We spend a lot of time talking about free agents the Nationals might be interested in acquiring, newcomers who could help bolster their 2021 roster. But what about the possibility of re-signing free agents who played here in 2020?
The Nationals already brought back one guy who could've departed: Josh Harrison, who signed a one-year deal very early in the offseason. Otherwise, they've stayed away from their own free agents so far.
That, of course, could change as spring training inches closer....
The new year began four days ago, but for practical purposes the new business year begins today. So perhaps that means we're about to get an influx of transactions by the Nationals?
Hey, it's 2021. Anything's possible, right?
Who knows if general manager Mike Rizzo will be making any announcements today, tomorrow or some other day later this week, but if nothing else you've got to think the pressure to get more aggressive is going to start building here soon.
The Nationals' season ended 14...
It's Nostalgia Weekend here on the blog. If you missed it yesterday, we looked at the long list of guys who never played in the major leagues again after playing for the Nationals. Today we're looking at the best of the best in Nats history.
Yes, it's time to revisit the club's all-time leaderboards.
Now that they've got 16 seasons under their belts, the Nationals have compiled enough history to make this exercise both informative and fun. There are a few highly recognizable names that...
A total of 370 players have appeared in at least one game for the Nationals since 2005. Some of them were longtime stalwarts who are forever associated fondly with this franchise. Some were only here for a year or two as part of successful careers with multiple clubs. And some of them played for a while in Washington and then never played in the big leagues again.
Actually, more than some of them fit that last description. Would you believe at least 127 of the 370 players in Nationals history...
You already know this, but 2020 was a pretty awful year. Not that many folks didn't experience some legitimately positive moments, but in the big picture this was among the worst years in most everybody's lives.
Now, you have to be awfully naïve to believe that the world is suddenly going to change for the better just because we're all opening up a new calendar today. Nothing is inherently different today compared to yesterday, other than an arbitrary number someone a long time ago chose...
Eric Thames went to Asia to resurrect his career once before. He'll attempt to do it again after signing with a Japanese club Wednesday following his disappointing season with the Nationals.
Thames signed a one-year deal with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball. He'll earn roughly $1.2 million, according to Sports Hochi.
That's a bit of a fall from grace for Thames, who one year ago signed with the Nationals for a guaranteed $4 million in 2020, plus a $4 million mutual option...
The Nationals need a corner outfielder. This is not news to anyone who has paid even scant attention this winter.
This to-be-determined outfielder most likely will come from outside the organization, acquired either via free agency or trade. Unless the front office decides to gamble and stay in-house with Andrew Stevenson, who looked awfully impressive when given a chance to play in September but has very little track record.
What, though, about the other in-house option, the other outfielder...
It's a common practice to look at a team in the moments after it wins a championship and wonder if it's good enough to come back the next year and win another. And rarely in recent baseball history has that sentiment been more prevalent than in the moments after the Cubs won the 2016 World Series.
Yes, they broke the Billy Goat Curse with their first title in 108 years, but this didn't appear to be some kind of one-in-a-million convergence of events. The Cubs roster was loaded with young...
Good morning, everyone. Hope you all had a safe and healthy holiday weekend. And hope you had a little time to read about the Nationals' trade for Josh Bell and the subsequent reaction and analysis that followed.
After an awfully quiet start to the offseason, the Nats have now acquired a much-needed big bat. The question is, will they attempt to go get another significant bat to further bolster the top half of their lineup? We know they still need a corner outfielder. And they could still...
It was a throwaway line at the end of his opening statement introducing Josh Bell on Saturday afternoon, but a four-word phrase from Mike Rizzo might have carried more weight than he realized at the time.
Rizzo referred to Bell as "our new first baseman." That's not something the Nationals general manager has said in some time.
The last time Rizzo acquired a first baseman with the intention of starting him on opening day was 2011. The player's name was Adam LaRoche, and he would hold the...
In searching for the big bat his club was missing this season and he had openly identified as his No. 1 goal of this offseason, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo had no shortage of options to consider.
He could've gone big in the free agent market and tried to sign one of the pre-eminent (but pricey) players available. He could've gone after a second-tier (and thus less expensive) free agent and hoped that would be enough. Or he could've explored trade possibilities, recognizing that type...
The Christmas Eve acquisition of Josh Bell gives the Nationals a much-needed, middle-of-the-order bat. General manager Mike Rizzo said that was his No. 1 priority of the winter, and the general manager even dropped a hint last week it could come in the form of a first baseman.
But where exactly does Bell - who is tentatively scheduled to speak to reporters this afternoon, by the way - figure to bat in the Nats lineup?
The idea all along was to provide protection for Juan Soto, who sorely needed...
The initial reaction to the Josh Bell trade was overwhelmingly positive. A Nationals club that desperately needed to acquire a big bat did so without spending gobs of money and without dealing away top prospects. What's not to like about that?
Well, as with all trades, it's best not to jump to any conclusions just yet. Let's see how this plays out. There's a good chance Bell proves to be everything the Nationals need him to be, and that neither Wil Crowe nor Eddy Yean amounts to much with...
General manager Mike Rizzo found a much-desired big bat to stuff into the Nationals' stocking just hours before the sun sets on Christmas Eve: Josh Bell.
The Nats have acquired Bell, an All-Star first baseman in 2019, from the Pirates in exchange for pitching prospects Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean in a rare (but not unprecedented) Dec. 24 move announced by the club this afternoon.
The switch-hitting Bell, 28, clubbed 37 homers and drove in 116 runs while posting a .936 OPS and earning his first...
Ask someone to create a list of the best players in Nationals history, and you're going to find plenty of consensus.
Max Scherzer is on there, probably at the top, with Stephen Strasburg right behind him. Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto and Bryce Harper most likely round out the top five, in one order or another. Ryan Zimmerman certainly deserves a spot. Then you'll start getting some diverging opinions as supporters make the case for the likes of Jordan Zimmermann and Daniel Murphy and Ian Desmond...
The Nationals finished the 2020 season with the seventh-largest payroll in Major League Baseball, down three slots from their position during their World Series run the previous year but still leaving them among the sport's biggest spenders.
The Nats paid out a grand total of $76.2 million to all players on their 40-man roster this season, according to figures obtained and published by the Associated Press on Saturday evening. That ranked seventh in the majors, behind the World Series champion...
As Aug. 31 arrived earlier this year, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo faced a dilemma he never wanted to face. Rizzo's team had just completed an abysmal month of baseball, albeit during the unprecedented circumstances of the 2020 season. Now, as trade deadline day arrived, the Nats were 12-19, three games out of the final wild card position in the National League and staring up at six teams ahead of them in the standings for that last-ditch ticket to October.
If they felt they still had...
Had you asked anyone affiliated with the Nationals on opening day which rookie would garner the most big league plate appearances in 2020, the answer would've been Carter Kieboom every single time.
Luis GarcÃa? Well, perhaps the 20-year-old would make his debut at some point, but he wouldn't see significant action. Certainly not more than Kieboom, who had been touted as the club's everyday third baseman from the first day of spring training.
A quick glance at the Nationals' season-ending...
On this cold, wet mid-December morning, here's a warm thought to boost your spirits: Exactly two months from today, Nationals pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report for spring training.
Emphasis, of course, on the "are scheduled to" portion of that statement. Anyone who definitively says spring training will begin as scheduled is merely hoping that comes true.
"We're planning for an on-time spring training, Feb. 17, and a 162-game major league schedule," Nats general manager Mike...
Mike Rizzo notoriously doesn't tip his hand when it comes to offseason targets, but if you're willing to take him at his word, it appears the Nationals general manager intends to go into the 2021 season with Yan Gomes catching more than 50 percent of his team's games and a still-to-be-acquired veteran backing him up.
During Tuesday's Zoom session with reporters, his first since late September, Rizzo indicated the Nationals are prepared to have Gomes start a majority of games begin the...