NL East Update: Washington Nationals
NL East Update: Washington Nationals
Pitching:
The 5th starter battle is real for a lot of teams. For that Nationals it's one as well. They have one of the best rotations in baseball and probably tied for best in the division with the Mets, they have Scherzer, Strasburg-who just got big money, Patrick Corbin, Anibal Sanchez. These guys gave the team 123 starts for the team and gave high-end production. Which led them to a World Series Title. Right now Joe Ross is the leader for the 5th spot in the rotation, he has been injured the last few seasons and not able to how back up since the 15/16 season. He is only 26 and looks to be getting back to form and showing out this spring. The other guys are Erick Fedde- he did not pitch well in his 12 opportunities with the team. Austin Voth- did fair well in his time with the club last season where he had a 3.30ERA and has been awesome this spring just allowing 1 run over 7IP. I really think it will be Ross since the other two have options remaining and maybe they go 6 starters and one guy out of the pen.
Scherzer was dealing with some side discomfort which isn't good. But he will be fine for whatever season we have this year at 35YO and Strasburg at 31Yo- did sign a 7-year deal. Both should be pitching just fine this year as both are workhorses and keep themselves in great shape.
A couple pitchers we wanna see rebond a little bit and get back to the best version of themselves are Sean Doolittle and Roesnis Elias. Doolittle was very serviceable for the Nat's on their wat to the World Series he wasn't as good as he has been. Elias did get hurt and was limited both should show back up and make a great impact out of the pen for Nationals.
The Nationals did release both Hunter Strickland and David Hernandez both had rough springs and their own troubles. Both should be able to latch on somewhere in 2020 when the season resumes.
Hitting
The team did renew Juan Sotos's contract for 2020 which was smart to keep him. But Soto is the real deal going into his 3rd season only and still just being incredible in every way on the field. Soto is going to command big money and rightfully so and I hope the Nationals give that to him cause why wouldn't they.
Yan Gomes is a guy we need to see turn it around at the plate this season. he did have a great 2nd half-season so keeping that going for him will be key. He did sign a 2-year deal to keep him and Kurt Suzuki together. If it's not broke- don't fix it. It's hard to find good catching in the MLB and they have a good pair.
Overall
The Nationals did option: Jake Noll, Aaron Barrett, Ben Braymer, and Kyle McGowin, they also reassigned Jacob Wilson, Brandon Snyder, Taylor Gushue, JR Shuck, Dakota Bacus, Bryan Bonnell and Wil Crowe to minors camp. This was surprising because of what's going on and there's been no direction to do the roster moves. Maybe they are trying to figure things out now so when the season starts they don't have much to consider.
This team did lose their star 3B Rendon BUT they will still be very competitive and continue to compete in this tough division.
They also need to give Soto a new contract.
Also, the bleacher report did do a great article and ones I love on the what if's of trades and signings. This one is of Jason Heyward https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/03/butterfly-effects-the-jason-heyward-signing.html
Pitching:
The 5th starter battle is real for a lot of teams. For that Nationals it's one as well. They have one of the best rotations in baseball and probably tied for best in the division with the Mets, they have Scherzer, Strasburg-who just got big money, Patrick Corbin, Anibal Sanchez. These guys gave the team 123 starts for the team and gave high-end production. Which led them to a World Series Title. Right now Joe Ross is the leader for the 5th spot in the rotation, he has been injured the last few seasons and not able to how back up since the 15/16 season. He is only 26 and looks to be getting back to form and showing out this spring. The other guys are Erick Fedde- he did not pitch well in his 12 opportunities with the team. Austin Voth- did fair well in his time with the club last season where he had a 3.30ERA and has been awesome this spring just allowing 1 run over 7IP. I really think it will be Ross since the other two have options remaining and maybe they go 6 starters and one guy out of the pen.
Scherzer was dealing with some side discomfort which isn't good. But he will be fine for whatever season we have this year at 35YO and Strasburg at 31Yo- did sign a 7-year deal. Both should be pitching just fine this year as both are workhorses and keep themselves in great shape.
A couple pitchers we wanna see rebond a little bit and get back to the best version of themselves are Sean Doolittle and Roesnis Elias. Doolittle was very serviceable for the Nat's on their wat to the World Series he wasn't as good as he has been. Elias did get hurt and was limited both should show back up and make a great impact out of the pen for Nationals.
The Nationals did release both Hunter Strickland and David Hernandez both had rough springs and their own troubles. Both should be able to latch on somewhere in 2020 when the season resumes.
Hitting
The team did renew Juan Sotos's contract for 2020 which was smart to keep him. But Soto is the real deal going into his 3rd season only and still just being incredible in every way on the field. Soto is going to command big money and rightfully so and I hope the Nationals give that to him cause why wouldn't they.
Yan Gomes is a guy we need to see turn it around at the plate this season. he did have a great 2nd half-season so keeping that going for him will be key. He did sign a 2-year deal to keep him and Kurt Suzuki together. If it's not broke- don't fix it. It's hard to find good catching in the MLB and they have a good pair.
Overall
The Nationals did option: Jake Noll, Aaron Barrett, Ben Braymer, and Kyle McGowin, they also reassigned Jacob Wilson, Brandon Snyder, Taylor Gushue, JR Shuck, Dakota Bacus, Bryan Bonnell and Wil Crowe to minors camp. This was surprising because of what's going on and there's been no direction to do the roster moves. Maybe they are trying to figure things out now so when the season starts they don't have much to consider.
This team did lose their star 3B Rendon BUT they will still be very competitive and continue to compete in this tough division.
They also need to give Soto a new contract.
Also, the bleacher report did do a great article and ones I love on the what if's of trades and signings. This one is of Jason Heyward https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/03/butterfly-effects-the-jason-heyward-signing.html
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