Washington, D.C.
The Washington Nationals have been eliminated from postseason contention.
That’s the statement that was shared around on September 19 after a loss to the White Sox. While unsurprising to hear that sentence, the Nationals went down in what seemed to be the same story that we have heard from April to September. The bats were silent while the pitching was good in the beginning, but then collapsed in the middle innings. While this story seemed repetitive, the Scrappy Nats put up quite the fight from beginning to end this season, and ultimately ended up finishing above expectations.
In the offseason, the Nats signed 3rd baseman Jeimer Candelario and 1B Dominic Smith. While Candelario would depart at the trade deadline for prospects from the Chicago Cubs, he helped them win games in the first half of the season while mentoring young infielders, such as SS C. J. Abrams and 2B Luis Garcia. Before the regular season started, the Nationals were predicted to have the least amount of wins in all of baseball, with 107. This is more than teams like the Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies, and Kansas City Royals. the Nationals are guaranteed to finish above 100 losses, and are 3.5 games behind the 4th place New York Mets in the NL East standings.
Early on, the Nats struggled to find their footing. The hitting core was weak, and the pitching was weak, not to mention the bullpen was atrocious. However, rookie MacKenzie Gore shined in April, going 5 ⅓ allowing three hits and one earned run with six strikeouts facing the juggernaut Atlanta Braves roster in his Nationals debut. Gore finished April with a 3-1 Win/Loss record, 3.00 ERA, and 35 strikeouts.
The Nationals finished off the second half strong, defeating the AL West leading Rangers in a three game series at home. Outfielder Lane Thomas was finding his groove with the team, finishing with a scorching 340 batting average, six home runs while driving 17 runners in. Abrams was starting to shake off the cobwebs, making dazzling plays in the field at shortstop, while starting to heat up with the bat and causing havoc on the basepaths. Josiah Gray was named an all star to end the first half.
The rest of the season was a mixed bag of good and poor. C. J. Abrams found his stride and got player of the week in July. As of late, Thomas and Abrams have been in a rough patch as of September, Garcia got demoted to Triple A in August, and yet all of our prospects are sitting in the minor leagues without getting a shot this season.
So, have they exceeded expectations? Yes. Is there reason to be disappointed with this team? Also yes. The Learners are looking at offers for selling the team because they can’t sign big name free agents or keep stars developed in our system, and that is a glaring problem about baseball in Washington.
