With few remaining commitments, Nats should have flexibility to spend

As the dust settled from Friday night’s decision by the Nationals not to tender contracts to Kyle Finnegan and Tanner Rainey, a few follow-up thoughts came to mind.

One, they barely have any veterans on the roster anymore, with 24-year-old Luis Garcia Jr. (who debuted in August 2020) suddenly the most tenured player on the team.

Two, they have several holes to fill in their bullpen now, most importantly identifying a new closer.

Three, they’ve trimmed their financial commitments for 2025 and beyond down to an absolute minimum at this point.

Not that Finnegan had some kind of exorbitant contract, but the salary he would’ve commanded through the arbitration process this winter (likely between $8 million and $9 million) would’ve made him the highest paid player on the current roster.

Now that distinction goes to Keibert Ruiz, the only player in the organization with a long-term contract. And the young catcher is only due to make a modest $5 million in year three of the eight-year, $50 million extension he signed in 2023.

Ruiz is one only six current players likely to earn more than $1 million next season, with MLB Trade Rumors projecting the following salaries for the Nationals’ remaining arbitration-eligible teammates: Garcia ($4.8 million), MacKenzie Gore ($3.5 million), Derek Law ($3 million), Josiah Gray ($1.4 million) and Riley Adams ($1.1 million). Reliever Mason Thompson, meanwhile, already agreed to a $770,000 salary last week.

So that’s a total of $19.57 million projected to go to seven players with at least three years of big league service time. Everyone else on the current roster has yet to reach that mark, which means each will make at or slightly above the league minimum salary of $760,000. Add those all together and you get about $15.5 million.

Which means if the Nationals were to field their entire Opening Day roster without making any more additions this winter, they’d have a payroll of roughly $35 million.

That’s not going to actually happen. The smallest payroll in the majors on Opening Day this year was $60 million, by the nomadic Athletics. The 2025 Nats figure to exceed that number by a significant margin.

Point is, the Nationals have the financial freedom to sign multiple prominent free agents if they want. And they have the room to sign a lot of them if they have any visions of surpassing last season’s $126 million Opening Day payroll.

It’s not just the departure of Finnegan. Patrick Corbin ($35 million), Trevor Williams ($7 million) and Joey Gallo ($5 million) are off the books now as well. Stephen Strasburg is retired, though still being paid.

Four-fifths of the potential rotation (Jake Irvin, DJ Herz, Mitchell Parker, Cade Cavalli) will make $800,000 or less. The starting outfield (James Wood, Jacob Young, Dylan Crews) will all make slightly more than the league minimum. CJ Abrams, who missed qualifying for arbitration as a Super Two player by two days of service time, will continue to make less than $1 million for one more season. Law is the only current reliever making more than six figures.

The Nationals need a first baseman. They probably need another bat to help address the DH role. They could pursue a short-term answer at third base to give their prospects more time. They figure to be in the market for a veteran starting pitcher. And they now need to bolster their bullpen with multiple experienced late-inning arms.

That all costs money. But the money appears to be there for Mike Rizzo to spend.

Between last summer’s trades, the expiration of several veteran contracts and now Friday night’s move to part ways with Finnegan, the Nats have given themselves what so many organizations claim to want: financial flexibility, and plenty of it.

It’s now up to them to use the flexibility they’ve created to address the holes that still remain on their 2025 roster.