Nats define 2024 season with "experience"

Despite a 16-win improvement in 2023, the Nationals were careful not to call last year a success. Even though they jumped from 55 to 71 victories, they still lost 91 games for their fourth straight losing season.

“I don't think that it's a successful season, but it's a very encouraging season,” said general manager Mike Rizzo on Sept. 13, 2023. “Nobody wants to aim to win 70 games in a season. We want to win 97 games in the season. So that's our goal. That's always been our goal. But this is a good step in the right direction to that.”

The Nats looked like they were going to take a similar step in that direction this year. Through the first 77 outings in late June, they were on pace to win about 80 games. That would have been close to another double-digit win improvement from last year and close to their first finish at or above .500 since winning the World Series in 2019.

But from that point on, starting with a three-game sweep at Petco Park at the hands of the Padres (which also helped turn San Diego’s season around), the Nats went 33-52 (.388) the rest of the way en route to finishing with the same 71-91 record they had in 2023. Although this year, they did finally end their four-year streak of finishing last in the National League East, with the woeful Marlins residing in the division’s basement.

So if last year was more “encouraging” than a “success,” what’s the word the Nats would use to describe the 2024 season?

“Oh, gosh, I haven't really thought about a word for this year,” manager Davey Martinez said before the final game of the season. “I mean, last year was all about progress. You know what? I would have to say experience, really. The experience that these guys got to play up here. That is definitely going to help down the road.”

Sure enough, the young Nationals got plenty of experience this year.

Despite a rough second half and an unfortunate ending to his season as he was optioned down to Triple-A for disciplinary reasons, CJ Abrams was an All-Star for the first time this year. The 23-year-old hit .268 with an .831 OPS, 21 doubles, six triples, 15 home runs, 48 RBIs and 15 stolen bases for the best half of a season he’s had in his young career.

Luis García Jr. had the best year of his career as a 24-year-old. He slashed .282/.318/.444 with a .762 OPS, 25 doubles, 18 home runs, 70 RBIs and 22 stolen bases while being named the Nationals’ Player of the Year for the first time by members of the local media.

Then top prospects James Wood and Dylan Crews made their highly anticipated major league debuts. Wood, 21, hit .264 with a .781 OPS, 13 doubles, four triples, nine homers, 41 RBIs and 14 stolen bases in his first 79 games as a big leaguer. And while Crews, 22, struggled a bit more (.218 average, .641 OPS in 31 games), he still learned a lot from his major league experience that will help him in the future.

“Yeah, it's been fun. It's been awesome,” Crews said. “Like I said earlier, it's just, these are the dog days. We had a really good stretch at the end, facing some really good teams who are in the playoffs and then some that were fighting for the playoffs. So we got a good view of what it's going to be like in the future if we want to be a part of that playoff atmosphere and be a playoff team. So we're going to prepare for it and get after it this offseason and try to do that next year.”

There were, of course, plenty of opportunities for experience to go around on the youngest team in the majors.

Fellow prospect Trey Lipscomb played in 61 games across multiple major league stints. Jacob Young blossomed into an everyday, Gold Glove-caliber center fielder in 150 games. Rule 5 pick Nasim Nuñez made his major league debut and appeared in 51 games. Longtime prospect Darren Baker finally reached the bigs in limited action late in the season. And trade deadline acquisitions José Tena and Andrés Chaparro each got their first extended experiences at the major league level.

On the pitching side, the rotation was led by young starters MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz, all of whom increased their innings totals from last year by at least 30 frames.

Gore, 25, finished with a 3.90 ERA and 181 strikeouts, the best season totals by a Nats starter since 2019. Irvin, 27, finished with 187 ⅔ innings, the highest total by any Nats starter since 2019. And Parker, 24, and Herz, 23, not only made their major league debuts, but pitched well enough to stay in the rotation for a majority of the season, making 29 and 19 starts, respectively.

The bullpen got contributions from Jose A. Ferrer, 24, Eduardo Salazar, 26, and Joe La Sorsa, 26. And it saw unheralded prospects Zach Brzykcy and Orlando Ribalta make their debuts.

All in all, even though the 2024 season didn’t add up to more wins, it did add up to a lot more experience for many important young players.

So if last year was about “progress” and this year was about “experience,” what do these young Nationals players need to do to make 2025 about “winning?”

“Minimizing mistakes as much as you can,” Crews said. “Really, when there's a time to get that base knock to score that run, we need to hone in and do that. Or when there's a time to make a big pitch, we need to do that. So capitalizing on big moments and minimizing mistakes will get us to where we want to get to in the future.”