Spring storylines: The pressure to be better in 2025

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – When 30 pitchers and six catchers officially report for spring training this morning, and when 22 more position players officially report next week, the Nationals will begin preparing for a 2025 season that will differ from the previous three in one especially important manner.

For the first time since they tore down the last remnants of their championship roster and embarked on a franchise rebuild, they will be facing increased pressure to win.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a winning record is mandatory this year, though it would certainly be preferable after five straight losing seasons. But legitimate progress is required in 2025, from top young players realizing their full potential, to the front office making the right additions to supplement that core, to the coaching staff getting more out of these players, to ownership doing its part to provide the resources necessary to make it all happen.

The Nats won 71 games last season, same as the previous season. There’s a strong case to be made the most recent 71-win season still represented progress, given the bevy of young building blocks who joined the roster in 2024 for the first time. But everyone agreed back in late September that won’t be enough in 2025. It’s time to win more games.

“I think we should have better results next year, yes,” manager Davey Martinez said during his team’s final series. “One hundred percent.”

Martinez is among the key figures in the organization who should face increased pressure this year to live up to a higher standard. Now entering his eighth season at the helm, he isn’t guaranteed a ninth season. The team holds a club option for him in 2026 and will have to make a decision at some point about picking that up.

Martinez’s boss also should face increased pressure this year. Mike Rizzo, entering his 17th season as general manager, was tasked with tearing down the roster that won the 2019 World Series and rebuilding a new, younger one that would be positioned to win future titles. The Lerner family rewarded him with a multi-year extension at the end of the 2023 season; they will want to see more tangible fruits of his labors this season as they decide whether to continue on this path or potentially transition to a new direction.

Rizzo’s offseason moves addressed several notable roster needs: a quality first baseman (Nathaniel Lowe), rotation depth (Michael Soroka, Trevor Williams, Shinnosuke Ogasawara), a proven designated hitter (Josh Bell). He has not, however, yet addressed the back end of a completely remade bullpen following the decision to non-tender closer Kyle Finnegan (who remains unsigned). And he has not yet made the major free agent splash so many hoped would be coming after four straight winters of modest, short-term additions.

The Nationals spent about $64 million on seven free-agent or trade acquisitions this winter, with only Lowe and Williams under club control beyond one season. Those seven players combined will make less than $40 million this year, which is roughly what Finnegan and Patrick Corbin combined to make last year. It does not appear ownership approved the significant increase in payroll some hoped was forthcoming.

“I think that we’ve improved our club, and at the same time we haven’t blocked any prospects,” Rizzo said last month. “I think that we’ve improved our product on the field, and with what we’re always trying to do is have a good product in the clubhouse, in the community, too. I think we’ve accomplished that.”

So, the pressure is on the players who are here, both new and returning, to produce better results. And two key cogs acquired in the earlier stages of the franchise rebuild likely face the most pressure of anyone: CJ Abrams and Keibert Ruiz.

Abrams, one of four prospects acquired from the Padres for Juan Soto and Bell in 2022, enjoyed a brilliant first half to his 2024 season, earning the first All-Star selection of his career. The young shortstop was on top of the world, poised to become the face of this franchise and one of the top young players in baseball.

Then Abrams slumped mightily at the plate in the second half. Then he was shockingly demoted to the minors for the season’s final week, not because of his performance, but for disciplinary reasons after he was caught at a Chicago casino in the wee hours of the morning prior to a day game at Wrigley Field.

The 24-year-old has not yet publicly addressed his situation. The questions will be waiting for him the moment he arrives in camp. And then once he deals with that, he will need to get back to work on the field and prove to everyone he can maintain that All-Star-level performance over an entire season.

Ruiz, acquired with Josiah Gray from the Dodgers for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in 2021, had high hopes entering 2024. But the young catcher endured through a miserable first half at the plate and behind the plate. And though there was some display of improvement in the second half, it wasn’t nearly enough to brush aside questions about his long-term prospects for success.

The Nats committed to Ruiz two springs ago with an eight-year, $50 million extension, the kind of deal they had been unable to get any other recent young cornerstone to sign before reaching free agency. There are still six years and $42.25 million remaining on that contract, so Ruiz isn’t going anywhere yet. But he undoubtedly faces more pressure this season than he has before to re-establish his credentials as the club’s long-term catching answer.