Unarmed and Dangerous

 

Here's a fun stat about the Nationals, and it has nothing to do with all those home runs they've hit. Their pitching staff has a cumulative 4.2 WAR. 3.3 of that is from Foster Griffin, who now plays for the Cleveland Guardians. So everybody else combines for like...0.9 WAR. That's how good the Nats' pitching is. Beyond Cade Cavalli...eesh. Andrew Alvarez is doing better, Jake Irvin is at least finishing starts, and Jackson Kent is on the way up, but this pen, as people have mentioned, is alarmingly bad. The one guy who was actually keeping runs down, P.J. Poulin, just got hurt, and it's not looking great otherwise.

That's really how simple this Nats team was, because they could absolutely outhit people. They missed James Wood for a bit, but he's still got a 30 homer year and he's looking to top 75 RBIs. C.J. Abrams is right behind with 23, and an MVP-vote-garnering year for sure. There's also a lot of nice 'nuts and bolts' style guys, like Jacob Young, a winning centerfielder with a nice contact edge, or Nasim Nunez and his stolen bases. Daylen Lile quietly built up an 80 RBI/20 homer season while no one was looking, with an extra 6 triples to add. 

And so now the formula's clear. The pieces for this team to compete are intact, and now Harry Ford, Abimelec Ortiz and Yohandy Morales are all along for the ride, and they can all hit. This is a sustainable, working lineup model that can last a while. But...if there's no pitching behind it, there's no point. You hope Jackson Kent can develop into something great, but Alvarez and Cavalli are 27, and who's coming after? Is D.J. Herz ever gonna come back? Is Josiah Gray? Unless the Nats do what the A's do and bring in some mid-level free agents to lead things until some decent guys come in. And remember, they tried that this year with Griffin, Zack Littell and Miles Mikolas, and it did not work at all. If they can find people that actively want to come to Washington and rally behind James Wood, C.J. Abrams and Daylen Lile for a while, they might be okay.

But if not...people might start leaving. C.J. Abrams was nearly traded this deadline, and they could try and trade him again. The Nats could suddenly decide this isn't the way and alienate people. So it's really down to this specific offseason. I think they go all in, try and pick people up, really try to coast upwards. Or just rebalance the rotation around some young, homegrown guys who are ready. I say this like it's a foreign concept, but since 2021 it kind of has been. They had a rotation schematic and it didn't work at all, which is why they couldn't do anything this year. I genuinely believe they can get close, but...they're practically starting from zero, especially with how glass armed Cade Cavalli might honestly be.

You hate to see a team this powerful waste its moment, which is why I hope the Nats turn things around soon.

Coming Tomorrow- For such a fun nickname, you'd think the guy would be able to put it together for a longer amount of time.

A Slight Adjustment

 

It's not exactly THE gutsiest of moves but it's something that's still kind of turning heads.

So C.J. Abrams is having the best season of his career in Washington, he's on the heels of what could be a 30-homer/100-RBI season, and there's a slight chance he's able to steal 6 more bases and make it 30-30 as well. Nasim Nuñez has been getting to play everyday, has a league-leading 40 steals and has been aiding the Nats as a speedy infield boost. Last week, the decision was made to switch the two defensively, meaning Nunez will play shortstop and Abrams will play 2nd. On paper this makes sense, as Abrams's defense at short wasn't great and he could use a change. But...they're also telling Abrams, in the midst of his best season to date, that he needs to move over. In the midst of a non-competitive year after it's been clear they're not a playoff team. And this is the same organization that suspended him for gambling and nearly traded him months earlier. So needless to say, Abrams isn't happy, and conveniently he's day to day with a minor injury. So, the Nats, once again potentially ruining a good thing. 

It shouldn't take away from Nunez having his best season yet, and stealing bases like it's his job. He's not really hitting all that much, as he's a .226 hitter with 34 RBIs in 117 games, but it's about getting him on base and watching him fly. I kinda wish there was more to him than that, and even James Wood and Jacob Young can steal bases while still remembering to hit. But hey, at least Nunez is good at something, and at least he's finding his niche on this team. You're also seeing the other pieces falling into place. Brady House is starting at third again and doing alright, with 9 homers and 31 RBIs in 65 games. Dylan Crews has 10 homers and 27 RBIs in 76 games. Abimelec Ortiz has burst onto the scene as a rookie corner infielder, and has 5 homers and 9 RBIs in 16 games. He could be a nice piece going forward. You're even seeing Harry Ford slowly creeping up to Keibert Ruiz, and beginning to figure out MLB hitting.

Again, frustratingly given the last few years, the rotation isn't as far along. Cade Cavalli and Andrew Alvarez have thankfully improved, with Cavalli going on a historic run and shaping up to sneak right into the 'best pitchers in the NL' conversation going forward. Jackson Kent has a lot of support behind him but two starts in and he may not be ready for the bigs. Beyond that...who knows? Openers? Trevor Williams getting to start again, which honestly isn't that bad of an idea? Jake Irvin trying his best despite being seriously cooked? The bullpen isn't much better, despite Clayton Beeter and P.J. Poulin's best efforts.

The Nats are nearly good, and nearly got something going this year, but seem to keep shooting themselves in the foot whenever it's about to get good. This Abrams thing, if he's actually mad, is the next stage of foolishness. He's already pissed off, the lockout might not help, I guess he might be traded soon, so there goes what you're trying to build I guess. I dunno, maybe this lineup without James Wood is reminding me just how bleak it might all be with the Nats.

Coming Tonight: Literally the last person I expected to make a custom of this year.

How Did This Get Cade?

 

Well, the Nats got what they wanted. This is a team where C.J. Abrams, James Wood, Keibert Ruiz, Luis Garcia, Cade Cavalli, Dylan Crews and Jacob Young are all playing crucial roles. There's still no certainty that it'll last longer than next week, but it's happening.

Wood and Abrams are genuinely two of the best hitters in baseball, and I couldn't be more here for it. Wood has a .949 OPS, which leads the league, plus 30 home runs and 72 RBIs. No more 'good for the Nats', this is good for the whole league. Same with Abrams, who's only continued his spectacular Washington run, hitting .289 with a league-leading 84 RBIs [well it WAS league-leading before Sal Stewart went on a tear], plus 28 home runs and 19 steals. The Nats might trade Abrams, and they'd do so during his best season to date, where he's at his peak [at least to date] and has the most value. If the Nats feel like they will continue to have value with him, they might hold back, but considering that Foster Griffin is on the table, Abrams might still be leaving. 

And then look at Cade Cavalli. Missed a ton of time with injuries, returned valiantly last year with a comeback performance, and here he's doing what he should have been doing all along, with a 3.50 ERA, an 8-4 record and 130 Ks. Standard staff ace performance through 23 starts, meaning if Griffin gets dealt, which is still possible, they won't lose much of their footing as they probably aren't dealing Cavalli. Though I really wish some of the rotation depth that was teased years ago [whatever happened to D.J. Herz??] comes true going forward, because it is still DIRE. Carson Palmquist and Miles Mikolas are getting starts, it's not pretty at all. 

What kept the Nats going this year, and what will potentially save them from dealing too much of their core, is their offense, which will only get stronger as Crews and House develop, and with the eventual promotion [maybe next year] of Eli Willits. Even at a noncompetitive form, the Nats have three solid home run hitters, not to mention triples machine Daylen Lile and power-hitter-in-training Dylan Crews. I think that this can still develop with or without Abrams, and the existence of Eli Willits leads me to believe that Abrams is gonna walk at some point anyhow. 

Whatever happens, the Nats are still relatively close to where they should be. They have an identity, they have a future, and they have James Wood. They'll be alright.

Coming Tomorrow- An infielder who was supposed to be a part of something big a few years ago and is now...in last, supposedly on the other end of it. 

A Tough Half to Follow

 

Luis Garcia, I was assuming, was meant to be anticlimax.

The Nationals have a habit of putting their hopes on anticlimax players, and they've been doing it a lot since 2018. Even when Juan Soto was heating up the league, the Nats were going 'naw, Victor Robles is gonna be the guy'. That persisted for far too long. Then it happened with Carter Kieboom for far too long. You can argue it's happened with Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz, two prized prospects that have taken forever to actually blossom. Ruiz is doing better this year, but is Gray cooked? He might be. And the Nats just refuse to give up on these guys, even far beyond the expected timeline for a great player to take off. You still see Mitchell Parker kicking around in there, they haven't learned.

So Luis Garcia Jr., who's been in the leagues since 2020 and has delivered subpar defense and no offense since then, has now decided he's one of the best power hitters in Washington. Now. Six years in, at 26, right when everyone was about to give up on him. Is this....a payoff??? 

Here is what Luis Garcia Jr. has accomplished so far this year. A .284 average, 20 home runs, 68 RBIs, an .871 OPS. Now, Garcia's year-high for homers before this year was 18, for a full season. And to be clear...Luis Garcia has PLAYED...SEVERAL FULL SEASONS. The problem isn't that he's not there, the problem is that he's there and he's not doing anything. But now he can really hit. Those long-balls were all coming in succession the last month or so, and now he's genuinely a fearsome power hitter. Luis Garcia. And it's not even because this lineup can't hit for power, it absolutely can. I don't know if you all noticed, but the cleanup hitter in the All Star Game was a National. HE WAS THE SHORTSTOP. C.J. Abrams has 20 homers this year. Curtis Mead has 17 homers this year. And James Wood obviously can hit for power, he has 28 homers. So it's not like Garcia became a power hitter because nobody else would, he's become a home run guy IN ADDITION. That makes this team so much scarier, even if, logically, nothing else is gonna happen this year. 

It's just a matter if this is gonna become a regular occurrence for Garcia, because that would be nice. This Nats team is slowly coming together, with Mead and Nasim Nunez earning everyday roles, Daylen Lile showing definite staying power, Dylan Crews preparing to re-ascend to where many thought he'd end up [maybe HE'S the anticlimax], and Foster Griffin looking like a working anchor for the rotation. I think more pitching developments need to come together before I can take this team seriously, but as a sneaky spoiler with insane power ability, the Nats have been very surprising and very comforting. 

And if Luis Garcia's finally found his niche on this team, that makes it all worthwhile.

Coming Tomorrow [?]: Finally, the guy who might be the catcher for the next generation of Royals teams. Not a bad hitter either. 

4 Real?

 

So we have graduated from 'the NL Central has 5 teams over .500 looking good' to 'the NL East has 4 teams over .500 looking good and also the Mets'. I'll take it.

The Nationals might be the most intriguing team in baseball right now because they're suddenly looking like they're for real, even if logically they're probably another year away. They don't have the pitching yet, they're still trotting Miles Mikolas out there every 5 days. But...they're outhitting virtually everyone in the division right now. I used to think it was just Abrams and Wood, but it's really not. Daylen Lile is still a really ferocious contact guy, and has 8 homers and 37 RBIs. He also has 3 triples, tied with Nasim Nunez, the league leader in stolen bases. Curtis Mead has been extremely helpful in a corner infield spot, with 11 homers and 34 RBIs. Keibert Ruiz is actually having a pretty nice run, with a .280 average, a .783 OPS and 29 RBIs. I was fearing Ruiz had hit his ceiling but he's still got some pop to work with.

And now, suddenly...and I could be wrong on this...I think Dylan Crews might be taking off finally. He's got 5 homers and 16 RBIs in 28 games. It's not pretty, and he still strikes out too much, but he's showing more life than he did before. As I'm writing this he already has another RBI against the Phillies. If they get him working, which is still kinda a long shot but still possible, that could be pretty cool. I dunno when Brady House or Robert Hassell will be fully ready but that could also be a nice aspect if this team continues to build. There's still one or two pieces that feel a bit replacement level, Jose Tena and Jorbit Vivas chief among them. But they're much closer than they were to a really intimidating roster.

And again...I've had the thought of 'what if it happens this year??' Cause they genuinely have been a match for some great teams, and have had outrageous showings against the Braves, Mariners, Padres, Orioles and Guardians. The thing about the rotation is that even if they lack a wow factor ace, a Chris Sale or Paul Skenes type, they have some efficient guys that aren't unreliable as much as they're unlucky. Zack Littell is 6-6, and has a number of really strong starts under his belt, but the rough ones just outweigh them right now. Cade Cavalli has a really strong upside but his ERA's just over 4. Andrew Alvarez is young and a bit untested but he's been pretty stable in his last few starts. Foster Griffin is the surest thing on this team, and even if he's not, like, unbeatable, the Merrill Kelly comparisons should honestly be there, because he's completely rebuilt himself and has been really steady in his first season stateside. Efficiency is just the name of the game. Brad Lord, the longman, is efficient as hell, moreso than a lot of starters. Richard Lovelady, Clayton Beeter and P.J. Poulin are just efficient, sturdy relief pieces. It just works, even if it isn't always pretty.

The Nationals, honestly like the Marlins, have enough depth and perks to really stand a chance in the wild card race if things continue at this pace. If not, the Nats will probably be competitive anyway in a year or so, so it all works out.

Coming Tomorrow- One of the best pitchers in the AL. Who knows how long he'll be staying in the AL though.

Mead 'Em and Weep

 

2026 has already been a nice year for Australian ballplayers, and so soon after Liam Hendriks sort of trailed off. You've got the frontrunner for AL Rookie of the Year, Travis Bazzana, already taking to the bigs like a fish to water, he grew up in Australia then went to Oregon State. You've got Brandan Bidois, a relief specialist who just came up with the Pirates and has been doing alright for himself [or really just 'better than Justin Lawrence and Mason Montgomery were doing]. And then you've got Curtis Mead, who struggled to find an entryway with Philly, Tampa and the White Sox then was dealt to Washington right before the season started and is now an everyday guy. For a country whose biggest exports to this point were Dave Nilsson and Graeme Lloyd, things seem to be picking up for our friends down under.

Mead is the kind of hitter that the Nationals need right now, because his contact sensibilities click with this team, and he's still got plenty of prime years left. Right now he's got an .829 OPS, 9 homers and 28 RBIs. He's settling in as a corner infielder, primarily playing third but occasionally finding time at 1st. Considering how many sneaky contact guys are already on this team [Daylen Lile, Jacob Young, C.J. Abrams, Luis Garcia], Mead just seemed to arrive at the perfect time. And throwing an Australian journeyman with contact ability in with the people who were part of the plan to begin with is a very Toronto-esque strategy of just going for it. Why not Curtis Mead, especially if he's playing this well.

It's the same mentality that's made Foster Griffin a rotation staple this year, even after all that missed time overseas. It explains why Jorbit Vivas, former Yankee also-ran, is providing some recent utility flair. It's also why the team has been so patient with Zack Littell, after a scary start to the season. His last few starts have been really good, and he's back to allowing only 1 or 2 runs per game, winning his last five starts easily. It's a shame Littell's April was so snakebitten, but the guy who surprised people with the Rays and Reds last year is definitely still in there. 

The Nats know they're probably not a competitor this year, and are just trying to be the best they can given those circumstances. Fortunately, this 'why not' mentality has put them in 3rd place, a game above .500 and with one of the most run-scoring teams in the league. This week they've been chasing the D-Backs, a very good team, and have the Giants to play next. Even if the likelihood of the Nats being sellers is still high, they're doing more with a depleted team than anyone would have thought, and it might even mean that James Wood leading a team to the playoffs might not even be that far away.

Coming Tonight- One of those guys that finds himself after turning 30. The Royals have been loving his stuff.

Life Begins at 30

 

2026's rookie class is gonna be one of the strangest in some time. In addition to the J.J. Wetherholt, Konnor Griffin, Kevin McGonigle and Spencer Jones sect, people who SHOULD be debuting this year, we have Andrew Painter, who should have been up 3 years ago, and Foster Griffin, who technically had a rookie season in 2022, but didn't fulfill enough innings to meet the official requirement, then went off and pitched in Japan for 3 years, came back and seems to be the only person in the Nationals' rotation who's doing what he's supposed to. Grouping Griffin, who's THIRTY, in with that group is...odd. It's why I don't like the service time schtick that's lumped Randy Arozarena and Luis Gil into rookie categories when they honestly had the stats necessary to be counted as veterans. What Foster Griffin is doing this season isn't exactly rookie material, in the same way that what Munetaka Murakami's material isn't technically rookie material.

But...this is their first clear sample size in the MLB, so we go with it.

Griffin, through 10 starts, is 5-2 with a 4 ERA and 54 Ks. He also has a 1.179 WHIP, which is the lowest in the rotation. Aside from Cade Cavalli, who's been decent with a 3.86 ERA and 61 Ks, Griffin is head and shoulders above everyone else with a job. Miles Mikolas and Zack Littell are both failing to keep runs down, and at least with Mikolas he has the excuse that he's 37. Jake Irvin's still waterlogged from 2024 it seems, with a 5.79 ERA in 10 starts. They really should be starting Andrew Alvarez but they seem afraid to for some reason, and they're more prone to try out the opener bullshit and waste Richard Lovelady there rather than keep him for the save, which he's far better at. So much in this pitching staff makes absolutely no sense that the mere presence of a 30-year-old rookie ex-pat pitching the best out of everyone is even harder to believe.

Shame, because the lineup can actually hit this year. They've gotten to a point where if something isn't working, they do away with it, which they weren't always at liberty to do [at least with the hitting; doesn't explain why Mikolas is still here]. lady House wasn't working, so Jorbit Vivas and Luis Garcia are getting the reps at third. Joey Wiemer went cold so Dylan Crews gets another shot. The working model now includes Australian corner guy Curtis Mead manning first, and he's got 4 homers and 16 RBIs already. Daylen Lile, though lacking in triples, has 14 doubles, in addition to the 7 homers and 26 RBIs. Nasim Nunez leads the league in stolen bases with 21. Jacob Young and Jose Tena are slowly heating up. And...this team still very much belongs to James Wood and C.J. Abrams. It's not a perfect lineup, but it's got more angles than past iterations.

At least they've got that. At least they're hitting this year. Because it really is down to Foster Griffin to keep the pitching in line, and after 2024, where it looked like the future is bright with Parker, Irvin and Herz, that's insanely depressing. 

Coming Tomorrow- Last year, unexpectedly, he went from 'decent homegrown option' to 'one of the best infielders in the game'. Where's he gonna land this year?

Cyclical Justice

 

It's only fitting that some of these guys that came over around the time the Nationals started mailing things in and trading their stars are now expected to be traded later this year. Like it's not a full Rays strategy thing where no one has a chance, but...the Nationals are still essentially where they were at the beginning of this whole thing. Trying to build something, trying to catch fire, yet still being in the NL East where there's already three competitors. 

I honestly don't see a universe where the Nats don't shop C.J. Abrams this year. You can tell he's at the top of his game still, and he's off to the best start of his career, hitting .297 with 8 homers and 27 RBIs. Typically he finishes around the 60s in regards to RBIs, so seeing that he's around half that, and it's early May...things are looking pretty good. It's not like the Nats are completely starved for infield options, and they probably have a shortstop prospect on the way eventually [Willits isn't gonna be immediate but maybe in a year or so he'll be ready]. Losing Abrams won't kill them if they still have Wood and Hassell around. 

But knowing this team, they're probably not gonna stop there either. Every year the Nats have one guy they picked up for nothing who becomes a major July target. Jeimer Candelario was one, Jesse Winker was one, Mike Soroka was one. This year it might be Joey Wiemer. Dude got dropped by like 3 different teams, becomes a bench guy in Washington and takes off, hitting .318 with 3 homers, 8 RBIs and 3 doubles in 58 at-bats. If the Brewers still had this guy they wouldn't have to go and get Brandon Lockridge as the 'break in case of Chourio emergency' outfielder. Maybe they'll get him back, who knows. 

There's definitely still some building blocks that will remain even if there's a mass exodus in a couple months. Nasim Nunez is leading the league in stolen bases with 14, James Wood has 10 homers and a ton of walks, Daylen Lile hasn't hit a triple yet but can still mash and hit for contact. Foster Griffin, a 30-year-old rookie, has been the team's best starter thus far with a 2.27 ERA. There's still plenty of people coming, and plenty of people to fill roles in the meantime. It just means it's kind of a boring team for a bit. Wood and Abrams will at least make things interesting on occasion, but this still isn't a full team performance, and this still isn't getting anyone anywhere. 

Coming Tomorrow- Wild that he's still pitching. Wild that he's still pitching in Missouri. 

Wood Work

 

I've been writing this blog, and following baseball, for over a decade. I've seen a lot of bad teams that, for all intents and purposes, could be lost to history without anyone noticing. Aside from the last two seasons of all-time ineptitude, I've seen versions of the Pirates, Orioles, Marlins, Rays and Astros that completely refused to be anywhere close to good, and trudged along out of their own necessity. 

But something to be aware of is that it's very hard for a bad team to still have nobody I collect on it. The 2000s Orioles still had Brian Roberts. The early 2010s Astros still had Hunter Pence. I think about the stretch from 1994 til like 2005, where the Brewers had virtually no one I would ever think of seriously collecting playing for them. Aside from that one year of Hideo Nomo and the beginning of Nelson Cruz, it's a wasteland of replacement level guys and 'that guy's. At one point, Milwaukee seriously subsisted off of a core of Jeromy Burnitz, Geoff Jenkins, Jeff Cirillo, Jose Valentin, Fernando Vina and Dave Nilsson. Really.

So what I'm saying is that the 2026 Nationals...likely will be a bad team. They're not looking terrific, not gonna lie. They won yesterday against the Pirates in a squeaker, and even then most people are chalking that up to Don Kelly's mismanaging rather than anything the Nats actually did. Even though they currently lead the Mets in the standings, and are arguably playing better than the Phillies right now, they are not exactly expected to compete, and the general idea is that they'll likely sell at the deadline. But...even if they are a bad team, they still have James Wood and C.J. Abrams, and both are terrific. 

The Nationals have taken on several prospects from other teams, Abrams chief among them, with the intent on starting a new dynasty. Some have already moved on; Lane Thomas is now with Kansas City and MacKenzie Gore is now with Texas. The majority are still impacting the direction of this team. Even though Wood and Abrams came over in the same deal, they're still the marquee guys for this Nats team. Abrams is off to a scorching start, hitting .367 with 19 RBIs and 6 homers, plus a crazy 1.175 OPS. It is very possible that the Nats could trade Abrams at the deadline, and the lack of any 1st place prospects have sort of cemented that.

Which leaves James Wood, who I do not think is in danger of being traded anytime soon. And the Nationals are all the better for it. Wood is 23, reaching his prime, and still hitting great power numbers, with 5 homers and 14 RBIs already. Dude's a born power hitter, and though the high K rate is still scary, his production can't be denied. The hope is he can stay in Washington for a bit and help the team develop. You're already seeing Brady House, Foster Griffin, Daylen Lile, Nasim Nunez and Clayton Beeter becoming everyday options, and it's better than the carousel of replacement guys we've seen over the last few years.

The Nats at least have control over how much they can accomplish even in the midst of a seemingly lost year like this one. If James Wood, C.J. Abrams, Cade Cavalli and Jacob Young can deliver on great seasons, that'll at least be a step in the right direction. 

Coming Tonight: He just took a no-hitter into the eighth right around the point where Cleveland fans really started tiring of the old ace.

The Last Few Burning Questions of Spring

 

The last few exhibition games are being played out tonight, to get the last few trials in before the real ones. The final cuts are currently being made, call-ups are being announced, and we're finally ready to get the season moving before there's no season to play. It's the most exciting moment of a season, because it's the last moment where there's still potential energy, before the sobering reality hits. And then the colors mute, the cold returns, and the season runs ahead. 

I've still got a couple more customs from Spring Training to dole out, and so from there, let's examine some of the last few lingering concerns and loose threads that might be at play during the 2026 season.

-Does Ranger Suarez mean the Red Sox' rotation is for real? On paper, the combination of Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez, Brayan Bello and Connelly Early looks good, but with the exception of Early, all of these guys have shown downsides in recent history. Gray's coming off a down year, Suarez struggled to come back fully after the hand injury, Bello's ERA stayed plainly around 4.50 for a while, and Crochet was in injury hell for a while. How likely will it be that everything clicks at once? Luckily, Johan Oviedo, Payton Tolle and Kutter Crawford are around in case something goes wrong.

-Will Kevin McGonigle succeed where other Tigers infield prospects haven't? Trey Sweeney and Jace Jung, two infield prospects that looked like hits, both failed to make the team out of camp. Colt Keith still has second for now, and Zach McKinstry is mostly an interloper. The future is paved for McGonigle and Clark, but will they take advantage of the moment or end up like Jung, Sweeney, Ryan Kreidler and more?

-Is the world ready for a decidedly non-competitive Cardinals team? Despite the complete lack of star power, the entirely decimated pitching staff, and the reliance on guys like Masyn Winn and Ivan Herrera to provide some form of normalcy, many pundits are still predicting the Cardinals will finish with more wins than the Pirates. Even with substantial evidence that Oli Marmol is well past his expiry date. It's not like the Patriots where it can just suddenly happen overnight. J.J. Wetherholt is likely very good at baseball, but is he gonna be enough to get anyone to care about this team? 

-Similarly, will THIS team be the Angels team that brings non-Ohtani relevance back to Anaheim? A lot of the pieces that worked separately in 2025 are still intact. Trout will be healthy and ready to go, Neto's onto another stage of his peak, Adell can finally power-hit in the majors, now Grayson Rodriguez has a place to pitch, Logan O'Hoppe looks to have a strong year, Soler's healthy. If all goes according to plan, the Angels could surprise some people. But in a division with the Mariners, A's and Astros, will they be able to get anything done?

-Has the injury bug already doomed the Braves before the year can even get going? Yesterday Spencer Strider was announced as an injured piece. The team already knew they'd be without Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, Ha-Seong Kim and Joey Wentz for a while. This team also has Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Austin Riley, Mike Yastrzemski and Martin Perez on it. And Ronald Acuna is back, but who knows if he'll be at full capacity this year. Even if there's more reinforcements this year with that possibility in mind, will they have enough to keep them in the mix all year, or will they be running on fumes by August once again?

Will the White Sox finally lap the Twins in a battle for least inept team in the AL Central? Believe me, the White Sox have had a nice head start and had some truly terrible seasons, but the Pohlads completely have up and the Twins now consist of Byron Buxton, Joe Ryan and a bag of chips. Even with strong second-year infielder Luke Keaschall gearing up for a more dominant full season, the Twins don't have much at all this year. Pablo Lopez is hurt, none of the young core has developed, Royce Lewis still spends 2 months on the IL every year. Do the Twins have enough accumulated to outdo the White Sox's smarty-built younger squad?

-Are the Rockies looking at another year firmly on the bottom? I don't really see any evidence that suggests otherwise. Some of these rookies look decent, Kyle Karros and Chase Dollander and Zac Veen, plus the possibility of Charlie Condon and Roc Riggio sometime soon. But man, there really is nothing to this team, even still. And they have to play a ton of games against the Dodgers and Padres. Will there be anything at all that will be seen as an improvement by year's end?

-How off-kilter is the Nationals rotation going to be? In years' past it's been pretty straightforward, the young core of MacKenzie Gore, Mitch Parker, Jake Irvin and D.J. Herz, plus assistance from Trevor Williams. Now it's taken a turn. Josiah Gray was set to make his comeback after 2 years of injuries, but apparently that's not happening for a while. So what's left? Is Cade Cavalli ace material? Does Miles Mikolas have anything left? Did the other 29 teams pass on Zack Littell for any specific reason? Is Foster Griffin a viable MLB option? And is there any place for Cole Irvin, and eventually Herz and Parker, on this shifting team?

-What are the Rays getting at now? At last they get a working core, with Caminero, Aranda and Lowe all propelling them forward, and then Lowe, Mangum, Fairbanks, Josh Lowe and Baz all end up elsewhere. Is it possible that the Rays were closer to competing before than they are now? Even with Chandler Simpson, Carson Williams and Ben Williamson looking to make strides this year, the holes are apparent. If the Rays actually wanted to build a team without needing to save money, they definitely had the opportunity to. Will this season, and an impending lockout, give the Rays any incentive whatsoever to attempt to build a perennial competitor?

Just food for thought, I suppose. Tomorrow night we kick this whole thing off.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2025: Nationals

 

I think I can pinpoint exactly when the Nationals' 2025 season peaked. Opening Day, MacKenzie Gore struck out 13 Phillies in 6 innings. That was the first and only time this season the Nats would have any leverage. Because immediately after that, the Phils took over, kept them at 0-1, and the Nats would be struggling to play catch-up all year. They were 4 losses away from a 100-loss season, and they did win 4 games against the Phillies this year, so perhaps the Phils just saved them from a worse fate.

Regardless. The Nationals had the third-worst record in baseball a year after things seemed like they were on the up-and-up. The Marlins progressed, and even the Braves sort of came back to life a little by the end of the year. The Nats needed to improve from their still-alright 2024 if they wanted to stay out of last, and they couldn't. Adding James Wood to their core is a good thing, but the man struck out 221 times this year. Dylan Crews isn't all the way there yet either, and neither is Robert Hassell. So either 2026 is the year it all clicks, or these guys really need to rethink things.

One of those things might be Keibert Ruiz, who was the big takeaway from the Scherzer/Turner deal, and like fellow prospect Josiah Gray, he just hasn't amounted to much in Washington. In an injury-shortened year, Ruiz struggled to stay on target, hitting .247 with 25 RBIs in 68 games. Riley Adams had to make up a lot of the work, and he wasn't much better. Ruiz is signed til the end of the decade, and seriously needs to get himself together.

2026 Prediction: Okay, so let's be real. He's gonna be 27 next year, and though he's one of the foundational piece of this team, he's barely done the work to warrant it. I think the Nats will be forced to give Ruiz some starts at catcher next year, and some of them will go well, but with Harry Ford now waiting in the wings I do think he'll be phased out at some point.

Similarly, after finally breaking out last year at the plate, longtime Nats infielder Luis Garcia took a step back and put in some mediocre innings, hitting .252 with 16 homers and 66 RBIs. Some potent contact moments, but not nearly as much as last year.

2026 Prediction: Isn't starting at 2nd by the end of the year.

Then you have outfield speedster Jacob Young, who wasn't 2024-good, and actually led the league in caught steals this year, but was still a great asset for this team. Young's defense led to a lot of excellent catches and great outfield moments, and he still stole 15 bases in 120 games, despite a lack of real batting highlights.

2026 Prediction: Once again we need to be realistic. Next year, the outfield will include a fully healthy Dylan Crews, plus Robert Hassell and Daylen Lile, in addition to James Wood, though honestly Wood really should be starting at DH more. That makes Young the fifth string outfielder, and likely the backup centerfielder to Hassell. And plus guys like Christian Franklin and Nick Schell are back there, possibly ready and even worth dealing. Young is in a crowded field, and unless he makes himself known in this picture, he might be playing somewhere else next August.

To that point, the latter half of this season featured Daylen Lile, who initially struggled to find his footing and hit .234 in the first half, then hunkered down and took reps at RF, filling in for Crews, in the second half and took off. That second half for Lile came with a .333 average, 33 RBIs, 7 homers, 70 hits and, crucially, 10 triples, which turned a lot of heads. This finish to the season got Lile a ton of Rookie of the Year votes, and a surprising amount of confidence for a team that thought it had itself figured out.

2026 Prediction: The year that Wood had in power, Lile will have in contact. 

Andrew Alvarez was a September 'break in case of emergency' starter for the Nats, and it's honestly weird they only really needed one. Like maybe Cade Cavalli counts but they were always thinking he'd be back. Alvarez was killing it in the minors, they brought him up, he did the trick. In 5 starts, he had a 2.31 ERA and 20 Ks. In a year with varying degrees of Mitchell Parker, no D.J. Herz and Jake Irvin leading the league in earned runs, it's nice that somebody showed a little stability.

2026 Prediction: 15 starts, 4ish ERA, the occasional electric start.

Coming Tomorrow- A lot of Baltimore Orioles who were probably really confused as to why they didn't compete this year. 

Closing Bell

 

So now that the Nationals have absolutely nothing left to prove and are throwing out Daylen Lile and Andrew Alvarez just to keep the lights on, NOW is the time that Josh Bell starts hitting. That'll help!

Josh Bell has this uncanny ability to absolutely take off late in a season, typically for a competitor, regardless of whether or not he was doing anything in the first half. It happened in 2023 with the Marlins, he came to Miami and hit .270 with 11 homers and 26 RBIs, sparking a playoff spot. It happened last year with the Diamondbacks, where Bell put on a clinic subbing for Christian walker, hitting .279 with 5 homers and 22 RBIs in 41 games. And now it's happened in Washington, despite the Nats having been eliminated from playoff contention like a month ago.

It's as simple as this: Josh Bell had a .678 OPS during the 1st half and a .814 OPS during the second half. It's not gonna go down as one of his best power seasons, but it's been more power than a lot of Nationals in the past two months. Bell will finish the season with 20+ homers and 60+ RBIs, which isn't bad. It's not like his 2023 for the Nats, but he's also been far worse for other teams admittedly. They got him to be a power bat, a veteran DH, and he's done what they signed him to do. Compare that to Joc Pederson, who got more money to hit .180, and there's no contest. 

Ultimately, the star of the show right now for the Nats have been rookies. Daylen Lile's been heating up recently, and is hitting .292 with 9 triples and 6 homers, a very impressive ratio. Crews seems to be hitting now, even if his first half stats are gonna kill his cumulative season. Clayton Beeter has been a steal of a throw-in, as he, along with P.J. Poulin, has provided more bullpen stability than they've had all year. And Andrew Alvarez has been excellent in his first three starts, with a 1.15 ERA and a 0.8 WAR. It doesn't make up for the amount of dead weight this team has carried, but at least the dominoes are still being laid out for a better year. 

If they can get a full year of Wood, Crews, Gore, Abrams, Hassell, Lile and Alvarez performing at their peaks, this might not be as depressing of a team. But a lot has to be strung together, rather than a series of one-man teams. And I don't know how far away the Nats are from that.

Coming Tonight: A rookie catcher for the White Sox. No, not that one.

Hidden Cavalli

It's depressing how common it is for a player to go from a highly-touted prospect to 3 years of injury hell to 'what could have been' now. There's tons. Michael Kopech, Andrew Painter, Michael Soroka, arguably Walker Buehler now. So seeing where Cade Cavalli's ended up is a little upsetting. Cavalli in 2022 was one of the big can't miss prospects for a Nats team that was desperate to make a comeback. In a cycle where the Nats added people like MacKenzie Gore, Keibert Ruiz and C.J. Abrams, the hope was that Cavalli would add to that mix and bring the team back. In actuality, Cavalli made 1 start in 2022, got hurt, and missed the next two seasons.

So finally in August of 2025, Cavalli finally gets to be an everyday starter in the majors. He's 26, perfectly healthy, and wants to jumpstart something in Washington. His first four starts go really well, including 2 scoreless outings and two great starts against the Phillies. He's already looking like one of the best things to happen to the Nationals during this depressing second half.

...and then Cade Cavalli has to face the Yankees. And he promptly gets the snot beaten out of him. In two and a third innings, he gives up 8 runs on 8 hits, including 4 home runs. Let the record show that he also struck out 4, and I think two of them were Anthony Volpe.

It's not like people haven't come back from a rough start before. But this was the centerpiece of a comeback many years in the making, and a big moment that would have made, or broken, his legitimacy in the majors. And it lasted barely three innings. You can make the case that it was the way the wind was blowing for this Yankees team at this moment, or just how unlucky the Nats have been this year, but now the Nats have to rethink things yet again. They thought they had a surefire guy in Josiah Gray, he's been gone since early 2024. They thought they had a surefire guy in Mitchell Parker, he's 7-14 with a -1.2 WAR this year. They thought they had a workable piece in D.J. Herz, he's been AWOL this year. So now if Cavalli isn't gonna work either, and they're down to Gore, Jake Irvin, Brad Lord and a frigging prayer...that doesn't exactly fill the Nationals with confidence that they're gonna compete anytime this decade.

The Nationals have James Wood, C.J. Abrams, Dylan Crews, and the possibility of Robert Hassell and Brady House working at the MLB level. They have Keibert Ruiz for the rest of the decade, but he's been shockingly average. Who knows if the Nats will feel they'll need to trade some of these guys in order to achieve prospects that work. And it's insane that I have to make that statement after everyone they got in the 2021 rebuild.

Coming Tomorrow- Speaking of rebuilds, a rookie catcher who's taken to the majors extremely well.

Somebody's Got to Keep the Lights On

 

Okay, so, it's August, teams already pretty much know if they're competing or not, so you're seeing a lot of rookies taking over, getting shots. Some of them are up to continue the natural progression of the rebuild. Some are up because there's basically no other options.

Happier one first. The White Sox, while still well under .500, are definitely a better team than they were last year. You can see the next steps very distinctly, and you can see the guys who are gonna carry the team forward. Now, there's pieces like Brooks Baldwin and Miguel Vargas who THINK they're foundational pieces but are actually building blocks, and then there's guys like Chase Meidroth, Kyle Teel and Colson Montgomery, who are very much the future.

Montgomery, since coming up, has been exactly what Sox prospectors have been hearing for years. This guy can hit, and he's doing it immediately. In 32 games in the majors, Montgomery has hit 10 home runs 26 hits and 26 RBIs. He's only hitting .241, but he's got a .565 slugging percentage and a .876 OPS. That is...striking. He's a one man artillery and he's only 23. They have him at SS primarily to fill in for Meidroth but 3rd is his primary position. I'm not quite sure how Meidroth, Montgomery and Vargas will all play in the same infield. Maybe they won't. But I do see Montgomery as the centerpiece of this Sox team going forward. The rebuild in 2016 began with a shortstop callup, and so here we are again.

It's also important to note that Edgar Quero, since joining the team as a catching option, has propelled himself into the team's Top 5 WAR earners, and is hitting .268 with 26 RBIs. Quero is just an efficient, trustworthy catcher, and honestly they need a guy like that. While the team has formed a surprisingly nice bullpen, I'm anxious to see who becomes the ninth inning man for these teams. Maybe we've yet to meet him. 

Comparatively, the Nationals are a lot less confident in their future, because they're mostly just bringing people up to fill innings. People like Brady House, Daylen Lile, Jose Tena and Shinnosuke Ogasawara are in mostly because the Nats don't have much of a choice. House would ideally be spending the rest of the year in the minors, but because Paul deJong and Jose Tena weren't getting it done at the hot corner, he's thrust in and gets to hit .239 for a last place team. Daylen Lile, in the absence of Dylan Crews, has been the primary choice in right field, and he is a serious liability on defense. As is Luis Garcia, who seemed to be just turning the corner last year. 

So where does that leave Robert Hassell II? On an earlier callup he struggled to get the taste for major league pitching, but since being brought back in the wake of Alex Call's trade, he's been a ton better. He's now hitting .250 with 2 homers and 13 RBIs in 30 games, plus has been so much better upon the August callup, with a .389 average in that stretch. It's about time one of these other rookies figured the majors out, as I was worried it'd just be James Wood. 

It remains to be seen how long it'll be til the Hassell-Wood-Crews outfield is not only a reality, but successful. Crews was primed for a great 2025, struggled, then just as he was getting the hang of things, got hurt. Wood had a stellar first half, and has been quieter since the ASG break. Hopefully next year all three are healthy and hit the ground running, but the Nats need to figure out how to be good within the period where they'll all be in their peak. It still looks like a few years away, and who knows if any of them will have flamed out or have been traded by then.

As of now, the White Sox look like they're a bit more confident in their future than the Nationals. But anything can happen.

Coming Tonight: One of my all-time favorites, rounding out what could be the last season of his career.

House Sitting

 

The Nationals are proof that you could ignite the entire youth movement and somehow it could get worse than before. 

I dunno, Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell and Daylen Lile were high-priority prospects for a reason, and they lit up the minors and gave the impression that they were ready for MLB work, and it just hasn't come together. Crews is not only hurt but wasn't hitting above .200. Hassell hit .218 in 21 games, went back down. Lile is hitting .226 and has a -0.8 WAR. I dunno what happened. I dunno if it's this team, this season, this moment. You'd think they'd figure something out. It hasn't happened. So now they're onto the next rookie outfielder. Brady House is up now, he's, at the very least, hitting .258 with 12 RBIs in 24 games, and he seems to have some of the early promise that the other three lacked. But if we're going with fourth contingency plan outfielders, not even counting Jacob Young [who's fine this year], you can tell the plan hasn't really worked out in Washington. 

The Nats, in a division where the Braves have disappointed and the Marlins have fluctuated, are in dead last. They've done this with a relatively consistent rotation [or at least it was til Trevor Williams' second straight midyear injury], two genuine stars in Wood and Abrams, and Miguel Cairo now managing. People that looked like building blocks last year, like Luis Garcia, Keibert Ruiz and Jose Tena, have taken huge steps backwards. The supplementary pieces aren't anything special, with Nathaniel Lowe hitting .230 despite 60 RBIs. In a year where they were supposed to build, they're falling further apart and setting back the rebuild timeline. 

And it still could happen soon enough. Gore, Irvin and Parker are still reliable arms. Wood is a bonafide star, and already has his sights on a 30 homer year. There's a chance that Crews and Hassell click into place next year, and that'll make up for the strife this year I suppose. But I think that the fanbase was feeling like the competitive run was coming sooner than actuality, and it's just been a disappointing comedown from that. 

All that remains for the Nats is to let loose some expendable pieces, be the spoiler when possible and hope next year comes together more. This team can't be a last place team forever, not with this much talent waiting.

Coming Tonight: One of the longest names in baseball, and one of the more impressive bounce-backs.

The Momentum Jams

 

The Nationals have yet to be above .500 this season, but let the record show that it's gotten close. With James Wood, MacKenzie Gore and C.J. Abrams all having great seasons, the Nats have been very close to being a good team, and have actually stayed relatively close to the pack during the prior months of the season. At the end of May, the Nats won four straight against tough teams, the Mariners and the Diamondbacks, and were 28-30, very close to .500, and close to flipping the script on their 'not quite ready' reputation. 

We're more than halfway into June, and the Nats have won three games this month. They just got over an 11-game losing streak. And they are now so far out of the race that the Marlins are in danger of lapping them. So much for that.

I think the main issue with this Nats team is that, while the stars have formed, thankfully, there still isn't a strong enough foundation to back them up. Keibert Ruiz, Luis Garcia, Jacob Young and Dylan Crews have all been brought in here to bridge this team towards a championship, and none of them are playing like they're leading anybody anywhere. Young is stealing bases, Crews is hitting for power, but they're not fully formed players right now. Ruiz was supposed to be THE guy for this team, and he's hitting .224 with 2 homers. Granted, Max Scherzer and Trea Turner aren't exactly Dodgers heroes right now, so it's not like they were cheated out of anything. You've also spent money on people like Josh Bell and Nate Lowe and they're not doing much at all. Bell has the weirdest priorities as a hitter, because he'll only do well for you at the oddest moments, and it's mostly like August. 

The rotation is, at least, still promising. Jake Irvin is having another nice season, he's 5-3 with 59 Ks and a 4.23 ERA. Gore leads the league in strikeouts and has a 2.89 ERA to boot. Parker and Lord are less impressive this year but doing their best. And somehow Kyle Finnegan is still a great closer. The pen otherwise is kind of scary, and nearly ruined it during the Rockies game a few days ago. 

This team has just gotten unlucky with injuries to crucial pieces, and promising young guys going cold at the wrong times. There isn't a sense of unity yet, because we're still in the replacement zone and not a lot of these guys are on the same page. The idea is that a huge season from Wood cements him as the centerpiece, and they start really building a team around him and going for it, and Wood is on his way there with 20 homers and 56 RBIs. But at this stage, it's not very realistic to expect everything to click. The supplementary pieces aren't there yet, and they might not be there for another few years.

Coming Tonight: He throws hard, notches saves and keeps his team a threat in the AL Central.

Youth Overload

 

On the current Nats 26-man roster, there are only 8 players over 30. Five of them are relievers. The two hitters over 30 are a guy who made his debut 2 years ago and Josh Bell. This is a very young team, and with some recent call-ups it just got even younger. And while that may not immediately succeed, especially in this division, the Nationals do have a point with trying to plug people into the right positions early.

For instance, they just called up Robert Hassell, one of the few remaining Soto deal prospects that hadn't made the majors. Hassell hasn't had a ton of hitting luck yet in the majors, but with Crews and Young hurt, they need to at least exhaust some minor league options. The other intriguing recent call up is Daylen Lile, a 22-year old outfield prospect with some incredible defensive skills and some early contact promise. In the minors he was trusted for his contact work and his base-stealing, so to have a guy like that would aid the Nats immensely, as they're already filling up with great young power bats [James Wood chief most among them]. 

The team's biggest star, arguably, is a young, consistent hitter netted in the Soto deal. C.J. Abrams was always gonna blossom in the majors, and it was really just a matter of where. San Diego did not have the infield room for him, and Washington clearly did, so of course it worked perfectly. So far this year Abrams is off to another strong start, hitting .294 with 8 homers, 19 RBIs and 9 steals. Even with shortstop being a highly contested position, Abrams has a decent shot of making an All-Star team this year, and it's clear that he's vindicated himself from where he was at the end of last season [from an ownership standpoint]. Abrams can still be the focal point of this team, even as Wood, Parker and Gore fully develop and Hassell and Lile join the fun. 

The Nats, to me, have been among the best of the so-called 'bad teams'. They have a meager record and they're not currently expected to vie for the lead in the NL East, but they're better than you'd think. Last week they had a 5-game winning streak going, against the O's and Braves, and now they're playing teams like the Mariners and D-Backs that they honestly match up well against. Irvin, Gore and Parkers are having great seasons, Ruiz is batting .280, and Amed Rosario has been a terrific bench bat. There's a lot on this Nats team that works, and while I don't think they officially compete this year, people should be paying attention to what they're building, because before they know it they'll be a major force.

Coming Tonight: Oh, you know...that guy that just pitched a 13-K shutout the other day.

Drift Wood

 

Beyond the Mets and Phillies, the NL East is in a weird place. The Braves are in third, but still haven't decided whether or not they're gonna go for it this year, and have sort of bobbed back and forth this whole time. The Marlins are in last, but because they have Kyle Stowers, they've managed a ton of clutch victories and may keep piling them up. And the Nats are just barely in fourth, and may deserve to pull even higher.

And that's the odd part. This is what the Nats look like when they have the Crews-Wood-Young outfield fully installed, when they have a competent rotation and a good closer, when they have definite stars like C.J. Abrams, and when they actually look like they know what they're doing for the first time since, ironically, the red caps were taken away in 2020. And even with all that, they're still a game behind a Braves team that doesn't even know whether they're competing or not. 

James Wood, as we all figured last year, is exactly what the Nats needed. Even at 22 he feels confident, self-assured and comfortable in the majors. So far he's hit 9 home runs and 21 RBIs, seconded only to Nate Lowe's 27, and his .926 OPS leads the team. I know people are really worried about Dylan Crews not clicking immediately, but this team has enough guys that have. Wood, Abrams, Young, Gore, Parker. And plus, enough teams have proved that if the golden child prospect takes his time, the rest of the team can step up and ensure it's not solely on him. That's how the Tigers worked before Torkelson got it, that's how the O's worked before Holliday's current hot streak. Crews is hitting for power, even if he's not fully five-tool yet. A good season from James Wood is definitely enough to distract from the fact that Dylan Crews is still figuring out the majors. 

People should be paying attention to how the Nationals do against good, competitive teams. Earlier this year they took two from the Diamondbacks and two from the Dodgers. They had some big wins against the Orioles and just took down the Reds for a bit. Yesterday they legged it out in extras against a very ferocious Guardians team who, in all seriousness, should have won that game. That scrappiness, that big game attitude, is gonna be very valuable going forward, even if they're not competitive yet. They are a good team that many perceive to be a bad one, and that's gonna be a help to them as they continue to play really good teams. A lot of even the best teams don't have starting combos as strong as MacKenzie Gore, Mitchell Parker and Cole Irvin. The O's don't even have one guy that can do who those three can right now.

So, Wood getting off to a great start might be just the beginning of a fun improvement of a season for the Nats. I don't know if they're fully a playoff team yet, but they'll be better than they have in a while. 

Coming Tomorrow- Everyone knew he'd be elite, and now that he is you commonly forget just how good he can be.

How to Build A Young Rotation And Make It Last

 

The White Sox have got to be looking at the Nats' rotation right now going 'here's what we COULD be'. Cause if their rotation can be hindered by Martin Perez going down with an injury, they need to be taking notes.

Right now, the Washington Nationals, in their moment of patheticness as they wait for James Wood and Dylan Crews to run the team, have arguably one of the strongest rotations in baseball, and the majority of it is made up of young, strong hurlers. Many of them are homegrown, like both Mitchell Parker and Cole Irvin. Parker is picking up almost immediately where his 2024 left off, with a 3-1 record, a 1.37 ERA and a league-leading 1.7 WAR. He's had five terrific starts so far, and he's stepped up in a way no one was anticipating. Irvin is 2-0 with a 3.68 ERA and 27 Ks. Of the young Nats starters, he's the oldest at 28, and he's running the risk of getting past his peak before this team can really take off. 

And then there's...y'know...the guy they got from the Padres who strikes out everybody. Yeah, him. MacKenzie Gore K'd 8 more tonight, bringing his season total through 6 starts to 53. That is an extremely good thing, and it's even better that he's been, for the most part, on target, with a 3.34 ERA. Gore may be the flashier, bigger exclamation point pitcher, but Parker might be the better guy.

Now, the worrying part is the fact that after these three and Trevor Williams, there is a gaping hole at the back of the rotation. Anyone who would be a good idea to fill it, like Josiah Gray, D.J. Herz and Cade Cavalli, is hurt. They've been forced to use rookie Brad Lord as a fifth starter, which hasn't gone well. I'd honestly love to see them give Shinnosuke Ogasawara a shot, but he's been middle of the road in the minors. The one issue with having a rotation of young guys is you run the risk of burning them out, and hopefully the three starring guys in Washington stay this sturdy.

The White Sox, meanwhile, are just hoping to get into some consistent stretches with their young pitchers.  The issue of not burning out the young arms is already a factor, as you can already see SEVERAL on the IL after just a small bit of service time. Jesse Scholtens, Ky Bush, Drew Thorpe and Prelander Berroa are all on the 60-Day IL after partial seasons of White Sox support over the last few years. Thorpe, of all of those, seemed like The Guy through his rookie starts last year, but because every minor leaguer throws hard now, he needed a year of downtime. Martin Perez has joined them on the 60-Day, after a wonderful start. 

And while there are good young stars left, many of them aren't good enough to outrun the ineptitude of the team. Sean Burke's the only one doing truly terribly, he's got a 6.23 ERA [your opening day starter, everybody!]. Many, like Davis Martin and Jonathan Cannon, are pitching well enough but just have been unlucky. Cannon's 0-3 with a 4.81 ERA. The highlight, undoubtedly, has been Shane Smith, called up in time to make the Opening Day rotation, and holding down a 2.30 ERA and 20 Ks through 5 starts. Plus, today he finally got his first career win, one the bullpen couldn't blow considering that the game was called after 7 innings. I think it's better that a lot of these guys are good pitchers with a lot of promise, and I prefer that to last year, where you had only 2 truly great starters and a lot of people desperate to fill innings. We're not at the 'break glass for Chris Flexen' part of the season yet. There is that open fifth spot, and while I think it would be wise to call up former Red Sox starter prospect Wikelman Gonzalez, chances are they might throw in Bryse Wilson or somebody like that, for efficiency's sake. 

I think the White Sox are a couple years away from being where the Nats are, coasting on reliable starters and building something quietly. They're still pretty terrible, but the presence of Smith, and arguably Martin and Cannon, proves that they may not always be.

Coming Tomorrow- His team is within inches from competing, and he might be the force that gets them there.

Capital K

 

When the Padres picked MacKenzie Gore with the 3rd overall pick in 2017, they knew the amount of strikeouts that'd be coming their way. This was a period of Padres baseball without many trusted starting options, and getting a guy like that in the mix would make them competitive in no-time, especially considering that Fernando Tatis Jr. would make his way into the equation shortly. However, unlike your Rhett Lowders and Paul Skeneses, Gore's development lasted through the 2019 season, and still had further to climb before the pandemic ensured his 2020 season wouldn't be the breakout one he was hoping for. Then in 2021 he struggles with injuries, and by the time he was ready for the show in 2022, the Padres were....good.

Like, they were now working with a rotation of Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell, Sean Manaea and Mike Clevinger. They didn't need MacKenzie Gore as badly as they did in 2017. So while Gore got some starts filling in for Clevinger midyear, he was officially expendable, due to so many things that were outside his control.

What I'm saying is that the Soto deal was the best thing that could have happened to him. He goes to a rebuilding team with plenty of rotation spots and an emphasis on letting young players prosper. Already in Washington we have seen C.J. Abrams and James Wood, two other dispatches from the Soto deal, become excellent players. Wood's been looking great so far this year. Robert Hassell's maybe another year or so away [ironically there might not be outfield room for HIM now] but he's also looking fantastic. And Gore, in that package, was the most MLB ready guy there.

...apart from Luke Voit, but...y'know..

MacKenzie Gore's 2024 was pretty good admittedly, as he pitched in all 32 games, struck out 182 and had a 3.90 ERA. But, as the team wasn't good yet, it wasn't the most helpful season. Now the team is...only marginally better, but Gore is now fully comfortable in the majors, and striking out 13 Phillies on Opening Day certainly makes that clear. He currently leads the league in strikeouts with 25, something that shouldn't have shocked the Padres scouts 8 years ago. He's keeping his ERA, not allowing many runs, and has been one of the best players on the Nationals. That's what the Padres needed, and now that they don't need him anymore he's exactly what the Nationals need.

The Nats themselves are doing basically what people thought they would. Winning the occasional tough matchup, but not outlasting the division's big guns. The biggest disappointment of the year so far has been Dylan Crews, who's only hitting .128 with 5 hits in 39 at-bats. Meanwhile James Wood has 10 RBIs and 4 homers, so it's not all bad. Nathaniel Lowe, even for an interim piece, fits this team really well, and is much less overshadowed than he was in Texas. The core of Ruiz, Abrams, Garcia and Wood seems to be in place [I kinda figured Jacob Young would be right there with him but he'll be along eventually I guess], and Parker, Gore and Finnegan are off to excellent starts. 

The Nats know how difficult it will be to outlast the Mets and Phils this year, and I think their goal involves waiting til the point where their peak outweighs the competition. It might not be this year but it could be soon.

Coming Tomorrow- The guy's gotta be sick of losing his job to Juan Soto. Nevertheless, he's doing well enough for himself.