Four things to watch over last 40 games

The Nationals have 40 games remaining in the 2021 season, starting with this afternoon's series finale in Milwaukee. It's hard to believe that we're already this close to the end of the baseball season. Fall is right around the corner.

On this week's episode of the "MASN All Access Podcast," Amy Jennings and I set goals for a handful of Nationals players to reach before season's end. I wanted to expand on a couple of those goals and bring up some new ones as things to look out for over this last month-plus.

May I present: Four things to watch over the last 40 games. They are not necessarily the goals we set on the podcast or the most important storylines as the season ends. They are more so the topics I have found myself thinking about the most over the past couple of weeks and would love to hear what the fans think about them.

This is 40:

1. The Rotation - This specifically relates to two guys: Erick Fedde and Patrick Corbin. Yes, Josiah Gray is going to steal the headlines every time he takes the mound from here on out, but Fedde and Corbin are possibly the only two pitchers we know for sure will start in the rotation next year.

After years of wondering if he would be able to seal the fifth starter's spot from Joe Ross and Austin Voth, Fedde now finds himself in position to be the only one of the three to start in the rotation entering 2022. And probably not in the way he would have wanted or expected.

Ross is done for this season with a partially torn elbow ligament. Luckily, he won't need a second Tommy John surgery. At least not for now. The Nationals will be very careful with him throughout spring training next year, and until we see him pitch without any issues, he is not a sure thing in this rotation.

As for Voth, manager Davey Martinez said this week that the right-hander will move forward strictly as a reliever for the rest of the season. That doesn't mean he can't be stretched back out into a starter in 2022, but for now, it seems like the plan is to keep Voth in the bullpen.

That brings us back to Fedde, who is 5-8 with a 5.14 ERA in 20 starts this year. He's had a couple of really good stretches and some not-so-good stretches, while also testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this year. If he can finish strong, he'll enter next season with an advantage over Ross and Voth.

Speaking of finishing strong, it's obvious that the Nationals need Corbin to have a good final month after a mostly terrible season. Friday night's start against the Brewers was a great first step - 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball - but with Stephen Strasburg's health a major question mark heading into next year, Corbin could very well be the Nationals' opening day starter in 2022. And they are going to need some kind of sign that their $140 million lefty could return to form to start the second half of his six-year contract.

General manager Mike Rizzo still takes pride in building this organization through starting pitching, so this will be important to follow going into next year.

2. The Bullpen - Unfortunately, the bullpen will most likely be the reason the Nationals lose games for the rest of the season. And that's to be expected.

They traded away their reliable veteran arms and there are a handful of injuries affecting a few that remain. Which means there are relievers pitching high-leverage situations that normally don't. It also means that the results won't always be good.

The Nationals bullpen as a whole owns the 12th-best ERA in the National League at 4.80. There have been some late-inning meltdowns and blown saves along the way from the likes of Kyle Finnegan, Tanner Rainey, Ryne Harper, Gabe Klobosits, Javy Guerra and others.

But like Martinez has said after each of those instances, it's more about how these relievers respond. Finnegan and Harper are here to stay. Rainey, along with Wander Suero and Sam Clay, is trying to work his way back from Triple-A Rochester. Klobosits and Mason Thompson are going to continue to develop.

Not every outing is going to be perfect for these young arms. But Martinez isn't going to shy away from them, and they are going to be expected to be ready to pitch the next day. How they deal with adversity is going to be really telling.

3. Juan Soto's mentality - Another seamless transition because speaking of dealing with adversity, this cannot be easy on Soto. He went from World Series champion and MVP candidate on a contender to being the face of a franchise now rebuilding and trying to avoid a second straight last-place finish. Not to mention some of his closest friends and teammates were traded away at the deadline.

It's no secret: Soto has been caught on camera displaying some frustration over the past couple of weeks. And it's not due to his on-field production, because that's been as good as ever. He just hit his 20th home run this week and he's batting .307 on the season while leading the majors with 96 walks and a .449 on-base percentage.

So it has to be the losing that is getting to Soto, as it would to any young competitor. (And it's not just Soto, this can't be easy on any of the Nationals players.) Martinez has said multiple times that he has had conversations with his young slugger about his role on the team and the organization's new direction.

It would just be nice to see that infectious Soto smile more often over this last month as a sort of sign that he's OK mentally with how this season will finish. It's going to take more conversations with Martinez, but this is the first step to showing Soto that the Nationals will be competitive again soon and that, when the time comes, he'll have reasons to want to re-sign with Washington.

4. September call-ups - Major league rosters expand from 26 to 28 players in September. It's not as big of an expansion as it has been in the past, but it nonetheless opens the door for young players to get some major league experience.

Which players will the Nationals call up?

It's still kind of a mystery, but you could assume top prospect Keibert Ruiz will get the call at some point. There may be a logjam at catcher next month, and that's not necessarily a bad thing considering the Nats' long lack of depth at the position before last month's sell-off. Ruiz already has eight games of major league experience, and of course is already familiar with Gray from their time with the Dodgers organization.

Once again, Cade Cavalli does not expect to get the call, as he still figures out how to have consistent success at Double-A Harrisburg. While he continues to get strikeouts, his lack of command has led to a higher number of walks than he would like to see.

Carter Kieboom, Luis García, Adrián Sanchez, Lane Thomas, Tres Barrera, Riley Adams, Klobosits, Thompson and Gray are already up on the big league roster.

While the Nationals did add a lot of minor league depth at the deadline, there aren't many other players with major league experience or who are close to being ready. Outside of Gray and Ruiz, Cavalli and Gerardo Carrillo (another piece in the Dodgers deal) are the only ones in the Nats' top 10 prospects list playing as high as Double-A. Then there are only a handful of guys playing at that level or higher in the rest of the top 30.

And as mentioned before, there are still a couple of major league regulars who are working their ways back from injuries and minor league assignments (Alex Avila, Rainey, Suero). So it will be interesting how the Nationals approach their two extra roster spots come September.

Those are my four things to watch for over the last 40 games of the season. What do you think? Are there any storylines you would like to add? We only have 40 more games this season, so we have to find ways to enjoy them while we can.

You can also check out the source of this conversation from this week's podcast below.