As we begin the 20th season of Nationals baseball, the team will celebrate the top moments is finally here after a very long offseason and Spring Training that spanned 179 long days filled with lots of daily chatter. Now we are here. What began with the humble beginnings at RFK Stadium in 2005 to this 17th year at Nationals Park, a stadium that could have a new name mid-season, it seems like we have lived through a lot in those 20 years of history. Today is Opening Day, and with it comes the pomp and circumstance of a big day.
The final roster has basically been set. There had been plenty of leaks with surprises to the Nationals’ Opening Day roster. There was also the news we broke yesterday on DJ Herz‘s injured elbow as well as news that Jackson Rutledge was not going to make the Opening Day roster. Others broke news that told us that Brad Lord will make his first MLB roster, and we saw news that Juan Yepez was not going to make the roster. All of this was confirmed in a Press Release by the Nationals in the late afternoon with Herz going on the 60-day IL which freed up a roster spot for Lord.
Here is the Opening Day roster:
Starting Pitchers
- MacKenzie Gore LHP
- Jake Irvin RHP
- Mitchell Parker LHP
- Michael Soroka RHP
- Trevor Williams RHP
Relievers
- Jose A. Ferrer
- Kyle Finnegan
- Jorge Lopez
- Brad Lord
- Colin Poche
- Orlando Ribalta
- Eduardo Salazar
- Lucas Sims
Lineup from Monday
- CJ Abrams SS LH
- Dylan Crews RF RH
- James Wood LF LH
- Josh Bell DH SH
- Paul DeJong 3B RH
- Nathaniel Lowe 1B LH
- Keibert Ruiz C SH
- Luis Garcia Jr. 2B LH
- Jacob Young CF RH
Bench
- Riley Adams C RH
- Alex Call OF RH
- Amed Rosario UT RH
- Jose Tena IF LH
Starter MacKenzie Gore gets his first Opening Day honor to start the game, and on the opposite side is Zack Wheeler for the Phillies. While the Nats look to be one of the youngest teams in baseball, it is the opposite with the Phillies.
Here are some pre-game highlights for Opening Day that begins with the Budweiser Clydesdales as they will be riding around the Navy Yard neighborhood starting at 1:15 p.m. before pulling up to the Center Field Gates at Nationals Park from 1:45 to 2:00 p.m. The D.C. Fire Department will have an oversized American flag hung by two hook-and-ladders in front of the gates on Half St.
Ballpark gates open at 2:00 p.m., and the first 20,000 fans will receive an Opening Day “Next Gen Natitude” T-shirt. Fans are encouraged to be in their seats by 3:15 p.m. to enjoy the pregame ceremonies. For more information on Opening Day and to purchase tickets, visit Nats.com/OpeningDay.
The teams will introduce their 2025 Opening Day rosters, and the Nationals’ players are supposed to enter through a human tunnel formed by 150 of the original Season Plan Holders since 2005. Think about that for a second — and I have the honor of being one of them and will be on the field for this.
Another great honor will be given to Thomas Boswell, who just got elected to the Hall of Fame as a writer, and he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Boswell, now technically retired as a columnist at The Washington Post, was named the 2025 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. He does occasionally write a few articles a year even though he is retired.
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. is slated to perform “America the Beautiful” and then a special banner display presented by the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy Scholar-Athletes as a giant American flag is unfurled in center field before what has almost become a tradition that D.C. Washington sings the national anthem, followed by a flyover by four F-16 jets from the 121st Fighter Squadron, DC Air National Guard. There will then be a recognition of local first responders from the tragic passenger airplane and helicopter collision that occurred near Ronald Reagan Washington National in January.
D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser will get the honor to scream out ‘Play Ball’ from atop the Nationals home dugout. She is the seventh elected mayor of Washington, D.C. and Bowser has served her hometown in office since 2004 and as Mayor since 2015. On November 8, 2022, she became only the second person elected three times as Mayor of Washington, D.C.
There will be sightings of politicians and local celebrities, and this year the team will recognize local athlete, wrestling star and actor, Dave Bautista before the game. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1969, he is often seen attending games at Nationals Park.
On the concourse there will be:
- Live music
- Caricature artists
- Face painters
- Photo ops
Some would say, there is nothing like Opening Day, but you would expect manager Dave Martinez to say there is nothing like winning a World Series.
“This year, Spring Training was a little bit different because the [players] all seemed like they came with one idea, and that’s to win.”
— Martinez said
“All this stuff about, ‘We’re coming, we’re coming,’ and they don’t want to hear that no more. They want to go out there — and try to win, and that’s exciting.”
You would have hoped the schedule makers could have had an easy out-of-the-gate start to the season for the Nats. It is the opposite. The Nats first three National League opponents happen to be the last three NL World Series teams in order, going from Philadelphia (2022) to Arizona (2023) to the Los Angeles Dodgers (2024). The Nats do get to travel to the Toronto Blue Jays for their first American League series for three games starting on Monday then return to Nats Park to face the Diamondbacks and Dodgers.
The key for the Nationals should be a “fast start” in the win column compared to the years of slow Aprils at the start of Martinez’s run as manager seven years ago. Under Martinez, the team has never had a winning record on April 30, and hopefully this year changes that. In 2018, with a stacked roster, the team was 13-16, and you all remember 2019’s 12-16 record. Of course there was no April baseball in 2020. In 2021, the team was 10-12 at the end of April, and in 2022 Martinez’s team was a poor 7-16. Obviously you know that 2023 was 10-17. What might surprise many is Martinez’s best record at April 30 was last year at 14-15. That team was actually over .500 on May 7th. All combined, the Martinez record on April 30 is 56-80.
“I still believe our young players are the key to our success. We did add some veteran guys. We added some guys in the middle of our lineup we think could help drive in some runs. But I think our core young players, the kids, are really going to get us to where we need to be.”
— Martinez said
There is Davey the optimist. Always trying to look to the bright side. Get your team believing in themselves and ride of wave of success. You have to start somewhere, and the theme in Spring Training from general manager Mike Rizzo and down was that the team believed they were coming out of this rebuild. The proof will be in the record.
You generally get judged in hindsight. If last year’s May 7th record held for the full season, that would have changed a lot. The benefit of another losing season turned out to be the Nats securing the No. 1 draft pick coming up in mid-July. But hopefully this is the last time for a while that the Nats are vying for Top-10 picks.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 4:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app; In Spanish on DC 87.7 FM and La Pantera 100.7 FM/1220 AM. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 177 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
