Going Deep with The Nats

Nationals Park’s construction was completed in 2008 at a cost of $611 in public funds that would be paid back in lease payments by the team as well as taxes. Yesterday, the D.C. Council advanced legislation in negotiations with Ted Leonsis of Monument Sports & Entertainment (MSE), which operates the Wizards, Capitals, and other teams at Capital One Arena, for $515 million in public funds for a major renovation of the arena. Leonis was seeking $600 million per reports. WHAT?!? That arena exists. What could cost $515 million for a 20,000 seat arena that is less than half the size of Nationals Park? Is it being clad in gold bricks? The Nats have had to beg for upgrades on a stadium that is owned by D.C. and after 16 years finally got state-of-the-art lighting and an LED scoreboard.

As the Washington Nationals will celebrate their upcoming 20th season, the team’s two home stadiums during their existence have generically gone from RFK Stadium to Nationals Park without any lucrative naming right’s sponsor. One sleeve of the Nationals’ jerseys continues to be a vacant lot without taking advantage of a very lucrative jersey patch sponsorship deal.

While many hate corporate greed, and think all of these sponsorships are induced by greed, Gordon Gekko will remind you that greed is good. The Nationals are the only team in baseball without at least one of those stadium/patch sponsorships in place. This isn’t greed — this is Business 101.

Most analytical observers of the Washington Nationals had their doubts about Kyle Finnegan as the team’s closer. But few expected him to be gone at the non-tender deadline. Obviously the motivation went back to his Dollar/WAR. MLB Trade Rumors thought Finnegan would get $8.6 million at an arbitration hearing, and the Nats, per TalkNats sources, said that the team would not tender him a contract without an agreed upon contract in place. That did not happen and Finnegan became a free agent on Friday night.

FanGraphs, today, has Finnegan at a modest 0.3 WAR, and Tanner Rainey, who was also non-tendered, is at a -0.3 WAR. With both gone, the Nats win projection from FanGraphs is still at 75 wins (a .461 win mark). Of note, there are 29 free agent relievers projected at a 0.3 WAR, and 21 at 0.4 or above. Most of those relievers have closing experience. By default, on the Nationals’ roster, Jose A. Ferrer would be the current player as the placeholder as the closer.

The process of trying to assess values of players into the future is far from an exact science. Some do not like the WAR formula; however, it appears to be the best comparative indicator we have for values. You could certainly agree, or disagree, with certain players projections in their modeling.

We asked AI how the Washington Nationals could find success in 2025 with spending to league average in free agency. TalkNats suggests that the Washington Nationals have several key components and decisions to make that could lead to success in the 2025 season.