The bulk of the shopping in a quiet Nationals offseason looks to be complete. General manager Mike Rizzo told the team’s beat writers Wednesday the Nats aren’t likely to add any more free agents on guaranteed deals between now and Opening Day (X link via Andrew Golden of the Washington Post). It’s still possible that they’ll add some veterans on minor league deals with spring training invitations.
Rizzo’s comments seemingly close the door on any potential late additions of note to a Nationals club that has been poking around the starting pitching market. “I just couldn’t find that starting pitcher that was going to impact us at this time, for not only the right amount of years but the right salary at this time,” Rizzo said Wednesday (via MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman).
The Nationals have only signed three players to big league deals this offseason — none for more than Joey Gallo’s $5MM (as can be seen in MLBTR’s Contract Tracker). Beyond Gallo, the Nats signed reliever Dylan Floro and infielder/outfielder Nick Senzel to one-year deals worth $2.3MM and $2MM, respectively. They’ve also added outfielder Jesse Winker, lefty Richard Bleier and first baseman/outfielder Juan Yepez on minor league pacts this winter.
As it stands, the Nationals will deploy a rotation including Patrick Corbin, Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and Trevor Williams. That group combined to start all but 19 of Washington’s games in 2023 — Chad Kuhl, Joan Adon and Jackson Rutledge started the others — a season in which the Nationals ranked 25th in the Majors with a 5.02 ERA and 29th in each of FIP (5.30), SIERA (4.95) and K-BB% (9.7%).
The Nats are surely hoping for better performances from young starters like Gore and Gray, both of whom were lauded as top prospects prior to breaking into the big leagues. Both hurlers posted respectable ERAs with middling grades from fielding-independent metrics, in no small part due to sub-par walk rates and (in Gore’s case especially) struggles with the long ball. Gore is the only Nationals starter who posted an above-average strikeout rate in 2023 (26%). Corbin and Williams are the only two who had better-than-average walk rates (7.2% and 8%, respectively).
Washington also has several more arms on the rise, with the aforementioned Rutledge, lefty DJ Herz and right-hander Cade Cavalli among them. Cavalli would likely have been in the Nats’ rotation in 2023 were it not for a spring elbow injury that led to Tommy John surgery.
Rizzo didn’t provide much of an update on Cavalli beyond the fact that his rehab is progressing nicely. An early-summer return seems like a best-case scenario for the hard-throwing 25-year-old, and Zuckerman indeed notes that he’s shooting to be MLB-ready sometime in June.
Rutledge tossed 20 innings in last year’s debut after delivering solid run-prevention numbers between Double-A and Triple-A — albeit with sub-par command. Herz, acquired from the Cubs in exchange for Jeimer Candelario, posted a 3.43 ERA in 22 Double-A starts last year, fanning an impressive 32.4% of his opponents. He too struggled with command issues, however, walking opponents at a grim 13.9% clip.
On the bullpen front, the Nats could be down at least one candidate early in the season. Skipper Davey Martinez said Wednesday that righty Mason Thompson will be shut down for the next two weeks before being reevaluated for an elbow injury (X link via Golden). Martinez conceded that the team is “a little concerned” about the issue but declined to go into further details.
Thompson, 26 next week, has spent the majority of the past three seasons with the Nationals and pitched 100 1/3 innings of 4.57 ERA ball with a 17.8% strikeout rate, 10% walk rate and 50.6% ground-ball rate.
crickets
ZZZzz
Makes sense. They’re still in tryouts mode as I call it. Add free agents when you’re ready to contend.
Actually, they should be thinking in terms of what they did with Candelario last year: sign guys who might’ve fallen through the cracks to a one year deal and ship ’em off at the trade deadline for a prospect or two. Lot of guys out there still on the FA market.
That’s true. Couple of candidates are Tim Anderson and Ahmed Rosario is the other shortstop available to be bounceback candidates that can bring up their value on cheap one-year deals that can be flipped at the deadline. Ryu can be the same on the pitching side.
Feels like the Dodgers of the early 2000s.
Imagine sucking so bad and managements okay with not adding talent.
They could easily add Smell and Bellinger if they wanted to.
they already have plenty of smell…
And what good would adding those 2 do? They are clearly in a state of rebuilding and they are not catching the likes of the Braves and Phillies let alone others in the NL.
At this point they should focus on getting the young players playing time while attaining and developing young talent.
What good did it do for Texas spending on Seager and Semien after the 2021 season? Is it conceivable that the Nats can become contenders by 2025 or 2026 by adding a Bellinger and Snell?
Yeah but the payroll is just so bad with those Corbin and Strasburg contracts. They can’t get off Strasburg’s $35mm for half a decade.
@its, if there were 2 from remaining free agents they would be the 2 to add. In Nats case though I’d be leery with Snell especially as they haven’t had luck locking up pricey pitchers in their 30’s Belli wouldn’t be bad he play 1B and Meneses shift to primarily DH.
I still don’t see that being enough in their division. Rangers locked up the middle of their IF for years just as Astros starting to see key pieces hit free agency. ATL is so far ahead I don’t think Belli and Snell move the needle for them.
I’m usually not one to defend teams not spending, I believe all fans deserve to see talented MLB players. With the young players Nats have I just see don’t see it as a quicker path to contention.
That’s the excuse? You need to find a new team. This doesn’t need to operate like Oakland.
We didn’t see it with Texas after 2021 either.
That’s the reality not an excuse. You have a team that’s been burned on last 2 huge pitching contracts. And Snell is a rather unconventional ace with his high pitch counts, high walk rates, and lack of going deep into games. Then there is Bellinger who is risky in himself and for WASH would suite best longterm at 1B. Which for size of contract he’s looking foe not exactly ideal.
Spending just spend is just foolish. Now of they could add Monty I’d say that would be a good signing or a handful of other shorterm type guys left out there. This just isn’t the free agent class that seems to line up all that well with their needs or current contention timeline.
The excuse comment was not for you, it was for letsgooakland.
The spending is not foolish if you believe your team will compete in a year or two. That’s the real debate; are the Nats in a position to win 2025 onward. If so, they should consider it. If not, hard pass.
“They could easily add”…Why don’t you add “Smell & Bellinger” since it’s so “easy” to add athletes who seek tens of millions of dollars(per year) in salary.
Such a sadly shallow comment. Look at their actual payroll.
“At their actual payroll”…You clearly don’t follow MLB closely, because look where the team is in in it’s winning cycle. The team is still saddled with the bloated contract of Strasburg and maybe Patrick Corbin and is still in the middle of a rebuild.
I consider both those contracts part of their actual payroll… thanks for jumping down my throat to prove my point for me.
For sure they should add Bellinger, especially considering they have two of the top outfield prospects ready to come up next year and a much more affordable third OF in Lane Thomas who fits almost the exact same mold as Bellinger. For sure they should do that.
@dtf they should add those players to serve as role models for the younger guys
For what purpose? Just to spend money?
They had Scherzer & Soto along with Trea Turner & several others & were barely a .500 club. That’s why they tore the whole thing down in the first place.
Neither of them are gonna sign a 1yr deal either which is what the Nats want to do with new signings so that they don’t muck things up or block prospects they believe in from advancing, down the road.
Nats are in the middle of a rebuild not just treading water.
58-104
I have 65-97. We shall see.
77-85
You might be right. I have them at a few more wins but still a 90 loss team. The rotation is dubious at best. A lot depends on if Abrams and Ruiz take steps forward and Lane Thomas has to prove that last year was the norm as opposed to an aberration. Jury is still out on that one.
Why would they regress 13 games with pretty much the exact same roster? Only difference would be the youngsters have another year of experience and they’ll have some huge prospects coming up through the system.
Yeah 13 games is probably a stretch, but, at present, they are still a 90 loss team. On paper, at least. I don’t see House and Wood up this year, beyond a September cameo (unless they are lighting it up in Harrisburg and/or Rochester). Conversely, I would be surprised if Crews doesn’t debut this year(unless he is struggling in the minors).
It’s ridiculous for the Nats to not even try to get another starter, like say, Ryu. They don’t currently have enough major league level starting pitching to get through May. Williams has proven he can’t throw 100 respectable innings. Irvin is replacement level. Corbin is worse. How can they evaluate the potential future guys if the bullpen is taxed and sore-armed before the all star break when the rehabbing and inexperienced young talent deserve their shot? Martinez is bound to ride any reasonably effective pitcher to the point of exhaustion with the existing roster configuration. No one will be healthy enough to even trade.
Plus they have at least 3 pitchers – possibly now 4 and counting – likely to start the season on the 60-day IL. Plenty of roster space to add a few more guys on short term contracts to help protect their young arms and potentially flip for prospects.
I think in their 2nd year in DC, with a barren farm system from the Expos, and they basically had open mic night. All sorts of washed up players and never made its showed up to camp. From memory, they got a few useful utility players for a season or two, and a reclamation year of Simontacchi in the rotation, but not much else.
That’s probably where they are at again with the owners trying to sell the team.
Yeah this is ridiculous. Rizzo says there’s no pitcher within the price point?
I mean come on. Even my A’s have added about $20mm of starting pitching this year.
Look at those A’s last year. Nobody develops without a starting pitching staff that can get them through 5 innings a game.
Relegate them
90 mil payroll now is pretty high for a team that knows it will be in last place. They paid Strasburg/Corbin big time. May as well see what youth is for real and extend the willing before truly getting back in spend mode.
The Oakland Athletics have now secured a non-last place season!
Just curious, given the whole Strasburg debacle, would he be in Nats camp rehabbing/training seeing as he’s under contract?
Unfortunately, I doubt it. He has seemed content to just mope by himself and has not acted like part of the team for quite a while now.
I went to the MASN website right after asking that question on here. Front and center was an article about the same topic. Rizzo seems to expect that he’ll report on the mandatory 2/24 date, but the journalist writing the story thought that was wishful thinking on the Nats part. I thought the Chris Davis contract was an albatross for my O’s, but boy howdy is that Strasburg contract a stinker.
Yep. As much as I lamented Davis’ contract, he was at least present – on the team (for better or worse; I think his frustration ultimately left an impression on Mancini, for example, who learned to let his feelings spill into his ABs as a result) and in the community where he was celebrated. And, having attended Cap10’s retirement, Crush got a standing O, so the love & respect for what he did in his prime is there. Just sad he went down so fast and so horribly. Stras though, despite the earned goodwill from ‘19, smells like the biggest dud contract I can remember – and that threatens to overwhelm his accomplishments with how absent he is from the team as a whole. He could suck it up and be there in the dugout every day providing leadership and veteran knowledge, but no. He COULD act like John Means and be with the team any time they’re within five hours of his home, spend time in the booth, etc, but no. The Nats should put their foot down and mandate some involvement under threat of breach.
I think 3 things could make the Nationals a wildcard contender. 1 Corbin needs to win 15 games. 2 Someone needs to hit 35 homer runs. 3 limit opponents’ walks.
No way maybe WC in a few years but not now. They probably won’t even reach 70 w’s