Most teams want to deliver the good news before it happens. That is how you excite the fan base and sell more season ticket packages for the upcoming season. A very common practice for many teams is creating a positive brand image. I think that is a key part of marketing. Maybe the Lerner ownership group and their C-Suite generals are not aware of that.
The Washington Nationals seem to always play it safe and never want to over-promise and then under-perform. You want to spend the offseason on positivity when you know you are building to win. That excites your fans, advertisers, and potential new customers. Plus you have a chance to win back previous customers.
The Orioles did that when Orioles General Manager, Mike Elias, said that his team was going to “significantly escalate” payroll for the 2023 season. That never really happened. Was he lying? All they did was minimal bottom feeder acquisitions and essentially swapped out Kyle Gibson for Jordan Lyles. They went into that season with the second lowest payroll in baseball. The team did increase payroll last year marginally after the change in ownership. Once the Orioles were quickly knocked out of the 2024 postseason, they were signaling increased spending for the 2025 season, immediately. They didn’t want to talk about the bad news of being knocked out of the playoffs — they wanted to dangle the future in front of the fans. Clever. Change the thinking as you are raising season ticket prices.
All of the words from general manager Mike Rizzo point to increased spending by the Nationals, but they won’t say those words specifically. Instead we just know that Riz wants to pitching and add middle-of-the-order bats. Clearly that costs a lot of money if you add legitimate star player(s) to the roster.
So why not just spell it out a little clearer? Tell us the offseason plans as far as spending. We want to hear those words. In the past, principal owner Mark Lerner has said that they will get Rizzo whatever he needs. That almost feels uncomfortable and non-committal. But the Lerners have said that in years when they were breaking the bank. This is their M.O. of doing business. Never wanting to give too much away. Basically, the outside world finds out when the deal is almost done.
We don’t even know their true feelings on Juan Soto‘s free agency. They had to pry it out of Rizzo to find out that he indeed had talked to Soto’s agent about him. Prior to that the Nats were not formally linked to Soto. When Max Scherzer was the No. 1 free agent prior to the 2015 season, the Nats were not tied to him at all. The Lerners cut the biggest deal in baseball history at the time for a pitcher at $30 million a year for 7-years. Of course they want Soto, but so do several other teams.
When the postseason wraps up, the Nationals just need to be much better on paper than last year’s team that won 71 games. Energize us. Get use excited. We just want you to promise and deliver on the promise.
