Most baseball fans across the country are wishing for a big signing today. Nats fans remember nine years ago when rumors broke that the Washington Nationals were signing Daniel Murphy. Christmas Eve signings don’t happen often, but you can certainly hope for a Christmas miracle.
Fortunately for Nats fans, there was a collective exhale this weekend when news broke that the Nationals had acquired their first baseman in Nathaniel Lowe. A few days before that, it was pitcher Michael Soroka. The Nationals just committed to about $20 million in new salaries for the 2025 season. But we know there is more work to be done.
When manager Dave Martinez was at the Winter Meetings in early December, he let it be known that he was looking for both corner infielders to be upgraded. Obviously Lowe solves the first base corner. The third base corner is still a TBD unless you think top prospect Brady House is the mid-season answer, and you stick with Jose Tena to start the 2025 season at the hot corner. The issue with Tena is that he is unproven, and his defense was a major issue in the short time he was with the team in 2024.
“We’re definitely looking for corner [infield] guys, we really are. We need to fill that first base void. … Like I said, we’ve got our feelers out. We’re talking to a lot of different guys. We’ll see what transpires.”
— Martinez said at the Winter Meetings
“We’re definitely looking for some
power bats at both corner spots, maybe a DH spot. We’ll see what transpires.”
“We’re here. We’re looking. We’re searching. I know we’d like to add a couple more bullpen arms. We’ll see what comes up.”
Fortunately for general manager Mike Rizzo, there were many first basemen available on the market, and he pulled off a clever trade for Lowe while giving up a reliever, Robert Garcia, who Rizzo acquired as a freebie waiver claim. He gave up no top prospects to make that deal.
By trading Garcia, after acquiring the unproven Evan Reifert as a Rule-5 signing, Rizzo really needs proven arms at the back of his bullpen. Several bullpen arms are still available including the non-tendered Kyle Finnegan.
A peek at Rizzo’s Christmas shopping list is two bullpen arms, a third baseman, a DH, a partridge in a pear tree, and five gold rings. Knowing that Riz likes cigars, maybe throw in a box of Garcia & Garcia Judge Grand Robustos. That cigar was just named the cigar of the year by Cigar Aficionado magazine. You deserve a great cigar when you have a great offseason. Rizzo already secured the No. 1 draft pick in the draft lottery making it pretty, pretty good, so far, but far from great.
With the CBT payroll currently at $111 million, the rest of the equation is how much more can Rizzo spend and who will want to say yes? Per our sources, the Nats were “in” on first baseman Christian Walker, and he decided to go to Houston. What we don’t know is how deep the Nats were “in” on Walker. They got a much younger Lowe for about $10 million less, and the stats are very similar.
Comparing Lowe to Walker has to start with the unknown of any possible age regression by Walker and the contract cost. Lowe is still in his prime. He had the slight edge in WAR and their OPS+ was almost identical. Lowe is a lefty batter, and Walker is a righty batter. Lowe is 4 years and 3 months younger. And don’t forget, Walker had an oblique injury in the 2024 season.
The best remaining non-pitching free agent remaining is Alex Bregman. If he were to be acquired by the Nationals, he almost singularly would take the Nats from a 75-win team to the edge of an 80-win team. Yes, FanGraphs projects the Nationals as a 75-win team today for the 2025 season.
In Bregman’s final 62 games in 2024, he smashed 17 home runs with an .857 OPS. He was en fuego from July 5th on. He had a poor start to his season and rumor had it that he was playing through an injury. He won a Gold Glove this year, and that is what the Nats need at the hot corner. We all know that he has deep familial ties to Washington, D.C. and recently attended a Washington Commanders game in D.C. His leadership ties to Nats’ players has been detailed, and to his current team, it was reiterated by his agent this week in harsh words towards the Astros,
“Over time, teams learn if you’re running from leadership and talent, you’re running from the ultimate goal.”
But with Scott Boras as his agent, the asking price is very high on Bregman. He also turns 31 years old a few days after Opening Day. Do you really want to be paying Bregman $30 million in the year 2031 when he is 37?
There are some very good defensive third baseman free agents that could fit as a stop-gap to House. Both Paul DeJong and Josh Rojas are 30ish years old, and glove first guys. DeJong has the power, and Rojas gets on-base. DeJong strikes-out a lot, and Rojas makes contact. Rojas is a left-handed batter which could be a good complement to House’s right-handed bat. But if Rizzo wants power with a glove, the right-handed DeJong gives you both. If you go by WAR, Rojas is the better player.
If you went with DeJong or Rojas, does that give you the option to spend big on a primary DH? You have the switch-hitting Santander available, and in fairness, let’s include Pete Alonso in the comparison for s##ts and giggles.
There’s the beef. There’s the power. Will principal owner Mark Lerner greenlight any of these acquisitions from the remaining Top-10 free agents? They all have qualifying offer penalties attached to them. Bregman clearly brings the full package with him, and Santander brings the best power bat of all of the free agents.
This is where we are at leading up to Christmas Eve and Hanukkah. Whatever you are celebrating, have a great Holiday Season!
