What we made too big a deal about, and what we glossed over

Over the last six weeks, we’ve written a lot of words here about the Nationals. A lot more about some of them than others. It’s just the nature of spring training, where a handful of seemingly important storylines get most of the attention while others get ignored.

But that’s why we write this final piece at the end of camp every year. It’s an opportunity to look back at the last month and a half and question if we might have been paying attention to the wrong things all along.

So without further ado, here’s our annual look back at what storylines we made too big a deal out of, and what storylines we potentially glossed over …

TOO BIG A DEAL: THE FIFTH STARTER
The biggest position battle of the spring was between three young left-handers trying to win the only open spot in the Opening Day rotation. Truth be told, it wasn’t much of a battle. DJ Herz struggled to get his velocity up and ultimately needs more time at Triple-A. Shinnosuke Ogasawara pretty clearly wasn’t big league material yet and needed to be sent to Triple-A as well. So Mitchell Parker won the job not by doing anything special, but just by looking OK. Here’s the thing, though: We’ll probably end up seeing all of them in the majors at some point this season. And we could see other starters as well: Brad Lord, Tyler Stuart, Andry Lara. Oh, yeah, there’s also Cade Cavalli, who could be ready by June or so. Point is, it doesn’t really matter who the fifth starter is in April. It’ll probably be someone else come September.

GLOSSED OVER: IMPROVED DEFENSE
Most of the attention given to the newcomers to the Nationals lineup centered on their offensive prowess (or lack thereof). But the biggest improvement might actually be in the field. Nathaniel Lowe is a Gold Glove first baseman who will make everyone around him better. Paul DeJong looked spectacular at third base and will be a massive defensive upgrade over last year’s consortium at the hot corner. Dylan Crews isn’t a newcomer, but a full season of him in right field could be special. And we already know Jacob Young is outstanding in center field. If the middle infielders and catcher can just be average, the Nats could have their first really good defensive team in a while.

TOO BIG A DEAL: POWER
Of course the Nationals need to hit more home runs. They know that. It’s why every position player they added this winter (Lowe, DeJong, Josh Bell) has at least one 25-homer season on his resume. But we didn’t exactly see much of it this spring. The Nats finished with only 24 home runs in exhibition play, fourth-fewest in the majors. You’ve still got to believe this team will hit for a lot more power this year than it has the last few years. But we do need to see some actual evidence of it.

GLOSSED OVER: BASERUNNING
Everyone knows the Nationals stole the most bases in the majors last season. And everyone knows they also were caught stealing the most times (by a huge margin). They need to be more efficient this year, but will they actually do that? Well, they ranked third in the majors with 42 steals this spring. And they had 11 runners caught stealing, fifth-most. That’s still a problem. Yes, the Nats need to take advantage of their team speed again. But they’ve got to be better at it and not give away outs like they did in 2024 (and again this spring).

TOO BIG A DEAL: THE BACK END OF THE BULLPEN
The first half of the spring was spent fretting over the vacant closer’s role. Then the Nationals re-signed Kyle Finnegan at a reduced rate, but there’s still some concern out there about the 2024 All-Star’s true ability. OK, so maybe Finnegan isn’t elite, and maybe he doesn’t induce as many swings and misses as you’d like in the ninth inning. But he’s still got a pretty rock-solid track record. He’s also got help this year in the form of Jose A. Ferrer, who looks poised to break out and could even take over closing duties at some point. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the ninth inning. Spend time worrying about …

GLOSSED OVER: THE REST OF THE BULLPEN
… the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. It was not a very good spring for most members of the projected bullpen. Derek Law was purposely held back but then complained about arm soreness and now is likely to open on the injured list. Jorge López had a hip issue, missed a week and had a 7.36 ERA. Lucas Sims had an 11.12 ERA. Colin Poche had a 6.35 ERA. Maybe you can’t really evaluate relievers’ spring training performances. Maybe the younger guys (Orlando Ribalta, Eduardo Salazar) will pick up the slack. But it feels like there’s reason to be nervous about this bullpen’s ability to bridge the gap between starter and closer.