Last week, we took an unsparing look at how the Washington Nationals pitching staff fared in 2024. Today, we’re grading the rest of the roster: position players, including designated hitters, who don’t actually play a real position but whatever.
As usual, player grades are arbitrary, although I’ve tried my best to be fair. I’ve also graded players against expectations. To earn an A, a player would have to exceed reasonable expectations for themselves and their role on the team. For a B, a player would have to generally meet expectations. A C grade is on the borderline, as it’s a passing grade but generally indicates a player could have done quite a bit more (in my view) with the opportunities they were given. A D grade represents a qualified failure, as the player had their moments, but ultimately, they did not make a good case in the time they had; many of my D recipients were ultimately demoted or designated for assignment during the season. An F grade is reserved for truly disastrous seasons, usually over a sustained period of time and despite many opportunities.
With that, let’s dive in. I’ll caution you upfront that some of these grades received quite a bit more explanation than others…as you’ll see right away.
CJ Abrams: C+
The Nats wanted CJ Abrams to take a step forward after his 2023 season. He did. They wanted him to emerge as a star on this young roster. He did. So, why does it feel like Abrams had kind of a disappointing season?
Let’s start off by noting Abrams was one of just a few major leaguers with a 20/20 season (20 home runs, 31 stolen bases, to be precise) this year. While his .747 OPS doesn’t look that remarkable, when adjusted to his ballpark and compared against the rest of the league, it comes out as about 10% better than average (110 OPS+). Abrams also led the 2024 Nationals in rWAR with 3.4. He was one of the team’s two representatives to the All-Star Game and the only one to appear in the game.
But 2024 also exposed some deep weaknesses in Abrams’ game. Those 31 bases he stole were out of 43 attempts, a success rate of just 72%. His strikeout rate ticked up over 21%, a career high. He was one of baseball’s worst defensive everyday fielders, valued at -18 outs above average. He was wildly inconsistent at the plate, seesawing from a .992 OPS in March/April to a .519 OPS in May, to a 1.127 OPS in June to a .571 OPS across July and August. Perhaps most damning, he finished the year in “timeout”, as the Nats sent him to West Palm Beach after he violated team rules by reportedly staying out all night at a casino before a game against the Cubs. Sourced reports on this website first, and then elsewhere indicated this wasn’t Abrams’ first violation, suggesting that the team either overlooked or failed to properly discourage Abrams’ behavior.
Pausing for just a moment to get serious: Gambling addiction is a real problem that affects millions of Americans. If that applied to Abrams, he would not be the first professional athlete to have a gambling problem. While we don’t know much about Abrams’ case specifically, other than it concerned the Nats enough to dismiss him from the team for the final games of the season, I don’t discount the real possibility here that Abrams is in need of professional help — and that need would outweigh any baseball considerations.
There are baseball considerations here, though. How many times did Abrams stay out late and report for the next day’s game tired and distracted? How much did this affect his on-field performance? Could it have contributed to his poor defense, or his hitting droughts, or his baserunning gaffes?
Of all the players on the Nats’ roster right now, Abrams might be the biggest question mark going forward. General Manager Mike Rizzo has been emphatic that Abrams is still part of the Nats’ plans and that the team is committed to him at shortstop. But they have work to do with Abrams, and Abrams may have work to do on himself, to get him ready to bounce back in 2025. Statistically, Abrams had a good if not exceptional season — but the Nats need more from him, and they need to trust that he’s going to show up for them, 100%. That trust may take some time to rebuild.
Riley Adams: D+
While Adams endured some injuries in 2023, including a hamate fracture that ended his season prematurely and left something of a question mark over his 2024, he healed well and was a full participant in spring training. But Adams, the Nats’ primary backup catcher since he was acquired at the trade deadline in 2021, appeared in a career-low 41 games and was supplanted by season’s end as the Nats favored Drew Millas.
Adams has never played a ton as Keibert Ruiz’s backup, with manager Davey Martinez tending to lean heavily on his primary catcher. But unlike 2023, when his .273/.807 slash line left Nats fans wanting more, Adams didn’t make much of an impression with his limited playing time, slashing a relatively paltry .224/.629. Adams was also unusually shaky defensively, committing five errors in just 40 games and only catching three of 34 baserunners who attempted to steal a base with him behind the plate. Ordinarily, I might chalk up such struggles to post-hamate recovery. Fracturing the bone tends to sap a batter’s power, and it can take months for that strength to return even after the injury heals. But Adams had his best year ever at bat in the minor leagues, with a .912 OPS for Triple-A Rochester.
Adams is in a difficult position this offseason, as he’s out of minor league options but seemed to land behind Millas on the depth chart this season. The Nats could give him a chance to win the backup catcher job in spring training, as Millas has options. But they may have concluded Adams is a “Quadruple-A” player — good enough to more than hold his own at the highest minor league level, but not good enough to carve out a role on a major league squad. It would yet be a surprise, but not quite a shock, if the Nats move on from Adams before camp opens in February.
Darren Baker: INC
One of the Nats’ more polarizing prospects, Baker made his major league debut as a September callup. He recorded seven hits in fourteen plate appearances for a career .500 batting average; two of those hits were doubles. Although certainly fortune favored Baker — his BABIP was a hilarious .636 — it’s a fine start to a major league career.
Most (not all) evaluators tab Baker as an up-and-down roster filler with little offensive or defensive value. Maybe he can prove them wrong in time. He certainly was enjoyable to watch down the stretch. For now, a 14 PA sample size (he started just two games) isn’t enough for a letter grade.
Travis Blankenhorn: D-
I noted in my report card for pitchers that there were a handful of relievers who pitched really poorly and lost their spot on the team because of it. But I reserved an F grade for those who were here for long enough that their poor performance genuinely hurt the team. Blankenhorn only appeared in thirteen games before the Nats decided they had seen enough…and that’s the only reason he escapes an F here, because he was absolutely unplayable. He provided zero utility in the field — just an anemic bat that slashed, if you can call it that, .129/.318 primarily out of the designated hitter spot.
Normally for a sample size of 32 plate appearances, I’d strongly consider an “incomplete” grade, which is what I gave Blankenhorn last year after 37 plate appearances. But for this? No. I’m being merciful enough not giving him a straight-up F.
Alex Call: A
Is this the grade you expected for Alex Call? If it isn’t, then why the hell not?
Call was hands-down the best player on the team from the moment he was recalled in late July until he tore the plantar fascia in his foot trying to make a diving catch in right field nearly a month later. In the 23 games he played over that time, he slashed .349/.967 and played very capable defense. Always known as a pesky hitter, he saw an average 4.32 pitches per plate appearance, which would have ranked second in MLB among qualified hitters if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
Beyond the numbers, Call was his usual hair-on-fire self, constantly hustling and working hard — even to the point of sacrificing his body for the team. We didn’t even know he was playing through plantar fasciitis until after he injured his foot.
I don’t think, and I don’t think many think, Call truly has the talent to be an everyday player on a contending team; appearing in 128 games last year, after all, he was a .200/.614 hitter. But if he can bounce back from his injury, he ought to receive ample consideration for some sort of role on the 2025 Nationals. Call never rests on his laurels, he obviously put in major effort to improve and major preparation to be ready when the Nats needed him in 2024, and he’s just a genuine joy to watch. He did everything the Nats asked of him and more…other than getting hurt, of course.
Andrés Chaparro: C+
Chaparro was a throw-in at the trade deadline. The swap of Dylan Floro to the Diamondbacks for Chaparro, a one-dimensional minor league slugger who wasn’t a highly rated prospect, was the last trade to be finalized before the deadline. The Nats soon selected Chaparro’s contract, deploying him as a part-time designated hitter and occasional first baseman down the stretch.
As a rookie, Chaparro was acceptable, although he didn’t excel. He hit four homers and twelve doubles in just 132 plate appearances, although he didn’t do much otherwise, with a subpar .215 batting average and .280 on-base percentage to factor into his .694 OPS. He didn’t inspire much confidence as a first baseman, bungling several routine throws and showing little range.
Chaparro essentially met expectations but might not have done enough to cement a place on the 2025 roster. He’s likely not in danger of losing his roster spot this winter, especially since he still has all of his minor league options. But the Nats will surely look to upgrade at 1B/DH…and Chaparro suffers from having a very similar profile to Juan Yepez, who handily outplayed him in 2024.
Dylan Crews: B-
Crews makes for an interesting comparison to Chaparro. They had the exact same number of plate appearances at the major league level, with 132, and their hitting and on-base numbers are closely comparable (.218 and .288 for Crews, to .215 and .280 for Chaparro). Chaparro slugged considerably more than Crews, accounting for his higher OPS (.641 for Crews, .694 for Chaparro). But Crews made up some of that difference with twelve stolen bases. He also played defense — and well — unlike Chaparro, who was mostly a DH. Of course, Crews is also baseball’s No. 1 prospect, and Chaparro was an unheralded minor league journeyman. And, of course, Crews is three years Chaparro’s junior. On the whole, he grades out just slightly higher.
The Nats will need to see a lot more from Crews in 2025, obviously, but they ought to be at least a little encouraged by how he finished: going 6-for-10 with two walks, a double, and a triple in his last three games against the Phillies, against just one strikeout. Crews will retain his rookie status through 2025.
Joey Gallo: D
This grade encapsulates well what Gallo brought to the Nats in 2024, n’est-ce pas? Practically a nonfactor at the plate for most of the year, the 6-foot-5 Gallo earned whatever value he had to Washington as a rangy, sure-handed target at first base. The entire infield defense, which was shaky throughout 2024, was improved when Gallo was on first.
Unfortunately, Gallo’s presence on the field meant he had to bat. That was rough. By the end of May, Gallo — whom the Nats ostensibly signed to be a big bat in the middle of their lineup — was slashing .147/.577 while still playing almost every day. He finally started to collect some hits again in June, but then he got hurt and missed the next two months of play. With Juan Yepez performing well as the Nats’ usual first baseman, some here were questioning whether Gallo would return at all. But he did…and after a modest three-game hitting streak left fans wondering if maybe that brief June improvement was for real, he went ice-cold again, slashing .087/.461 through September 17 and finding himself out of the starting lineup more and more often. Thankfully, Gallo heated up a little to finish the season, hitting three-run homers thrice over his next eight games.
Lest recency bias blind us: Gallo had just three multi-hit games all season; he struck out in nearly 40% of his plate appearances; and he finished the year with a .161/.277/.336 triple slash — “good” for a 74 OPS+, a career low. He was effectively a replacement-level player, or slightly below replacement by Fangraphs’ reckoning. His season, on the whole, was a failure. But he gave the faltering Nats a boost at the end of the season, and his massive wingspan saved a whole lot of errant throws over the course of the year. He avoids an F grade, because at least his season wasn’t a complete failure. No way the Nats ought to exercise that mutual option for 2025, though.
Luis García Jr.: A-
We didn’t talk enough about García this year. He struggled in 2023, to the point where the Nats briefly optioned him to Triple-A Rochester to get his head glued back on. García took his lumps, and he took them to heart. He was visibly more focused in 2024, rarely grim but never guilty of the immature goofing around that annoyed his manager and coaches in years past. His defense improved measurably. His OPS jumped from .688 in 2023 to .762 in 2024, one of the best marks on the team. He nearly had a 20/20 season, homering eighteen times and stealing 22 bases.
While it wasn’t all good news — García’s strikeout rate jumped by 4 percentage points and his walk rate declined slightly from last year — it’s a notable improvement for a player who was perhaps most often described, in his first four major league seasons, as “frustrating”. Fangraphs pegs García as the Nats’ most valuable player this season.
García did still battle some of the inconsistency that, to a greater extent, plagued his double-play partner, CJ Abrams. Oddly enough, as Abrams torched opposing hitters in June, García slumped to a .593 OPS, then rebounded with a .933 across July and August while Abrams struggled in those months.
Heading into 2025, the Nats would surely like to see Abrams take the same leap in maturity and focus that they saw from García this year; they’d also surely like to see both players perform at a consistent level and serve as a formidable tandem, rather than making up for one another’s cold streaks. García entered the year with question marks about his future role with the Nats. It’s fair to say he answered them in 2024, and it will be exciting to see how he progresses in 2025.
Stone Garrett: INC
It was looking like the season would end without Garrett getting a chance to complete his comeback from a devastating leg injury that ended a breakout 2023 campaign early. Garrett returned to play with the minor leagues in mid-April but didn’t look quite right for much of the year. To say he’d lost a step was an understatement; in fact, he had a noticeable limp at times. But Garrett finally seemed to get into a rhythm late in the season, and the Nats called him up in time for him to get into two games. In his first MLB plate appearance since his injury, he hammered a no-doubt home run — and went on to have a three-hit day.
Obviously, the sample size is far too small to properly grade Garrett, but he’s responsible for maybe the best moment of the season. It will be interesting to see how the Nats evaluate him for a potential role on the 2025 team. He still does have minor league options remaining.
Trey Lipscomb: D
Lipscomb made the team out of spring training. A well-regarded but not elite prospect in the Nationals organization, Lipscomb showed out in spring and gave the Nats confidence he could contribute right away at the major league level. It’s hard to say whether the promotion, in hindsight, was premature — or Lipscomb just doesn’t have that much to offer.
Actually, in fairness, Lipscomb held his own over his first month as the Nats’ more-or-less everyday third baseman, with a serviceable .278/.671 slash line. He struggled in May, though, before he was optioned back to the minors, then struggled again in a brief June stint before being sent back down again. Called up again in July, he stuck on the active roster for a full month, during which he looked completely overmatched at all times and slashed a pitiful .152/.393. That forced the Nats to demote him once more in favor of José Tena, who didn’t really know how to play third base but would be given the chance to learn on the job. Lipscomb finished the season on the active roster again after CJ Abrams was dismissed for violating team rules, but he went 0-for-6 in just half a dozen plate appearances in September.
While 2024 was Lipscomb’s rookie year, his poor offensive performance — which only got worse as the season progressed — almost surely disabused the Nats of any notion he is their third baseman of the future. He could still receive consideration in spring training for a bench role, as he can play all four infield positions if needed and got some looks in the outfield at Triple-A Rochester this year. But harsh as it may be, Lipscomb does not deserve a passing grade for his rookie season.
Joey Meneses: F
Team brass is clearly fond of Meneses. He provided much-needed energy and excitement after Juan Soto and Josh Bell were traded away in 2022, bursting onto the scene as a 30-year-old rookie and outhitting Soto the rest of the way.
Sadly, Meneses’ is a story of diminishing returns. He was an average hitter in 2023, when he slashed .275/.722. While this wasn’t the sort of production the Nats wanted or should have expected from a 1B/DH type, it gave them enough confidence to stick with Meneses as a middle-of-the-order hitter for one more season, complemented by the likes of Joey Gallo and Nick Senzel. Instead, all three cratered. Meneses staggered to a .231/.593 slash line over 76 games before the Nats finally said “no más”. He was optioned to Triple-A Rochester in early July, remaining there through the end of the season.
Meneses has always been at his best with a chance to drive in runs, and that held true in 2024, as he hit .319 with runners in scoring position. But even in these spots, he didn’t hit for power at all; and with the bases empty, he was practically an automatic out, with a .181/.465 slash line. Meneses only hit three homers for the Nats in 2024, which is beyond unacceptable for a player who is defensively limited to first base (and is somewhat of a butcher there, at that). He didn’t hit his first until May 11. For anyone tempted to compare him to his eventual successors, Andrés Chaparro and Juan Yepez — that’s a pretty big difference. And it’s a big reason for the Nats should not, and likely will not, consider him for a role on the 2025 roster. It would qualify as a surprise to see Meneses retain his 40-man roster spot all winter, and as a shock to see him in uniform on Opening Day.
Drew Millas: C
The Nats’ emerging backup catcher, Millas didn’t do anything to turn heads in a major way this season, but he solidified himself as the leading option in that role — if only by default. Millas’ slash line for the season was actually slightly worse than Riley Adams’, at .246/.622, although that’s in a sample size of just 62 plate appearances. Where Millas clearly excelled over Adams is in his work behind the plate. While Adams’ limited action as the Nats’ catcher was pocked with errors and rampant steals, Millas did a good job of controlling the running game, throwing out five of seventeen attempted base-stealers. He committed just one error and graded out well defensively, although Fangraphs rates him as a poor pitch-framer. Interestingly, Millas also flashed some surprising speed for a catcher, going 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts of his own despite very limited playing time.
The Nats could do worse than to stick with Millas as their backup catcher in 2025, although there’s no real reason why they shouldn’t explore their options in free agency and on the trade market; Millas has minor league options remaining.
Nasim Nuñez: B+
Despite being on the active roster every day of the season, Nuñez only made 78 plate appearances. Davey Martinez seemed to have no trust in the Rule 5 pick at all during the first half; he entered the All-Star Break with just 14 plate appearances, being used mostly as a pinch-runner (and not often at that). Unsurprisingly, especially for a player with zero Triple-A experience and not much of a reputation as a hitter, Nuñez went 1-for-the-first-half.
But after the break, and especially after the trade deadline, Martinez started to find more playing time for Nuñez. CJ Abrams, the everyday shortstop, missed some time here and there with minor injuries and eventually a team suspension; Nuñez was the main beneficiary, and he began to take advantage of his opportunities. For the second half, he hit .292/.736 — approximately league-average production. (Perhaps it would surprise you to know Abrams hit .203/.586 over the same span?) He also displayed good bat-to-ball skills, as he walked eleven times against twelve strikeouts and laid down five sacrifice bunts.
Now, there’s no reason to think Nuñez is coming for Abrams’ job. He had all of one extra-base hit this season, and his hard-hit rate was a brutal 22%. But there is a lot to like about Nuñez as a backup option. Although it seemed at times like he tried to do too much with it, he routinely showed off a bazooka arm at shortstop that graded out as one of the best in MLB, being mentioned in the same breath as Cardinals phenom Masyn Winn’s legendary cannon. Like teammate and fellow relentless grinder Alex Call, Nuñez rarely gave away at-bats; his 4.19 pitches per plate appearance would have tied for ninth in the MLB if he had enough appearances to qualify. And Nuñez was consistently unselfish, tying for second on the team in sac bunts despite having a fraction of the team leaders’ plate appearances. These are all the “little things” that elevate a role player, and they contributed to making Nuñez an exciting player to watch.
While the conventional wisdom is that Nuñez will start 2025 in the minor leagues, now that the Nats have full rights to him, he should get a chance to earn a continued bench role in spring training. The Nats gave more chances to worse players in 2023, and none of them were nearly as much fun as Nuñez.
Harold Ramírez: D+
Ramírez wasn’t here long, and he didn’t do much when he was here. Even so, his relatively short stay with the Nats was likely more to do with personnel than performance — namely, the Nats had a lot of players just like Ramírez, and they outplayed him. As a National, Ramírez appeared exclusively as a DH or pinch-hitter, despite the Nats talking him up as a utility player when they signed him as a minor league free agent.
But let’s be honest: A pure DH needs to hit more than .243/.638 to keep his job, especially when he’s not the only right-handed hitter on the team whose highest and best use involves never being allowed near a glove. Beyond that, Ramírez appeared to be allergic to walks, reaching base just twice on balls and once on a hit-by-pitch in 77 plate appearances as a National. Like his predecessor in the role, Joey Meneses, Ramírez hit acceptably well in scoring opportunities, but he struggled to start rallies, and he didn’t hit for enough power to offset his difficulties in reaching base. Ramírez was hardly a disaster in his time with the Nats, but he certainly falls short of a passing grade.
Víctor Robles: D-
Robles’ season numbers are a real head trip this year.
Limited to just fourteen games with the Nationals by injury, Robles was released after going 3-for-25 with no extra-base hits. Perhaps the Nats wouldn’t have been so quick on the trigger if similar injuries hadn’t held Robles to just 36 games in 2023; or if Robles’ on- and off-field antics hadn’t been eating at Davey Martinez and other team officials for years; or if Jacob Young hadn’t emerged by then as perhaps the game’s best defensive center fielder. As it was, though, the Nats had seen enough — particularly after a nightmarish May 12 performance against the Red Sox in which a far-too-casual Robles dropped a routine flyball for an error, then inexplicably ran into an out trying to take an already-occupied third base in the very next inning. Days later, the Nats finally cut bait on Robles. The former top prospect caught on quickly with the Mariners, where he’s been enjoying a career renaissance in the other Washington. Sometimes, a change of scenery is the right thing for both sides.
Eddie Rosario: F
Was there any doubt?
Rosario made a bad impression nearly right away. Remarkably, he began the season as the Nats’ Opening Day center fielder, and he hit the team’s first homer of the year in that game. That was a high-water mark for Rosario. Over his next 24 games, playing almost every day, he slashed a relief pitcher-esque .086/.259. He finally broke out of these doldrums with a two-hit game that included his second home run of the year on May 5, starting a hot streak that lasted for a few weeks. But once the calendar flipped over to June, Rosario’s bat performed another vanishing act, as he evoked memories of April with a .191/.450 slash line that month. The Nats finally released him in early July. He latched on briefly with the Braves but did even worse there, soon earning his release again.
Beyond Rosario’s dismal offensive output (.183/.555 as a National), though, he set a decidedly poor example for the team’s younger players. Rosario frequently appeared to jog to first after hitting flyballs and grounders. On defense, he seemed to put in almost zero effort, often giving up on shallow flyballs that appeared catchable. Statcast assesses him as not making a single four- or five-star difficulty catch in 2024. He was worth -6 OAA across his time with both the Nats and the Braves.
Cutting Rosario was addition by subtraction, as the Nats called up top prospect James Wood to replace him.
Keibert Ruiz: C-
The Nats had high hopes for Ruiz to take a step forward, coming off a strong second half and an overall .260/.717 slash line in 2023. Instead, his OPS dropped by nearly 100 points, leaving him with a 74 OPS+. His strikeout rate, while still low at 11%, ticked up by a percentage point. His walk rate, already poor, fell 2 points to just over 3%. He hit for less power and drove in fewer runs.
It’s hardly what the team wanted to see after signing Ruiz to a long-term extension, and it doesn’t inspire much confidence that Ruiz really will be the frontline catcher for the duration of that contract — maybe not even through 2025.
While Ruiz’s performance wasn’t good in 2024, it was still passable for a catcher — which has for years been among the worst positions for offense in MLB. As with last year, too, Ruiz showed more signs of life after the All-Star Break, as he slashed a somewhat more respectable .239/.662 in the second half. After leading the National League with eight passed balls in 2023, Ruiz’s defense improved, too; he committed just two errors all season despite catching 116 games, and he threw out 20% of attempted base-stealers, exactly in line with the league average.
With some misgivings, I’ve given Ruiz the lowest possible passing grade for his season, on account of those adjustments and improvements. But the Nats ought to be clear-eyed about the player Ruiz has shown himself to be. This was his third full major league season, and they have yet to see the breakout they’ve been waiting to see since acquiring him as part of the Max Scherzer/Trea Turner trade in 2021. At some point, it’s fair to wonder if there’s much more to see.
Nick Senzel: D+
Senzel was never the worst player on the team. In a vacuum, his .663 OPS doesn’t even look all that awful.
Unfortunately, though, Senzel simply wasn’t the guy the Nats hoped they were getting when they signed him to a one-year deal this past winter. They had hoped Senzel, a fairly recent convert to third base, could hold down the job until top prospect Brady House was ready. But Senzel got hurt on Opening Day, leaving the job open for Trey Lipscomb; while Lipscomb was more competent than good in April, he did enough to force Senzel into a timeshare when he made his season debut a few weeks later. The Nats soon optioned Lipscomb back to the minor leagues, entrusting Senzel with more playing time.
But Senzel’s hitting never really picked up, and he played a consistently poor third base, costing the Nats to the tune of a -5 OAA. By early July, with the All-Star Break just days away, the Nats decided it was time to move on from their underperforming vets. Senzel followed Joey Meneses and fellow offseason acquisition Eddie Rosario out the door, leaving third base once again to Lipscomb — perhaps a mistake, in hindsight, but not much of value was lost. The White Sox picked Senzel up, but in a sign of how far the former top prospect has fallen, even the worst team in MLB was quick to move on, releasing him after just ten games.
José Tena: B
The Nats were just about out of options at third base by early August. They had released Nick Senzel, their presumptive everyday third baseman to begin the season, in early July. His replacement, Trey Lipscomb, had basically stopped hitting. And their top prospect, Brady House, was struggling with the transition from Double-A to Triple-A. Just days earlier, they had acquired a midlevel infield prospect named José Tena as part of a four-player deal with the Guardians. While Tena didn’t have much experience at third base, they decided that with the season going down the tubes, they would give Tena a shot. The results were decidedly mixed.
Tena took to hitting in the big leagues like a natural. From the time the Nats called him up, before he skidded into a five-game hitless streak to end the season, he slashed a hearty .312/.753. While he showed more gap-to-gap power than long distance, and he didn’t walk much, he consistently made hard contact (49% hard-hit rate) and rarely appeared overmatched, as Lipscomb frequently had.
The far bigger problem was, predictably, on the defensive side. While the Guardians had begun to give Tena more playing time at third base in 2024, before trading him as part of their package for outfielder Lane Thomas, Tena had just 330 professional innings of experience at third when the Nats called him up. He committed nine errors in 35 games, the majority of them clearly Tena’s fault; a few good plays at first base likely saved him a few more. While he showed off a strong arm, he often rushed his throws, sometimes to disastrous effect. Tena remained the Nats’ usual third baseman through the end of the season, but he got increasing time at second base in the closing days of the campaign — perhaps a concession by the Nats that Tena’s future role is likelier to be as a utilityman than an everyday third baseman, perhaps as a desperate measure to stave off more losses.
While Tena remains a work in progress at third base, and he went cold to end the season and drop his OPS to .668, he showed himself to be an intriguing young player worthy of consideration for a longer-term role. Improved plate discipline and more fielding practice ought to be key for Tena to develop into a quality major leaguer and keep him from being an up-and-down roster filler. He should have a chance to earn a spot on the 2025 roster next spring.
Lane Thomas: B
From the time he joined the Nats after being traded from the Cardinals in 2021, Lane Thomas had been the Nats’ best player. But in 2024, Thomas started the year ice-cold, scuffling to an uncharacteristic .184/.503 slash line before hitting the injured list in late April with a knee strain.
When Thomas returned around Memorial Day, he looked much more like his regular self. He slashed .282/.833 the rest of the way, building up enough trade value for the Nats to flip him to the Guardians for a three-player package that included one of Cleveland’s top pitching prospects, Alex Clemmey, and MLB-ready utilityman José Tena, soon to become the Nats’ everyday third baseman. (Tena proceeded to outhit Thomas down the stretch after he was called up, although the veteran has certainly come alive for the Guards in the postseason.)
Overall, Thomas’ season numbers are among the lowest of his career, but he was still a slightly above-average hitter, especially during his time with the Nats. Perhaps due to his knee, he struggled more on the basepaths than usual, being caught a career-high twelve times in 40 attempts as a National; perhaps for the same reason, he struggled in the outfield, amassing -7 OAA across his entire season. At any rate, Thomas did his job for the Nats in 2024, and we hope the trade continues to work out well for both sides (but especially for the Nats).
Ildemaro Vargas: D+
Despite his chipper personality, Vargas had one of the Nats’ least memorable seasons. The light-hitting utilityman had his worst season at the plate since he joined the Nats in 2022, with an eminently forgettable .611 OPS and just one home run despite making a career-high 303 plate appearances.
As usual, Vargas played wherever the Nats needed him, making appearances at six fielding positions (including two emergency pitching appearances) and doing a passable if not exceptional job at all of them. Vargas was one of few constants in the infield mix, as the Nats cycled through first and third basemen all season long. Tellingly, though, he never got a serious amount of run as an everyday player at any position, only rarely starting back-to-back games at the same spot and ceding more and more playing time to younger players down the stretch.
Vargas seemed to share the “clutch gene” with Joey Meneses this year, as he was at his best with runners in scoring position and similarly inept with the bases loaded. But as with Meneses, when a hitter has little power, even delivering in scoring opportunities is of limited value. The Nats can and should look for opportunities to upgrade this spot on the bench this winter and next spring.
Jesse Winker: A
Perhaps the Nats’ best all-around hitter of the season, Winker slashed a very respectable .257/.793 across 101 games before being shipped to the Mets at the trade deadline. This was a fantastic outcome for Washington, given Winker came to D.C. on a minor league deal after a poor, injury-riddled 2023 with the Brewers and a mediocre 2022 with the Mariners.
Winker played an adequate left field for the Nats while powering their offense, especially during the first half. Winker was a consistent force in a lineup stacked with streaky hitters. He also provided surprising value on the basepaths. Despite having never stolen more than a single base in a season prior to 2024, Winker ripped fourteen bags for the Nats in eighteen attempts. And while Winker’s reputation around MLB is a mixed bag — most recently, he made headlines by telling reporters he’ll “hate the city of Milwaukee forever” after his frustrating 2023 season there, and he was reportedly unpopular with teammates, coaches, and beat reporters during his time in Seattle — he was well-liked by Nats fans, and there were no reports of him causing issues in the clubhouse while he was in Washington.
The Nats were certainly a better, more enjoyable team to watch before they traded him — and that’s just the way it goes at the trade deadline. For fans who still miss Uncle Jesse, they can watch him with the Mets this October.
James Wood: A-
It was a long, frustrating wait for Wood to make his MLB debut.
It was clear from the start of the Triple-A season that Wood was far too advanced for the level, but the Nats held him down, determined to secure an extra year of control (while publicly insisting Wood would come up when he was “ready”). An injury while he was treading water at Triple-A slightly delayed his debut further, but the Nats finally called him up in early July.
Wood instantly displayed why he was the consensus top prospect in baseball at the time. In just his sixth professional game, he drove in five runs — three of them on his first career homer. He navigated his first cold streak as a major leaguer later that month, reemerging to slash .302/.886 in August. He logged his first career multi-homer game in mid-September, then came a double shy of hitting for the cycle a couple weeks later. It was an impressive rookie year, culminating in a .264/.781 slash line (122 OPS+). Wood’s 92.8 mph average exit velocity also ranked among the best in MLB.
There’s still room for improvement, of course. Wood struck out too much, about 29% of the time. He often appeared tentative or indecisive in left field, with a -6 OAA and four errors in 79 games. His baserunning needs work, as he was thrown out in eight of 22 stolen-base attempts. Blemishes are to be expected, however, and for a rookie who just turned 22 last month, a season like this is one to celebrate. Wood entered 2024 with a lot of “future superstar” buzz, and you can expect to hear that buzz grow even louder as we move on to 2025.
Juan Yepez: A-
Once a highly touted prospect in St. Louis, Yepez struggled badly in 2023 coming off a respectable rookie season. The Nats took a flier and signed Yepez to a minor league contract this past winter after the Cardinals cut him loose.
While Yepez didn’t make the Opening Day roster, he worked hard at Triple-A to earn the opportunity when the Nats finally decided to move on from Joey Meneses. Called up in early July, Yepez immediately made an impact, going on a fifteen-game hitting streak to begin his Nats tenure — a team record. While he couldn’t quite sustain that incandescent July, he remained a capable hitter, usually batting in the middle of the order, through the end of the season — although he increasingly had to share playing time with Andrés Chaparro and Joey Gallo. Ultimately, Yepez finished the year with a .283/.764 slash line — above league average, and certainly above expectations for a player who was signed to drive in runs for the Rochester Red Wings, more so than for the Washington Nationals. Yepez never did hit for as much power as Gallo or even Chaparro, but he got on base more reliably, giving him a better chance to contribute in any given game than the more one-dimensional sluggers on the squad.
Yepez will turn 27 during spring training 2025, which he figures to enter as the presumptive favorite for a 1B/DH spot in the lineup. The Nats could push him to a complementary role with a big offseason acquisition or two; while Yepez was a solid performer overall, that might suit him best, as he had modest platoon splits in 2024 (.738 OPS versus right-handed pitching, .812 OPS versus lefties).
Their bigger concern might be ensuring Yepez doesn’t play first base every day. Shorter and stockier than Gallo, Yepez was a noticeable downgrade at the position. He was responsible for at least a few of the errors charged to José Tena, CJ Abrams, and Nasim Nuñez in the second half, as he was unable to handle slightly off-target throws that a more adept first baseman would have reeled in without much difficulty. Yes, defense matters.
Jacob Young: A-
Did someone say “defense matters”?
Young enters the offseason as the betting favorite to win his first Gold Glove Award. Despite committing eight errors at center field — half of those coming in the last two months of the season — Young paced the competition with his outstanding range and consistent willingness to sell out for spectacular catches. Young is tied for first among all fielders with 20 OAA; the four closest outfielders are knotted at 16 OAA.
On offense, Young was more of a mixed bag. Never expected to hit for much power, he did manage his first three career home runs in 2024, along with 24 doubles and one triple. His .256/.648 slash line was effectively identical to his results over a smaller sample size in 2023, although his walk rate dipped slightly and his strikeout rate ticked up. Young stayed within himself at the plate, rarely trying to do too much with the bat. He used his speed to beat out 26 infield hits, third-most in the National League. He also handily led the Nats in sacrifice bunts, with nine, and he led the team in stolen bases, with 33, although he was caught ten times.
Young is never going to be an offensive star; to wit, he batted ninth in 103 games this season. But he worked with, rather than against, his hitting profile this year. He held his own more than well enough to justify the job he earned early in the season as the Nats’ everyday center fielder. Whether the Nats continue to play Young every day in 2025 or move him into more of a reserve role, he’s a useful player to have on the team. By both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference’s reckoning, in fact, Young was the second-most valuable player on the 2024 Nationals. Who could have seen that coming?
