Coming into this offseason, some observers expected the Nationals to be a dark horse for the top free agents. That didn’t come to pass, which was addressed this week by owner Mark Lerner, who said that he and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo agreed the timing wasn’t right.
“When Mike calls me in and says, ‘We really need to think about it,’ for next winter, we’ll talk about it,” Lerner said, per Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post. “Right now, he doesn’t think — and I agree with him: There’s no point in getting a superstar and paying him hundreds of millions of dollars to win two or three more games. You’ve got to wait until — like Jayson [Werth]. Jayson was right on the cusp of [the team] being really good, and it took us to the next level. That’s the ideal situation. It’s always on our mind.”
The Nationals have been firmly in rebuild mode for a while now. At the 2021 deadline, with their competitive window closing, they traded Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and others. The following summer, Juan Soto and Josh Bell were out the door. Though they won the World Series in 2019, they have finished well below .500 in the five seasons since then.
There have been some positive developments in that rebuild process lately. Young players like Dylan Crews, James Wood, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and others have had some big league success, to varying degrees, and are affordable as well as controllable for multiple years.
In addition to that emerging core, the club’s payroll situation looked to be in decent shape going into this winter. The six-year Patrick Corbin deal helped the Nats win a title in 2019 but his performance fell off for the final five years. That deal was backloaded, with a $12.5MM salary in the first year but a $35MM salary in the sixth. It was therefore taking up a big chunk of the payroll for a rebuilding club but finally came off the books a few months ago.
That left the Nats with few commitments going into the offseason. Catcher Keibert Ruiz is signed through 2030 but with his salary not reaching eight-figure territory unless the club picks up a 2031 option. Stephen Strasburg’s deal is still technically on the books through 2026 at $35MM annually, though there were deferrals in there and he also agreed to some unspecified deferral package as part of a retirement settlement.
With the fairly light slate of investments and the talent percolating up from the minors, there was an argument for a big splash to signal the end of the rebuild, like the Werth deal that Lerner referenced. Going into 2011, the Nats signed Werth to a seven-year, $126MM pact after five straight losing seasons. The Nats hovered around .500 in the first season of that deal but made the postseason in 2012, the first of five they would make in that decade, culminating with their aforementioned World Series win in 2019.
That’s not how the club played it this winter, however. They did sign some veterans, inking Trevor Williams, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, Michael Soroka, Bell, Amed Rosario, Jorge López, and Paul DeJong, but most of those guys got one-year deals. Williams and Ogasawara were the only guys to get two years and no one got to three. Williams got the largest guarantee at $14MM. The club’s most significant trade pickup was Nathaniel Lowe, who is going to make $10.3MM this year. He’s controllable for 2026 and will be due another arbitration raise, but the Nats will have the ability to trade him or non-tender him, depending on how things go this year.
In short, they didn’t make the big move to signal the end of the rebuild. As Lerner alluded to, the club’s odds are long this year. The division has three stronger teams in Atlanta, the Mets and Phillies. The FanGraphs Projected Standings have the Nats coming in at 73 wins, 14 games out of third place. The PECOTA Standings at Baseball Prospectus are even less optimistic, projecting the Nats for just under 68 wins, 18 games back of third.
Those are just estimates and aren’t gospel, but it’s probable that the Nats had an internal view of their club that was somewhat similar to those numbers. While signing someone like Pete Alonso may have been exciting, he couldn’t have single-handedly made up that gap of 14-18 wins. It’s also debatable whether he’s even an upgrade over Lowe in a vacuum.
Based on Lerner’s comments, however, it does seem like such a move will come at some point. For now, they will continue to focus on developing their internal players. That should include more reps for the aforementioned youngplayers on the roster, as well as pushing prospects like Brady House, Jarlin Susana, Travis Sykora and others into the mix. They can also add to their stock of future talent in a few months, as they won the top pick in the 2025 draft lottery.
Making baseball gree again in the nations capital
No, but they are getting closer. Next winter you may see them spending a bit more
Nationals have opened up the pocketbook in the past, so at least they spend when the team’s window is ready to sign a free agent.
Honestly it’s smart, you want to suck or make the playoffs. Mediocrity is a failure
That was the refrain in the ’23-’24 offseason, too.
“That was the refrain in the ’23″…And it was true then too. Teams shouldn’t waste money when they’re really not that close to contending and really shouldn’t veer off course, just to appease a couple of fans here and there.
The longtime fans will understand that a successful rebuild is a several year process that must proceed slowly and carefully.
In my opinion, the Lerners have done a real nice job with the rebuild and are getting within a year or two of investing in some major free agents.
Keeping a top fifty pick was more important than signing any of these free agents not named Soto or Burnes. Flahrety or Snell could have made some sense since they weren’t encumbered by the QO.
Except you’re overlooking the commonly professed idea that the Nats would probably in position to go after more top-flight free agents this past offseason. The previous two and three were allegedly a build up for this past one.
I’ll be at Nats Park at least 30 times this coming season, so I’m no hater, just dubious about the party line. The can keeps getting kicked down the road.
If they’re two years from investing they’re not doing a good job with the rebuild.
They were ready for the jumpstart this year and could have afforded it.
Sounds to me like they just want to sell the team. Mark Lerner’s word on these issues is worth what it costs.
A top 50 pick is worth dramatically less than some of the free agents the Nats could have signed if they were determined not to be outbid.
This seemed like a sensible and rational approach. Regardless if they spent on like Alonso or Bregman, the team has plenty to prove with the young guys. Seems best to see how they begin to pan out then adjust from there.
They’ll potentially have another shot at Bregman after this season – without the draft pick penalty – if it looks like help is needed after evaluating House and their other infield prospects this year.
They are coming out of their Houston – style rebuild where they lost a lot of games over the past 4-5 seasons, received some high draft picks and hopefully those draft picks pan out for them like they did with the Astros. Also, some of the assets received for Soto are finally starting to contribute as well. 2025 is a huge year for Washington from a development standpoint. If they can get 4-5 position players to take a big jump this year, then I think that will signal they are ready to start adding established talent to this team. They have some good young pitching but will need to add some proven, veteran arms once they are ready to spend. They will also be able to use some of their young, highly rated prospects to trade for established players as well. If this year goes well for their youngsters, 2026 should be a .500 year for them with 2027 being their time to get back to the playoffs.
I don’t think they were actually tanking like the Astros did. A full rebuild, yes, but they weren’t dumping everyone with a significant salary and/or decent or better value. Plus, the Corbin and Strasburg contracts were immovable, anyway.
Right, gotta see what this team can do first. Don’t overreach in the middle of a rebuild.
This wasn’t supposed to be the “middle” according to many of the fans who claim expertise about the process of a rebuild and its timeline.
A team 94 OPS+ in 2024 with a team 94 ERA+. One SP with more than 13 starts who beat a 98 ERA+, and that was Gore at 103. They’re nowhere close to contending. It’ll take a lot of luck to win 80 this year. There’s nothing about this group that strongly suggests they’ll grow into it, either.
The Werth deal was a disaster, btw. He was worth it in two years of seven, and so not worth in in the other five, putting up 0. 2 bWAR those five seasons. —Signing a 32 year old for 7 years, and at a non-premium position? It had disaster written all over it. Hardly a model for this iteration of the Nats.
A very average farm system, too. If I had to bet, I’d bet this group doesn’t get it done. Lerner’s right to hold fire.
Even so, assuming a long-term deal, there’s nothing wrong with grabbing the right guy a year or two early when the player and the money are both available. It worked for the Rangers.
I agree with your assessment Jack, it will be tough to win 80 win 3 teams in your division are going to win 90+ games which I think the Mets, Phillies, and Braves should do. Washington and Miami will be the doormats, I got Washington 4th at about 75 wins.
They will sign Vlad Jr. for $625 m.
“They will sign Vlad Jr. for $625M”…Why is Vlad G worth any more than Pete Alonso?. They are basically the same player; Uber slow power guys who really don’t bring much value anywhere else(despite Vlad’s dubious Gold Glove). And you have to worry extra, wondering how their ver large body type will age.
Vladdy is 5 years younger and Alonso has been on a 3 year decline heading into his walk year
“5 years younger”…Good point. I had forgotten to factor in age. But, for me that makes Vlad (maybe) $125M more valuable than Alonso, not the extra $350M that you’ve assigned.
As for the “3 year decline” point, Vlad seems to “decline” and vary downward every other year and there’s no way I’d consider giving him a 10 year deal. His body type alone would scare me off, forgetting the year to year variance in performance.
Those type numbers($600M+ salary)should be reserved for the very best ALL AROUND players with elite performance EVERY single year. Despite what some people think of Juan Soto, he meets this very stiff criteria and Vlad Jr. does not.
Soto is a below average outfielder, and a slow runner. He is a one dimensional player, that is also 3 years older than listed!!
baseballhistory:
Don’t make ignorant comments about Soto‘s age. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Soto is elite at both hitting for power and getting on base. That’s at least two dimensions.
Ok so we’re adding dimensions within dimensions so that means he has one more dimension and multiple others he is bad at (related to his poor athleticism)
Well, the five tools are: hitting, power, speed, fielding, and throwing. So he does excel at two of the tools. And perhaps a third tool with throwing. Speed and fielding not so great.
Vlad is 4 years younger so getting those 4-6 prime years will cost a premium. Also Vlad is a higher ceiling type hitter that is a bigger name in terms of pulling attendance. He’s not worth 400+MM but he’s definitely worth more than Alonso.
He’s gonna get 400 million though. … just watch
“He’s gonna get 400 million”..Personally, I think $400M is quite the stretch. Just using W.A.R for simplification purposes, Guerrero puts up 6.7 WAR in ’21. The next TWO years he puts up a COMBINED 6.O WAR. Even 6 WAR(Vlade does this every OTHER yr)doesn’t equal $400M+ in my opinion.
Then, this yr he puts up 6.2 WAR again. How does this type of year to year variance equal either a $400M or $600M+ player. I think Vlad Jr. will be fortunate to get what Prince Fielder got over a decade ago at $210M+. Teams just aren’t investing in 1b like they used to.
@mlb fan – You know Jays already offered him 340MM and he turned it down? He will get close to 400M or above but mostly due to age and name. I personally don’t think he’s worth that, but he will get it if he has a healthy/productive year in 2025.
“Already offered him 340MM”…Some very good points. I think turning down $340M is uber crazy, since not many teams are willing to invest BIG at 1b.
I could see Vlad Jr turning that down and being offered LESS than that in free agency. That’s similar to what happened to Pete Alonso, turn down a HUGE offer only to later sign for considerably less in free agency.
The only way I can see this strategy(declining $340M) working to his benefit, is if Vlad does his best Aaron Judge regular season impression in ’25. I do believe he’ll have to go “historic” season to reach those salary numbers.
I know the Nationals fans want to see them sign free agents but the team is being smart by waiting to go into the free agent pool. You have heaps of young talent in D.C. with a couple more guys seeing time this year with very high ceilings. Try to find out what you already have before bringing in a big free agent addition.
As good as the Phillies, Braves and Mets are at the moment, Washington is primed to be at the top of that division in another 2 years if all these guys take another step forward. I know that is a big ask but they are already a very fun team to watch with even more excitement on the way.
I didn’t think Soto would sniff $700 mil and look what happened. Vladdy is for sure topping 400
“For sure topping 400″…I know. Both Vlad and Pete Alonso are a LOCK to both get $400M+. Wait a minute….Pete Alonso, a very similar player, already signed for less than a quarter of that. Never mind.
Vlad batted .323 with an almost .400 obp. Alonso batted .240 with a .329 obp. Alonso only had 4 more homers
Freddie Freeman is next level better than “Vladdy”.
14/550-560 is my guesstimate, About $40 million AAV minus any deferrals.
I can assure you that the Lerners aren’t signing Vlad if he costs anything like that. Mark doesn’t have the same pull as the late Ted, his father, had to get things through the family committee which votes on such big moves. Not that I think the Nats should spend that much on him, either.
I don’t believe that the Nationals will even be in the running for Vlad Jr. They are so far behind the Braves, Mets, and Phillies in the East that it will be at least 2 years before they are in a position to push over the top with just a couple of big signings.
To me it seems like it will be the Mets, Yankees, Giants, and maybe the Cubs that are at the front of that pack.
It was a joke I think. Of course they aren’t signing him for that.
Kyle Finnegan would NOT be big spending and would solidify the bullpen and closer role. He had 38 save out of 40 opportunities and had the 3rd most saves in all of MLB in 2024. Don’t be a cheapskate and sign him already for the best interests of the Washington Nationals! Actual big spending can wait a year or so until their younger players develop, agreed!
Agree. I don’t like the tone of Lerner’s remarks. “Why should we waste our money to be a little better?!” I don’t know, maybe to please the fans who continue to fork out big bucks on season tickets to see an inferior product that could be better with more spending?!
Kyle Tucker is available this November.
How would Tucker help the Nats when they have enough outfielders plus a chance to draft one first overall?
@nats4life – I assume you’re being sarcastic, but if not he’d be an upgrade over Young if Crews can play CF. Young is probably more of a 4th OF type
I disagree look at what Young put up last year, how many CF had a better WAR? Sure if he has a sudden decline then he becomes an OF4, but he’s easily a starter currently.
They would be better off moving cj much further down.
I think this is well thought out.
As a longtime Nats fan, I have watched Finnegan for a few years and have seen him grow into a key cog for D.C.
The Nats didn’t think that he was worth the arbitration price so they cut him.
I 100% favor them bringing him back on a team-friendly contract for 2025.
When you are looking for a Jayson werth contract then you are looking for a bust… 9 war for all of that money was not good
Max scherzer is the example they should’ve used since his mega contract really paid off
I doubt the nats are going to spend big again they have too many ownership problems so they could just become the cubs or tigers
Werth’s contract for the individual player wasn’t good, but for the organization, it worked out. It made them relevant to allow other players to sign with the Nationals, and eventually, for them to win a championship. The culture change for the team and the confidence of winning made a difference. And all that started with the signing of Werth. IMO
Is that it, Or are big name free agents not ready for the nationals ??
There hasn’t been any reports that they missed out on this or that free agent tbh. They’ve quietly gone about their business this offseason especially.
Rizzo earlier set expectations of spending money and acquiring multiple big bats, to the point that people were speculating on a Juan Soto signing. The Nats were quiet because outside of the Lowe trade, they really didn’t do anything.
To me, it seems like Lerner is telling Nats fans to enjoy football and hockey and come back next year.
This is a strong contrast to the giants who are ready for big name free agent spending but free agents are not ready for San Francisco
The Giants have gotten everyone they were willing to pay for. That’s how free agency works.
Why do the Giants choose to spend the way they do?
the list of free agents theyve supposedly been in on only to lose out is far too numerous for that to be the case.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like the Nats will low key compete this year. The kids are coming along and despite no “big” pickup they did grab a lot of roleplayers that’ll help and I do really like the Lowe trade.
Competitive maybe. Compete-not this year.
920 falcon,
I 100% agree with that. Next year you’ll have a bunch of money to work with, so go for a bigger fish in FA.
They can have Rendon back.
That would be so hilarious, plus it wouldn’t be worth trading notable prospects to get an aging Rendon.
The Angels can take on Strasburg’s deferral in return.
If Mike Rizzo gets frustrated enough with Mark Lerner he could consider a return to his hometown of Chicago and work for big market spenders Tom Ricketts and Jerry Reinsdorf. lol
He’s speaking to Nats fans everywhere, you can tune in a couple days of week to get your fix, the rest of the time go do something else.
Nationals have been an awful team for 5 straight years. If not now, when? The Mets and Braves are not going away any time soon. Ownership just doesn’t care anymore after getting the ring.
@amk1920 They’re smarter than that. This is a team that won 71, with a Pythagorean W-L record of 70 wins, 92 losses. If this group had a Henderson or Witt in the field and a Skubal or Skenes on the mound—even the incipient versions of these— they wouldn’t be sitting on their hands, but they don’t.
They don’t have anything close.
They don’t even have a Corbin Carroll and a Framber Valdez.
It’s not close to a case where the 2025 season ends and if only they’d spent another 70m AAV they be in the postseason. C.J. Abrams and Mackenzie Gore are not leading this team to the Promised Land—they won’t even be able to see it this season. The 2024 Nationals had all of one guy who beat 2.6 bWAR. That was CJ at 3.4. They had one pitcher that beat 2.0 bWAR, and that was their 32 year old, who was healthy for all of 67 innings.
The farm is ordinary. It’s not about to produce a crop of good players likely to hit the ground running who’ll supplement the current, weak roster in 2025. Dylan Crews probably takes another year to get it going, and that’s not nearly enough. And they don’t have a solid crop of veterans featuring 1-1/2 stars like the Mets had, where if you supplement them with the right one-year deals and get very, very lucky, you snag a wildcard spot on the last day of the season.
The Nats aren’t even at that point yet.
They should sign Kyle Gibson. He would be a great leader for the young players and take some pressure off the young pitchers by soaking up innings.
Love the idea for Gibson but the rotation is already full in DC.
Let’s mention the elephant in the room. At least 2/3 of owners run their franchises like “for profit” businesses. Money for them comes ahead of winning. See the Seattle Mariners as exhibit A. Generally speaking, owners know the fans won’t go away (or pick a winning franchise instead to follow). The cash cow formula will continue. The fix isn’t simple because socialism is bad. The revenue sharing as currently constructed isn’t working as owners receiving it often pocket the money. Fix it or risk losing hard core fans.
@sillywabbit “Socialism”? Good god.
This is monopoly capitalism, which is to say capitalism—at its finest. The rich monopoly capitalists subsidize the less rich monopoly capitalists because they system as a whole is extremely profitable, with a throttled (monopoly) supply of something people in general want and will pay for, or in the case of other capitalist monopolies, monopolizes something people must have and therefore must pay for.
You sound like those socialists capitalists always claim to despise, who claim that when an example of socialism fails ‘it wasn’t true socialism.’ In this case, because it’s capitalism that didn’t turn out in a manner flattering to your illusions, it must be something other than capitalism. It isn’t.
This is the most common form of capitalism, and it is ALWAYS where capitalism ends up. .
But there are restrictions on pocketing too much of the revenue sharing money. At least the A’s have been forced to spend this offseason because of it.
Meanwhile, pro sports teams are *supposed* to be run as for profit businesses! At least 29 of the 30 teams operate under that assumption. Only Cohen of the Mets may actually be spending out of his own pocket
Lerner’s saying “We gonna try hard to be an okay team this year. Maybe, just maybe, next year we’ll try hard to be pretty good.”
This is pathetic, but at least it’s consistent.
“Lerners saying”..That’s essentially what Steve Cohen and the Mets said last year(after they cut their prior yr losses on Verlander/Scherzer)and they went to the championship round last year.
In fact, practically every team in MLB has said or will say something similar this year, so don’t read too much into pre spring training announcements by teams.
Ultimately, these team announcements are about as important as when your team’s oldest player inevitably says I’m in the “best shape of my career..haven’t felt this good in yrs.”
Here’s a rundown of the offseason for the Nats:
Trade for Nathaniel Lowe (sent Robert Garcia to Texas)
Re-signed Trevor Williams to two-year contract
Signed Soroka to one-year deal
Signed ex-National Josh Bell to one-year deal
Signed Ogasawara to 2-year deal
Signed Jorge Lopez to 1-year deal
Signed Amed Rosario to 1-year deal
Signed Paul DeJong to 1-year deal
Close to deal with Lucas Sims
Minor League Deals: Konnor Pilkington, Colin Poche, Patrick Weigel, Andrew Knizner, Franchy Cordero
Projected Lineup:
SS CJ Abrams
RF Dylan Crews
LF James Wood
1B Nathaniel Lowe
DH Josh Bell
2B Luis Garcia Jr.
C Keibert Ruiz
3B Jose Tena
Projected Bench:
C Riley Adams
INF Paul DeJong
INF/OF Amed Rosario
OF Alex Call
Projected Rotation:
SP1 MacKenzie Gore
SP2 Jake Irvin
SP3 Mitchell Parker
SP4 Trevor Williams
SP5 Michael Soroka
Projected Bullpen:
LR
Sorry it cut off…
LRP Shinnosuke Ogasawara
MRP Evan Reifert/Zach Brzycky/Colin Poche/Eduardo Salazar (Lucas Sims will be added when the signing is finalized)
Closer Committee: Jose A. Ferrer, Derek Law, Jorge Lopez
Conceivably, this team should be better in 2025. I think adding one more bullpen arm, either David Robertson or Kyle Finnegan, to help shore up the closer role is something the Nats should aim for (Finnegan could be brought back on a cheaper deal).
You forgot CF: Jacob Young
Yeah my bad.
Young was Gold Glove caliber on defense in 2024, and he can steal bags pretty decent. He needs to work on the bat more in 2025, otherwise Robert Hassell could pass him in ’26.
I think they can be a good team it’s the pitching that would worry me
If he hits .250, continues gold glove, and steal bags with his 80 speed-useful everyday starter. If he hits near the Mendoza line-he is a 4th outfielder on an average team.
Btw, this team ran into more outs, got picked off or caught stealing more than any other team I can remember. It was an epidemic. Even our speed guys (Abrams, Young) made a truck load of blunders on the basepaths.
This is a good AAA team with this starting lineup … get real. At best finish 2nd to last above the Marlins
Let’s see how Young hits this year, he was adequate with the bat for most of the year until he got injured and struggled the end of the year. So this year is his big test.
Good comment. Thanks. This is exactly what the Nats should be doing. Hew to one year deals, Don’t hang the team with expensive deals for guys like Bregman who, if everytthing goes right, will already be 33-34 years old and in accelerated decline just at the point you want to supplement what will ideally be at least a .500 team on its own hook with two or three very good, very expensive free agents that put it over the top.
You don’t want to have put yourself in the position back in the 2024-2025 offseason, of in the future ‘now’ of 2027 or 2028 having to overcome the drag these FAs create on both the team and its payroll.
What the Nats need for this rebuild is a free agent starting pitcher. They will make every attempt to sign Skubal or even a Zac Gallen. They should try to trade for a pitcher under contract for the next 2 seasons right before this year’s trade deadline.
Give Mike Rizzo a couple examples and he’ll see what teams he can call about that.
The way this reads is: not spending hardly any $$ like we haven’t the last 4 years…if we get an offer we like we will sell the team. Until then we continue to be a turnstile at the all-star break for any players of value we will sell off since stuck in mediocrity. This is sad since have an excellent GM w no $$ to spend …
I know no one cares about wins and losses, but Corbin led the league in losses for three straight years, 21-23. I wonder when’s the last time that’s happened?
Declining stuff + extremely durable + terrible run support from a poor lineup = 3 years of league leading losses
Sounds like a stat for league vagabond (and all-time nice guy) Edwin Jackson.
@mike156 I immediately thought of Bert Blyleven, an excellent pitcher for some very bad teams, but he wasn’t particularly close despite losing 17 games for three straight seasons while putting up a 139 ERA+ and going 54-51.
Writers were so hung up on W-L records that he only got Cy votes one of those seasons, when he finished 7th in the voting while going 20 and 17, leading the league in FIP, in shutouts (with 9), in ERA+ at 156, throwing 25 complete games, (NOT leading the league) and 325 innings (ALSO not leading the league).
Edwin only led once, but came close two other times!
Basically Rizzo’s saying we’re too cheap to spend and i don’t think our team is that good that it would matter to add someone.If the player according to Rizzo he could of added would only give team 3-4 extra wins his bar for type of player he’d add is pretty low.It’s been half a decade since team was any good wake up and improve team.
3-4 wins is Bregman’s projection, at $40m a year. I suppose Lerner could have bid $800m on Soto. Might have gotten him, too, and Soto’s only been worth 5 wins in 2/3 of his 6 full MLB seasons.
if juan soto is only worth 5 wins what ever calculation they use is flawed.
It’s been brutally obvious.
Learners need to go. Terrible statement and strategy sucks since WS win! And yet the try to get my $ for tickets season or packages! I’ll only go to see Dodgers or Mets or top AL team Yanks! How is this a good way to treat & get fans? I’ve been there since RFK until Max & Turner left. Sayonara Lerners
The time is NOW spend $
Rizzo goes to the Yankees as GM if Cashman doesn’t go to WS this season.
Cashman will have to resign for this to happen. Hal will never fire him.
The Yankees went to the World Series just last year! Just how strict are your expectations?!
Nobody’s gonna get triple figure millions out of me again. Ever!!
Assuming the right player is available, you aren’t blocking a good prospect, and you’d be signing the guy to a long-term deal anyway, there’s nothing wrong with signing a big free agent or two a year or two before you expect the rebuild to end. The Rangers did it, and it worked out for them. It may even be the final piece needed to unexpectedly compete and make the playoffs ahead of schedule.