The baseball season moves to preseason mode in a week. How did the #Nats do in our offseason priorities?

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Sol Tucker for Talknats

You can almost smell that freshly cut green grass. Yes, it is that time of year. Baseball has four distinct seasons that encompass an entire year as the seasons change from one to the next. As we prepare for the offseason to end in a week from now, we head to the preseason, known as Spring Training. The preseason is about 45-days long and still longer than the postseason that only lasts for about 30 days. The regular season is the longest at nearly six months. The offseason is the second longest at three-and-a-half months. The Boys of Summer actually start their regular season in the early spring and play through the entire summer months, and wrap up in early autumn. But everything is endured to reach the postseason — and be the last team standing to hoist up the World Series trophy. Yes, grown men play for a metal trophy, and rings of gold and diamonds. There are no participation trophies for just showing up. The Washington Nationals will most likely be bystanders again this year along with 17 other teams that won’t get a taste of the postseason. But don’t fret, the Nationals are playing for a reason. They are a young team in a rebuild. And as we know, rebuilds take time. Some would say that is the cyclicality, and the reality of the business of baseball. Others, as we know, just don’t get that concept, and are damned to constant negativity. Sometimes it is best to hear what the independent evaluators have to say, and most had the Nats with an above average (B- or C+) offseason, and ESPN will come in with a D rating. My rating is in the middle as a solid C as I think the Nats were certainly at average overall. For my liking, they did not add enough quality starting pitchers. My hope from the onset was adding a pitcher like Michael Wacha, and my offseason priorities were fairly clear on what needed to happen to be successful in the offseason. Let’s review those.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
X Priority #6: It won’t happen and didn’t happen, and the Nats stayed firm on their entire coaching staff. Every MLB coach is returning for the 2023 season. Beyond this year, it is a huge question mark as both Rizzo and Martinez are on the final year of their team deals. Rating: This gets a D+ rating. I thought the team should have moved on from pitching coach Jim Hickey, but everyone else showed some good progress. Some would say Hickey should at least get credit for a very good bullpen in 2022.  Gary DiSarcina showed considerable improvement in the first half of the year to the end of the season in sending runners. Hitting coach Darnell Coles certainly deserved a second season to show what he can do with his young players.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
X Priority #5: Look to sign CJ Abrams long-term. Now would be the time to do a deal and consider that he is with Roc Nation and not a Boras client like Keibert Ruiz. These two players are part of that young core. Rating: Incomplete. There is obviously still time to get this done, but I would have at least done a deal with Abrams at this point.
X Priority #6: It won’t happen and didn’t happen, and the Nats stayed firm on their entire coaching staff. Every MLB coach is returning for the 2023 season. Beyond this year, it is a huge question mark as both Rizzo and Martinez are on the final year of their team deals. Rating: This gets a D+ rating. I thought the team should have moved on from pitching coach Jim Hickey, but everyone else showed some good progress. Some would say Hickey should at least get credit for a very good bullpen in 2022.  Gary DiSarcina showed considerable improvement in the first half of the year to the end of the season in sending runners. Hitting coach Darnell Coles certainly deserved a second season to show what he can do with his young players.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
✅ Priority #4: It was time to clean up the roster with some major addition by subtraction and general manager Mike Rizzo did just that. He made some hard decisions and turned a page on several players, and it was different from Rizzo’s normal M.O. We had sources giving us much of what was going to happen as we reported throughout the offseason. Players like Erick Fedde and Nelson Cruz were sent to free agency; Fedde by a non-tender and Cruz’s option was declined. Wisely, they also said no to Luke Voit, and non-tendered them. Our sources said he did not accept a more market rate salary, and Rizzo smartly moved on.  The chart below is clear as to all of the Neg-WAR that was taken off of the roster. Rating: This is a tough one, and we will go A-. There was not a total purge, and we had hoped that Rizzo would get a player like Tucker Barnhart as an upgrade over Riley Adams. But in a season of a rebuild, it makes some sense that the team will give Adams a little more rope given how well he handles some of the starting pitchers.
X Priority #5: Look to sign CJ Abrams long-term. Now would be the time to do a deal and consider that he is with Roc Nation and not a Boras client like Keibert Ruiz. These two players are part of that young core. Rating: Incomplete. There is obviously still time to get this done, but I would have at least done a deal with Abrams at this point.
X Priority #6: It won’t happen and didn’t happen, and the Nats stayed firm on their entire coaching staff. Every MLB coach is returning for the 2023 season. Beyond this year, it is a huge question mark as both Rizzo and Martinez are on the final year of their team deals. Rating: This gets a D+ rating. I thought the team should have moved on from pitching coach Jim Hickey, but everyone else showed some good progress. Some would say Hickey should at least get credit for a very good bullpen in 2022.  Gary DiSarcina showed considerable improvement in the first half of the year to the end of the season in sending runners. Hitting coach Darnell Coles certainly deserved a second season to show what he can do with his young players.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
✅ Priority #3: Well the Nats sure did beef up their analytics and player development system under De Jon Watson with at least 15 new hires as well as new software and hardware upgrades. A source told us that they expanded in the biomechanics and how the medical group will work with the analytics group. A year ago, Watson transitioned into his role as Director of Player Development, and we are starting to see the dividends. But we still see players getting promoted that just do not look ready. Rating: Clearly an A+. The team exceeded goals here adding to what they had done a year ago in adding to the analytics and player development department.
✅ Priority #4: It was time to clean up the roster with some major addition by subtraction and general manager Mike Rizzo did just that. He made some hard decisions and turned a page on several players, and it was different from Rizzo’s normal M.O. We had sources giving us much of what was going to happen as we reported throughout the offseason. Players like Erick Fedde and Nelson Cruz were sent to free agency; Fedde by a non-tender and Cruz’s option was declined. Wisely, they also said no to Luke Voit, and non-tendered them. Our sources said he did not accept a more market rate salary, and Rizzo smartly moved on.  The chart below is clear as to all of the Neg-WAR that was taken off of the roster. Rating: This is a tough one, and we will go A-. There was not a total purge, and we had hoped that Rizzo would get a player like Tucker Barnhart as an upgrade over Riley Adams. But in a season of a rebuild, it makes some sense that the team will give Adams a little more rope given how well he handles some of the starting pitchers.
X Priority #5: Look to sign CJ Abrams long-term. Now would be the time to do a deal and consider that he is with Roc Nation and not a Boras client like Keibert Ruiz. These two players are part of that young core. Rating: Incomplete. There is obviously still time to get this done, but I would have at least done a deal with Abrams at this point.
X Priority #6: It won’t happen and didn’t happen, and the Nats stayed firm on their entire coaching staff. Every MLB coach is returning for the 2023 season. Beyond this year, it is a huge question mark as both Rizzo and Martinez are on the final year of their team deals. Rating: This gets a D+ rating. I thought the team should have moved on from pitching coach Jim Hickey, but everyone else showed some good progress. Some would say Hickey should at least get credit for a very good bullpen in 2022.  Gary DiSarcina showed considerable improvement in the first half of the year to the end of the season in sending runners. Hitting coach Darnell Coles certainly deserved a second season to show what he can do with his young players.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
X Priority #2: It was time to get the ownership situation set for early in the offseason, and clearly that did not happen. That had been dragging on since April 11, 2022. Rating: Clearly an F. A total fail. We dropped the bombshell a month ago that the potential sale fell through and negotiations were over. Where they go from here is a mystery and all signs point to that the Lerners are still open to a sale at a price that meets their expectations. As discussed in the “bombshell” article they could pivot to selling a small part of the team in the near-term. Overall, the issue is the direction of the team, and will they spend in the next offseason when the prospects are getting closer to callups.
✅ Priority #3: Well the Nats sure did beef up their analytics and player development system under De Jon Watson with at least 15 new hires as well as new software and hardware upgrades. A source told us that they expanded in the biomechanics and how the medical group will work with the analytics group. A year ago, Watson transitioned into his role as Director of Player Development, and we are starting to see the dividends. But we still see players getting promoted that just do not look ready. Rating: Clearly an A+. The team exceeded goals here adding to what they had done a year ago in adding to the analytics and player development department.
✅ Priority #4: It was time to clean up the roster with some major addition by subtraction and general manager Mike Rizzo did just that. He made some hard decisions and turned a page on several players, and it was different from Rizzo’s normal M.O. We had sources giving us much of what was going to happen as we reported throughout the offseason. Players like Erick Fedde and Nelson Cruz were sent to free agency; Fedde by a non-tender and Cruz’s option was declined. Wisely, they also said no to Luke Voit, and non-tendered them. Our sources said he did not accept a more market rate salary, and Rizzo smartly moved on.  The chart below is clear as to all of the Neg-WAR that was taken off of the roster. Rating: This is a tough one, and we will go A-. There was not a total purge, and we had hoped that Rizzo would get a player like Tucker Barnhart as an upgrade over Riley Adams. But in a season of a rebuild, it makes some sense that the team will give Adams a little more rope given how well he handles some of the starting pitchers.
X Priority #5: Look to sign CJ Abrams long-term. Now would be the time to do a deal and consider that he is with Roc Nation and not a Boras client like Keibert Ruiz. These two players are part of that young core. Rating: Incomplete. There is obviously still time to get this done, but I would have at least done a deal with Abrams at this point.
X Priority #6: It won’t happen and didn’t happen, and the Nats stayed firm on their entire coaching staff. Every MLB coach is returning for the 2023 season. Beyond this year, it is a huge question mark as both Rizzo and Martinez are on the final year of their team deals. Rating: This gets a D+ rating. I thought the team should have moved on from pitching coach Jim Hickey, but everyone else showed some good progress. Some would say Hickey should at least get credit for a very good bullpen in 2022.  Gary DiSarcina showed considerable improvement in the first half of the year to the end of the season in sending runners. Hitting coach Darnell Coles certainly deserved a second season to show what he can do with his young players.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes. ✅ Priority #1: Was to get at least one if not two upgrades in the starting rotation. Manager Dave Martinez had been asking for this in interviews, and he deserved a competent pitching staff.

“So you’re talking about adding maybe, one or two more starters,”  Martinez said. “We’re going into the winter with a lot of different areas that we need to fix.”

Rating: I give this a C. I felt the Nats needed one or two upgrades to the starting rotation and they met that but didn’t exceed that. The Nationals did sign Trevor Williams to a two-year deal, and did a good job getting Wily Peralta and Chad Kuhl on minor league depth deals. But a Wacha acquisition would have turned this into an “A” rating for me. There have been whispers from our sources that the Nats had been in contact over the winter. Still, without anothet addition, the Nats met the minimum of the goal that Martinez set.
X Priority #2: It was time to get the ownership situation set for early in the offseason, and clearly that did not happen. That had been dragging on since April 11, 2022. Rating: Clearly an F. A total fail. We dropped the bombshell a month ago that the potential sale fell through and negotiations were over. Where they go from here is a mystery and all signs point to that the Lerners are still open to a sale at a price that meets their expectations. As discussed in the “bombshell” article they could pivot to selling a small part of the team in the near-term. Overall, the issue is the direction of the team, and will they spend in the next offseason when the prospects are getting closer to callups.
✅ Priority #3: Well the Nats sure did beef up their analytics and player development system under De Jon Watson with at least 15 new hires as well as new software and hardware upgrades. A source told us that they expanded in the biomechanics and how the medical group will work with the analytics group. A year ago, Watson transitioned into his role as Director of Player Development, and we are starting to see the dividends. But we still see players getting promoted that just do not look ready. Rating: Clearly an A+. The team exceeded goals here adding to what they had done a year ago in adding to the analytics and player development department.
✅ Priority #4: It was time to clean up the roster with some major addition by subtraction and general manager Mike Rizzo did just that. He made some hard decisions and turned a page on several players, and it was different from Rizzo’s normal M.O. We had sources giving us much of what was going to happen as we reported throughout the offseason. Players like Erick Fedde and Nelson Cruz were sent to free agency; Fedde by a non-tender and Cruz’s option was declined. Wisely, they also said no to Luke Voit, and non-tendered them. Our sources said he did not accept a more market rate salary, and Rizzo smartly moved on.  The chart below is clear as to all of the Neg-WAR that was taken off of the roster. Rating: This is a tough one, and we will go A-. There was not a total purge, and we had hoped that Rizzo would get a player like Tucker Barnhart as an upgrade over Riley Adams. But in a season of a rebuild, it makes some sense that the team will give Adams a little more rope given how well he handles some of the starting pitchers.
X Priority #5: Look to sign CJ Abrams long-term. Now would be the time to do a deal and consider that he is with Roc Nation and not a Boras client like Keibert Ruiz. These two players are part of that young core. Rating: Incomplete. There is obviously still time to get this done, but I would have at least done a deal with Abrams at this point.
X Priority #6: It won’t happen and didn’t happen, and the Nats stayed firm on their entire coaching staff. Every MLB coach is returning for the 2023 season. Beyond this year, it is a huge question mark as both Rizzo and Martinez are on the final year of their team deals. Rating: This gets a D+ rating. I thought the team should have moved on from pitching coach Jim Hickey, but everyone else showed some good progress. Some would say Hickey should at least get credit for a very good bullpen in 2022.  Gary DiSarcina showed considerable improvement in the first half of the year to the end of the season in sending runners. Hitting coach Darnell Coles certainly deserved a second season to show what he can do with his young players.
Priority #7: This was a strange priority that I set to see the Nats increase their payroll from the time that the DFAs and non-tenders started. But with all of the addition by subtraction, it was going to be difficult to spend to get players to take their money without drastic overpays. And drastic overpays hurt when you are in a rebuild. Right now, the Nats have just under $98 million in actual salaries with nearly $5 million in bonus incentives so they could end up over $100 million. They did sign Williams,  Jeimer Candelario , Dominic Smith, Erasmo Ramirez, and Corey Dickerson to MLB deals. In all, the CBT payroll has the Nats at $124 million. The issue is that nearly half of that payroll is for Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. Rating: This gets a C rating. Yes, they spent some and we don’t know if they tried for other players who said “no” to them. Truthfully, I was hoping for one signing like Wacha which would have turned this to a B+.
✅ Priority #8: This was about adding some bats to the lineup, and Rizzo got that done. Rating: This gets a B+ rating. Yes, they added several players on bounceback type of deals hoping at least one or two works out. Again, in a rebuild we weren’t expecting much and Canderlario, Smith, and Dickerson was about more bodies in low risk signings, instead of spending on just one player.
✅ Priority #9: The farm system progressed and was ranked from 11th to 13th best from different evaluators, and for the first time possibly ever, Keith Law of The Athletic is actually bullish on the Nats farm system. Now we have to see the real results of course. Rating: This gets a B+ rating.
Priority #10: Current ownership owes it to these fans to improve markedly over the 2022 team. Losing 107 games was not acceptable. Nobody is expecting the Washington Nationals in the 2023 playoffs, but we would like to see a concerted effort to improve this team in free agency and the consensus is the Nats mildly improved. Rating: This gets a C rating as we will wait-and-see on this. We were hoping the new ownership would be installed, and that didn’t happen. With some stronger free agent signings, this would have been even stronger. At FanGraphs, they have gone back and forth with a 68 to a 69 win team most of the offseason. That puts the Nats at a 93 to a 94 loss team and a big improvement over that 107 loss team in 2022.
This felt like a good transitional offseason, but not a great one. The ownership situation is still a big unknown, and the team did not expand payroll enough. Rizzo was very candid at the Hot Stove event less than two weeks ago, and while he didn’t speak to specific free agents he tried to get, he spoke to the fact that he didn’t want to block the young prospects from moving up. The strength of this team is in their young players like Abrams and Ruiz and the young pitchers in Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Cade Cavalli. This is where the team’s success will really hinge with are those aforementioned players, and a very good grouping of top prospects that should only get stronger after the MLB Draft in July. So while some will stay focused on negatives and be upset that the team did not spend enough this offseason, it really only mattered for the near-term. The long-term payroll will stay unincumbered from long-term obligations beyond 2024, with only Strasburg’s deal is a drain, and his $35 million a year will end at the finale of the 2026 season. There is plenty of reason to stay optimistic if you can see beyond this season. For Rizzo, most judge him for what he has done for you lately. He was the architect of the Nats 2019 World Championship less than four years ago, and along the way, he probably learned a thing or two about how did build a second championship team. Few general managers get a shot at building champions threw two rebuilds, and Rizzo is trying to do it again. He will be judged in hindsight because that’s how they assess things in sports. Rizzo needs time, and we will see how 2023 goes.
This entry was posted in SpringTraining. Bookmark the permalink.