Do you want the good news or the bad news? Okay, it isn’t really bad news — more like no news. It has been well over a month since Dylan Floro was added to the Washington Nationals roster on December 12, and time is running out on the offseason as the preseason officially starts on Valentine’s Day when pitchers & catchers report to West Palm Beach for the Nats. That is exactly FOUR WEEKS from today!
The first full-squad workouts begin on Feb. 20th, and the first Spring Training game is Feb. 24th. At 1 p.m. on Feb 24, it is team photo day. That is now a bigger deal than in past years. That evening, the Nats will have their first Spring Training game, and will face the Houston Astros at their shared ballpark in West Palm Beach.
With less than 28 days, general manager Mike Rizzo is on the clock to get his roster finalized. The only three players he has added to the MLB roster this offseason have been Floro, Nick Senzel, and Nasim Nunez. On Monday the team added 20 new International Free Agents to their minor league roster. The team has also officially added several minor league free agents that most recently included Lewin Diaz, Travis Blankenhorn, Spenser Watkins, Juan Yepez, Nash Walters, Ty Tice, Samuel Reyes, and Dermis Garcia.
Yes, not much to get excited about yet. The Vegas lines have the Nats winning between 65.5-and-67 games (MGM is currently at 65.5 wins). If that were to happen, that would be a noticeable step-back from last year’s 71-wins. Just three months ago, manager Dave Martinez was talking about being a team that could be in contention. Maybe not a playoff team, but at least a team in the mix in September for a Wild Card spot.
“… we have a chance to win here, and get back to where we need to be, and that’s to be in the playoffs.”
— manager Dave Martinez said
” … tack on some more wins and get to those playoffs. …”
” … and be ready to go with [the goal to] try to get back into playoff contention.”
Hey, those were Martinez’s words. How do you think he is feeling right now with the roster he possesses at the moment? FWIW, FanGraphs has the Nats just slightly over 67-wins projected for this 2024 season.
Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus have both published their first 2024 top prospect rankings for the pre-season. Dylan Crews, James Wood, and Brady House are in everyone’s Top-100 projections and Robert Hassell III and Elijah Green are out. Cade Cavalli is out of Baseball America’s Top-100 and still in the rankings for Baseball Prospectus at №85.
Here is what we have so far with the prospect rankings: Crews (Baseball America – №6, Baseball Prospectus – №5), Wood (BA – №11, BP – №7), House (BA – №55, BP – №69), and Cavalli (BA – unranked, BP – №85). Expect numbers soon from MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs, Prospects Live, Keith Law at The Athletic, and Kiley McDaniel at ESPN.
There are people who don’t agree with the rankings, and that is all part of the process to debate the numbers. Some are upset over Wyatt Langford, in particular, being ahead of Crews in the rankings. Well, just remember that Juan Soto moved up so quickly he never made it into the Top-20 rankings. Senzel becomes the perfect example of a Top-10 ranking across the board in 2018 and that never translated to top MLB success to this point. Soto was №56 in that 2018 Baseball America ranking. Kind of where House is today. Again, this is why the only thing that matters is sustained success at the MLB level.
