What have we learned about the Nats so far?

The season’s first two weeks have mostly been a blur. The Nationals played 11 games in 11 days, with multiple rain delays, one lighting delay, two road trips and a bunch of long nights along the way before finally getting a chance to catch their breath Monday.

That wasn’t even supposed to be a day off. If not for the persistent rain all day and night here, the Nats would’ve continued a stretch of 18 games in 18 days to begin the season, not getting their first scheduled day off until next Monday.

But since they did get a chance to hit the pause button for just a moment before it starts back up again with today’s doubleheader against the Diamondbacks, let’s take this moment to assess how things have gone so far.

Eleven games in, what have we learned about the 2022 Nationals?

* The rotation is shaky
This isn’t a surprise. It was the No. 1 area of concern entering the season. But now that we’ve seen two full turns of the rotation (plus Patrick Corbin a third time), we have actual evidence the concern was valid. Nats starters have a 5.80 ERA (fourth-worst in the majors) while averaging only 4.5 innings per outing. Nobody has completed six innings yet. There have been a handful of encouraging starts from Josiah Gray, Erick Fedde and Josh Rogers, but Corbin continues to struggle and Joan Adon looks very much like a rookie with minimal experience in the upper levels of the minors.

* The bullpen is solid
It’s not perfect, as we saw over the weekend in Pittsburgh. But more often than not, the Nationals relief corps has gotten the job done. The group’s 5.16 ERA is a bit misleading, because it includes the nine runs surrendered by Austin Voth, Paolo Espino and position player Dee Strange-Gordon during last Tuesday’s 16-4 loss in Atlanta. Remove that game from the mix, and the ERA plummets to 3.83. Most importantly, four relievers have firmly established themselves as trusted arms when the Nats are ahead late in games (Tanner Rainey, Sean Doolittle, Kyle Finnegan, Steve Cishek) and Hunter Harvey and Victor Arano are starting to make cases for themselves as well. With Tyler Clippard likely joining the team sometime in the near future, it feels like this is going to wind up as more of a team strength than weakness for the first time in a while.

* Soto and Bell are on fire
There was never any reason to worry about Juan Soto. He’s as sure a thing as there is in baseball right now. But after Josh Bell’s abysmal start to the 2021 season (following his stint on the COVID-19 injured list) there were at least some questions about him entering this season. Not anymore. Bell has been red-hot from the get-go, batting .350/.469/.525 with 10 RBIs (fifth-most in the majors). Soto, meanwhile, is batting .289/.460/.553 with three homers and a major-league-leading 12 walks. They are carrying the offense right now.

* Cruz and most of the others are struggling
Pretty much everyone else among the Nationals’ position players aside from Yadiel Hernandez and maybe Maikel Franco is ice cold at the plate. Nelson Cruz (8-for-42) is the most notable name here, because he is being counted upon to provide protection for Soto and set Bell up with a bunch of RBI opportunities. He hasn’t done enough of that yet. Keibert Ruiz (8-for-35) got off to a hot start but has cooled off since. César Hernández (.280 on-base percentage) has been reaching in the top of the first but not enough after that. And of course Alcides Escobar (5-for-32) and Victor Robles (1-for-21) have been a black hole at the bottom of the lineup.

* The fundamentals have been poor
The weekend losses in Pittsburgh represented the low point, with Franco committing three errors Sunday, Escobar and César Hernández struggling to turn double plays and Yadiel Hernandez turning lackadaisical tracking down and then throwing in a double down the left field line in a key spot. The Nationals also are only 1-for-3 in stolen base attempts and have made three outs on the bases (two of them at the plate). This team can’t afford to play sloppy baseball like that, and Davey Martinez hasn’t been shy about publicly expressing his dissatisfaction in these areas.

* Help should be on the way
The roster could look pretty different within a few more weeks. Clippard, as stated earlier, should be close to getting promoted from Triple-A Rochester. Ehire Adrianza should be coming off the 10-day IL. Luis García is tearing up the International League at the plate and could be summoned to play shortstop before long. Cade Cavalli’s major league debut is coming sometime. Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross still have a ways to go but could both be part of the rotation by June (Strasburg likely before Ross).