Looking at Nats' depth ahead of regular season

The Nationals still have some roster moves to make ahead of Thursday’s Opening Day game against the Phillies. With yesterday’s rainout of an exhibition game against the Orioles, those decisions have been even harder now. No more game results to base them off of.

The final cuts need to be made, players informed they made the roster and guys moved to the injured lists. While some of these roster decisions will be difficult, there is some good news coming out of them.

For the first time in a while, the Nationals are very confident in their overall depth. The regulars on the roster enter the season with a lot of promise. But should anything unfortunate happen to their young stars, there are other talented players waiting to step up.

“It's awesome. Early in the spring when I was looking at everything and the one thing that really stuck out is that we do have some depth this year, which is great,” manager Davey Martinez said. “So we're really excited about that. I can't say enough about our organization. Our minor league coaching staff, trainers, everybody, getting these young kids prepared and ready to play. They look really good. Some of our young guys look really good. Exciting to know that they're well on their way.”

Riley Adams or Andrew Knizner will win the backup catcher’s job. Juan Yepez or José Tena will be the utilityman off the bench. And Jackson Rutledge or Brad Lord will fill out the bullpen.

But down on the farm, there are some other young players waiting for their chance along with the guys that don’t earn a coveted Opening Day roster spot.

Drew Millas, who still has options, can step up with another opportunity to be the big league backup backstop. The infield is full of top prospects or young players who have already had their cup of coffee in the majors with Darren Baker, Brady House, Trey Lipscomb, Yohandy Morales, Nasim Nuñez and Cayden Wallace. The outfield depth is well documented with Stone Garrett, Robert Hassell III, Daylen Lile and Andrew Pinckney.

DJ Herz and Shinnosuke Ogasawara will be ready to make starts when the Nats need sixth and seventh starters. And the bullpen will have guys like Cole Henry and Clay Helvey possibly ready to pitch innings.

Yes, some of these guys are unproven or still have some developing to do to earn their major league debut. But the Nats remain confident that their depth – particularly at the upper levels of the minor league system – is the best they’ve had in a while. And it can help sustain a strong 2025 season.

Ideally, none of those guys will be needed until later into the regular season schedule. But the baseball gods are unpredictable when it comes to the injury bug, as the Nats saw last year when Nick Senzel broke his right thumb while fielding ground balls during pregame warmups on Opening Day in Cincinnati. So everyone has to be ready at any moment’s notice.

It’s not just the 26 guys in the clubhouse. It takes the whole 40-man roster and then some. All hands on deck.

“We made some tough decisions early because some of the young players played really well,” Martinez said. “But it's good to see, so they're developing well. And the Triple-A roster, we feel like we could pull some guys from there if we need them. Some of those decisions to send them down were tough as well because they did really well. But we know they're there and they're going to work hard to continue to get better. And if we need somebody, they'll be readily available.”