As they say, you might not like the process in how the sausage is made, and that has a parallel to how a roster is built. The behind-the-scenes process isn’t pretty. So let’s deal with some facts and not the same tired fiction to fit the narrative that gets tagged on the Washington Nationals that they don’t spend money. What am I talking about? It is the daily grind in the social media that the Nationals haven’t spent any money this offseason. Just a flat out bunch of BS. The team has already committed $37.7 million so far on player acquisitions for the 2025 payroll. It doesn’t take but a few minutes to add up the numbers, but why do the work when you can keyboard smash the old tired narrative.
On that $37.7 million number, the only variable is Nathaniel Lowe‘s actual salary which will be set at either $10.3 million or $11.1 million if he goes to an arbitration hearing or somewhere in-between if they settle before that point on a number. That number might be $38.1 million or $37.4 million. By the way, MLB Trade Rumors had Lowe’s number at $10.4 million for their arb projection.
So we used a $10.7MM average number for Lowe to arrive at our $37.7 million number, and added Mike Soroka $9MM, Trevor Williams $7.0MM, Josh Bell $6.0MM, Jorge Lopez $3.0MM plus incentives, and Amed Rosario at $2.0MM. That total is more than 18 teams have committed in new payroll. The Nats also tried to acquire Gleyber Torres per sources at $17MM showing they were trying to spend even more money which makes me believe the budget is probably much higher than the $37.7 million committed so far.
Just more ridiculous writing from this new Sports Illustrated group that has been known to pump out AI articles for clicks. That negativity will get you some clicks, and certain social media accounts are hammering the point.
Sure, you could say well the team had a lot of payroll come off the books when Patrick Corbin‘s $23.3 million contract came off of the books — and that is true. But point is, they didn’t pocket that money. The team did spend and might spend more. What you don’t know is the players Rizzo tried to sign that might have signed elsewhere. Now if you want a different discussion, the team spent $131 million on Opening Day last year and are currently at $124.5 million. So in total, they haven’t surpassed that number, but again, if trying to get Torres was accurate as reported by Jon Heyman and others including our sources, it shows the Nationals have tried to spend more money.
What we can debate is how the money was spent and was it a successful offseason. But the offseason is not over, and that is why this all still feels a little premature with literally over 145 free agents with MLB experience still unsigned, and over a dozen ranked on the Top-50 list of free agents still available plus two top-10 free agents unsigned in Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso.
“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.”
— manager Dave Martinez said at the Winter Meetings in early December
“We’re definitely looking for some
power bats at both corner spots, maybe a DH spot. We’ll see what transpires.”
Goals set by Martinez made the most sense in the needs. Looking at where the roster is today, it is all about the two spots left to fix which is third base and getting that final hi lev reliever. But also we can debate how the budget was spent by general manager Mike Rizzo. You could then revisit this after all is said and done whether these were the right moves.
For me, I like three moves of Lowe, Williams, and Lopez as first base, and fifth starter, and a back-end reliever were all greatly needed. But to me, third base was always a priority too. I would have saved the other $17MM from Soroka, Bell, and Rosario and spent it towards Bregman or Anthony Santander. I am quality over quantity. That’s my frustration that Rizzo had a budget and spent a lot of money where he already had that production within the current roster.
Let me explain that and why I thought adding Soroka if you knew you could get Williams to add back with MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin, D.J. Herz, and Mitchell Parker was $9 million to spend elsewhere. With Soroka, that is six starters plus you have Cade Cavalli to make seven and more depth behind him. And instead of Bell at DH you have Jose Tena, Andres Chaparro, and Juan Yepez.
But I hope Rizzo is right and I am wrong. That $17MM is part of the equation that IMHO should have been spent towards either Bregman or Santander to move the win total up further and excite the fan base. While Bregman’s cost, of course, will be more than $17MM, that’s where you hope the budget was to spend $45MM to $50MM. But if the budget was $40MM, you still could have had Santander who signed for just over $19 million.
Now if you are upset that the team hasn’t made any long-term commitments beyond Keibert Ruiz, perhaps that is a good thing. With no long-term commitments there is no chance of long-term mistakes or big money tied up. But some of the best players are attached to long-term deals.
So point is, this farce that they didn’t spend. The debate is how Rizzo spent it. and whether he met all of the offseason goals. Again, a key point: THE OFFSEASON IS NOT OVER!
Let’s give credit to Rizzo for improving the 2025 roster over the 2024 roster. FanGraphs sees this Nats team as winning 76-wins on paper. The question is at this point, did Rizzo go far enough?
But not everyone is impressed, Rizzo received a below average mid-offseason grade of “C-” from ESPN’s David Schoenfield a week ago. And he writes, “One thing to do: Barring a surprise move for Bregman, probably just add some bullpen depth.” To me, there are two more things to do: You must upgrade third base and especially in defense and a competent bat, and yes, add another hi lev back of the bullpen guy.
My grade is a C+. I think it is slightly above average, even though my roster would have looked different on the same budget. Schoenfield and I agree that the Bell move as a DH missed the mark. Spending for the sake of spending as it looked to me for Bell and Rosario and another starting pitcher could have been spent on more wins by shooting higher.
