field for the Nationals tonight, and while this is not a new development, it is notable that manager Davey Martinez felt comfortable enough in his slugging first baseman's ability to handle himself out there that he was willing to do this for a game inside spacious loanDepot Park. The Marlins' home stadium features one of the largest outfields in baseball, so this is perhaps not as easy an assignment for Bell as it was the three previous times he started in left field...

Game 150 lineups: Nats at Marlins

Game 150 lineups: Nats at Marlins
If you feel like you've seen the Nationals and Marlins play each other enough already this season, well, join the club. Alas, there are three games remaining on the head-to-head schedule between these two division foes and those will be taking place over the next three nights. When they wrap things up Wednesday night, the Nats will have faced the Marlins 19 times for the season, but nine times over the previous month. That's a lot. And the result of this series in Miami could go a long way...

Game 149 lineups: Nats vs. Rockies

Game 149 lineups: Nats vs. Rockies
The Nationals are not a good baseball team. Sorry to put it so harshly, but it's impossible to ignore that fact at this point. And they haven't just been bad since the trade deadline; they already were headed well in that direction a month prior to it. They've now played 70 games since July 1, and their record across that span is a dismal 20-50, worst in the majors. It also matches the worst 70-game stretch in club history, previously achieved only by the 2008 and 2009 teams. Those two...

Could Martinez shake up the lineup over the last two weeks?

Could Martinez shake up the lineup over the last two weeks?
It ain't broke, don't fix it. A common phrase that Nationals manager Davey Martinez is taking to heart over the last month or so of the season as it pertains to his lineup. Ever since Lane Thomas solidified his role in the leadoff spot on Aug. 28, Martinez's lineups have mostly looked like this: CF Lane ThomasSS Alcides EscobarRF Juan Soto1B Josh BellLF Yadiel Hernandez3B Carter KieboomC Keibert Ruiz2B Luis GarcíaPitcher's spot Those top four spots haven't changed, essentially, and for...

Bullpen gives up eight to ruin Rogers' strong start (updated)

Bullpen gives up eight to ruin Rogers' strong start (updated)
The baseball that was displayed for 3 hours and 53 minutes this afternoon at Nationals Park was not of a caliber many in the announced crowd of 16,309 could have found satisfactory. The Nationals and Marlins took turns trying to out-underperform each other, from the Nats' inability to produce with runners in scoring position to the Marlins' inability to play clean defense to both bullpens' inability to protect leads. (Or, in Miami's case, throw strikes with the bases loaded.) It all made...