The Nationals' opening day starter against the Mets is 36 and entering his 14th big league season. The pitcher who will start the season's second game is 32 and needed wrist surgery last summer after throwing only five innings.
The club's No. 3 starter is 31 but coming off a career-worst season in which he had the highest WHIP in the majors. And the guy who was just signed to serve as the No. 4 starter is 37 on the heels of back-to-back rough seasons.
This is the rotation general manager...
The Nationals' search for a No. 4 starter appears to have landed on a former ace and postseason hero with ties to the manager and pitching coach.
Jon Lester, the three-time World Series champion with the Red Sox and Cubs, is finalizing a one-year deal with the Nats, a source familiar with the discussions confirmed.
Though he still needs to pass a physical to make the deal official - that may not happen for several days - Lester will become one of the highest-profile No. 4 starters in the...
Among the pressing topics reportedly still being discussed between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association as the 2021 season inches ever closer is the possibility of keeping the playoff field expanded again.
You'll recall that 16 teams made the postseason in 2020, six more than ever had before. It was an acknowledgment of the inability of a 60-game season to distinguish the best teams from the rest of the pack, and most folks accepted and understood why it was needed.
But now...
Whether the Nationals were ever seriously interested in DJ LeMahieu isn't clear, but here's what is clear: They were never going to match the six-year, $90 million offer the veteran infielder reportedly accepted from the Yankees on Friday.
Look, LeMahieu would've been a great fit for the Nats. He could've led off or batted second, creating an elite 1-2-3 trio with Trea Turner and Juan Soto. He could've played third base or second base, helped out at first base, or played some combination...
Not that either was expected to return to D.C. for another season, but a pair of notable Nationals players from recent years - Kurt Suzuki and Wilmer Difo - officially found new homes Friday.
Suzuki signed with the Angels for one year and $1.5 million. Difo agreed to a minor league contract with the Pirates that will include an invitation to big league camp this spring.
The Nationals had long since decided to part ways with both players, so the news didn't come as a huge surprise. But we'll...
The Nationals came to terms on 2021 salaries with Juan Soto, Trea Turner and Josh Bell today, avoiding arbitration with their three biggest offensive stars. Though the deadline for players and clubs to agree to salaries or file for arbitration was 1 p.m., it took hours for Major League Baseball to process the throng of cases that were submitted to league headquarters before many could be finalized.
Turner, in his third of four seasons of arbitration eligibilty, got the biggest salary for the...
The Nationals have been linked to top Dominican prospect Armando Cruz for nearly a year and a half now, and today they're finally expected to announce they've signed the elite young shortstop for a reported $4 million bonus.
It's a whopping total for a kid who turns 17 on Saturday, and it's perhaps the latest and most convincing evidence just how far the Nats' Latin American scouting program has come over the last decade-plus.
Those who haven't followed the organization since the early...
The majority of arbitration cases are relatively simple. Players who have accrued between three and six years of big league service time and their clubs typically agree on a salary figure without ever needing to file for arbitration or have their cases heard before a panel.
There are always a few complicated cases, though, usually involving big-name players whose salary requests go well beyond what the club has proposed.
Now throw in the unprecedented nature of the 2020 season, and you've got...
The Nationals' stated No. 1 priority this winter was to acquire a big bat, and the recent acquisitions of both Josh Bell and Kyle Schwarber each meet that criteria.
But let's be honest here: The Nats' best path to contending in 2021 isn't via a more productive lineup, it's via a more effective pitching staff.
As glaring as the hole in the heart of the batting order last season was, the Nationals still were an average to above-average offensive club. They ranked 10th in the majors in runs,...
Hey, what do you know, the Nationals actually made some news over the weekend. They acquired their second potentially big bat of the winter, signing left fielder Kyle Schwarber for one year and a guaranteed $10 million. This after trading for first baseman Josh Bell on Christmas Eve.
It's a start, but the Nats are far from finished assembling their 2021 roster. There are more moves to be made, most notably acquiring a No. 4 starter, at least one more reliever, another catcher, a bench player...
The Nationals lineup, as currently constructed this morning, features three guys who hit at least 34 homers and drove in at least 92 runs during the last full major league season. It also includes another guy who hit 22 homers and drove in 86 runs that season, plus one who totaled 63 extra-base hits and yet another who totaled 53.
That sounds like a pretty potent and deep lineup, does it not?
It does. And yet it still feels like this group is lacking one more significant piece. And that's the...
Kyle Schwarber had been a Cub his entire professional life, since the North Siders made him the fourth pick in the country in 2014, back when they were still lovable losers and didn't dare dream of breaking the Billy Goat Curse.
So when he learned a month ago the Cubs had non-tendered him, and he was suddenly searching for a new employer for the first time, Schwarber rightfully could've been upset. Instead, he embraced this unexpected opportunity to pick his next home one year before he...
The Nationals are acquiring another big left-handed bat and appear to be building a lineup capable of hitting a bunch of homers, drawing a lot of walks and hoping not to hurt itself too much in the field.
The latest addition: Kyle Schwarber, the power-hitting former Cubs outfielder, who has agreed to a one-year deal worth $10 million, a source familiar with the terms confirmed. The signing, which was first reported by The Washington Post, is pending a physical.
Schwarber, who turns 28 in March,...
There's a postseason game being played tonight in Washington. Er, Landover. But you get the idea.
Remarkably, this is only the fourth time the Washington Football Team is hosting a playoff game in the last three decades. It hasn't won a home playoff game since its 27-13 victory over the Lions in the 1999 NFC wild card contest.
The Nationals, on the other hand, have hosted 19 postseason games since 2012. Yes, eight of those came in October 2019 alone, but even prior to the World Series run...
Francisco Lindor is a superstar, perhaps the best shortstop in baseball, and that's why folks in New York were so ecstatic Thursday when they learned the Mets had just acquired the 27-year-old (plus right-hander Carlos Carrasco) from Cleveland in a blockbuster trade.
Now for something that might surprise you: Lindor and Trea Turner have the exact same career OPS of .833.
Yep, the rightly regarded superstar shortstop's career offensive output has been matched by the Nationals' current...
A terrible thing happened here Wednesday, and for the world, it was terribly difficult to watch. For those who actually live here, it was even worse. Because it happened in our own backyard, in a place where major events often take place but rarely produce the kind of anger and sadness this event did.
And watching it unfold on television, I couldn't help but think about the familiar location it was all taking place in. We all know it, because we've all been there many times. And not that long...
On Jan. 2, 2020, the Nationals signed Will Harris to a three-year deal.
On Jan. 3, 2020, they signed Starlin Castro to a two-year deal.
On Jan. 6, 2020, they re-signed Daniel Hudson to a two-year deal.
Roughly two hours later, they signed Eric Thames to a one-year deal.
That's four significant free agent moves in a four-day span, an avalanche of news that feels oh-so-quaint to revisit right now, does it not?
Look, we knew this was going to be a slow-developing market, even slower than we saw...
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...