David Huzzard: It's time to plan for the offseason

With the Nationals' 6-5 loss to the Padres on Wednesday night, the Nats are now 6.5 games back of the Mets, and it might be time to start thinking about next year. The first action that most people are going to want is for Matt Williams to be fired, which could and probably should happen but isn't a big difference-making move. Matt Williams' managing philosophy is to interfere as little as possible with the game on the field. In other words, if the players were playing well then the Nats wouldn't be in the position they are. Matt Williams is like a chef that needs to have all the ingredients present to make a cake. He would be wholly unaware that blood is a suitable substitute for eggs and always on hand.

Going from Davey Johnson to Matt Williams had little to do with the difference in play between 2013 and 2014 just like getting rid of Matt Williams would have little impact on 2016, but there is also little point in keeping him. The Nationals need a fall guy, and managers always make convenient fall guys. The real trouble for the 2015 Nationals is that the players weren't very good. A lot of this has to do with injuries. It would be easy to talk here about the difference between a reason and an excuse, and while the injures are a reason in 2015, they become an excuse if nothing is done to either work harder to prevent them or to get better, more versatile backups.

Improving the Nats bench shouldn't be difficult at this point. Danny Espinosa, Clint Robinson, and Jose Lobaton are all good bench players. Michael A. Taylor is the projected starting center fielder in 2016 so the Nationals are going to need another fourth outfielder. Rajai Davis would be the ideal signing for this position, but with the lack of depth at the center field position on the free agent market, it's likely that he'll be able to find a starting job somewhere. That means the Nats' best path to upgrading at fourth outfielder might be to convince Span to come back on a one-year deal, which may be as simple as offering him the $16 million qualifying offer.

With Jayson Werth and Span both a year older and still injury-prone, there will be plenty of playing time for Taylor, and if he so happens to outperform Denard Span at some point, then the Nationals could simply switch the roles. At this point, the Nationals have to be aware that Werth's production is going to continue to decline and he will likely miss significant time. The ideal situation would be to convince Werth to retire and sign either Justin Upton or Jason Heyward, but it is doubtful that Werth would leave $40 million on the table. Even without the no-trade clause, that contract is impossible to move. The Nationals are stuck with Werth, and so they either have to prepare for the inevitable injury or continue to chase the Mets in 2016.

With the plethora of free agents leaving the Nationals, they have plenty of money coming off the books. They have financial room to add one of the top outfield free agents and force Werth to the bench. Mike Rizzo has not been good at explaining these types of decisions to players in the past, but if Werth wants to continue to win, it might be time that he accepts a bench role.

The final part of improving the bench is the easiest. Sign Ben Zobrist. He is one of the most versatile players out there, and between him and Danny Espinosa, the entire field would be covered. A stronger bench would allow the Nationals to absorb injuries better, but it doesn't fix all their problems. They would still need to improve bullpen depth and find a better offensive catcher. The 2015 Nationals aren't in second place for any one reason. There are a lot of fixes that need to be made between now and Opening Day 2016 if the Nationals hope to get back to the top of the division.

David Huzzard blogs about the Nationals at Citizens of Natstown. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidHuzzard. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our regular roster of writers.