Going Deep with The Nats

On Christmas, we are taught to believe. The angelic benediction on this day is supposed to refer to everyone’s good will towards humanity. Love each other. May these times bring peace and happiness. Sure, you are here to talk baseball. Believe. That’s all we can do in situations we cannot control.

Every offseason we debate which team had the best roster in Washington Nationals history. Most would say 2015-to-2018 had the best rosters. Yet, none them won a World Series like that 2019 team. A group of humans who believed in each other more than others did. Their time was angelic. Going from a 19-31 record to a Wild Card berth then hitting a sprinkler head in that Wild Card game were modern miracles. In baseball terms, they were miracles of biblical proportions like David beating Goliath, and Jesus stretching a board that was short for his carpentry.

You would think the Los Angeles Dodgers would be the odds-on favorite for the best record in baseball — but not so fast. Even with three former MVPs on their roster plus the addition of the 25 year old, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to add to the abundance of riches with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, FanGraphs still has the Dodgers at 4.4 wins behind the Atlanta Braves. On paper, the younger team from Atlanta still is loved by the computers. But there is a reason we play the games — and a ticket to see the Dodgers will be the hottest ticket in baseball.

Start the countdown. We are 11 days from the calendar turning to the year 2024, and 99 days until the Washington Nationals play in Cincinnati for Opening Day. But what about the roster? It just feels like it is missing the two most important additions that both manager Dave Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo said that the team needed to add this offseason in a starting pitcher, and big middle of the order bat.

All signs point to a sudden truce between the MASN owners after the lawsuits came to a conclusion in favor of the Washington Nationals. While neither side was happy with the final numbers — they seemed to meet in the middle based on the RSDC valuations. But is there any other reason that John Angelos, the CEO of MASN, wanted to settle quickly this time? His baseball team has been rumored to be for sale — which he denied — but what about selling MASN to a third party?

Get ready for four-days of top prospect baseball when all teams will showcase top prospect games with the inaugural SPRING BREAKOUT held from March 14-17 at Grapefruit and Cactus league stadiums. The Washington Nationals and New York Mets Spring Breakout game will be played on March 15 in a Friday afternoon showcase game at 3:10 PM EDT that is part of a doubleheader with a regular big league game.

The “Spring Breakout” game, which is a new concept this year, fields rosters of team’s future stars for a showcase in the middle of the Spring Training schedule. Teams are paired against nearby teams in the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues, and the Nats prospects will travel to face the Mets at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie.

The Washington Nationals have made three acquisitions with reliever Dylan Floro, former top prospect, Nick Senzel, and a Rule-5 pick of Nasim Nuñez. Floro and Nuñez’s roles were easily defined quickly — but there was much doubt on the 28 year old infielder/outfielder who was non-tendered by the Reds … until he spoke to the media yesterday.

Most of these MLB free agents are already millionaires many times over. Those who invested their money properly and have good financial planning will not have to worry about putting food on their table — ever. Of course some free agents need the work, and others have the strategy of knowing they are in high demand and believe the economics of scarcity will drive up their price — based simply on supply and demand in a finite market of limited assets. These assets are so limited that their wealthy buyers have blurred lines of the underlying auction as if they are bidding on one of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings which would make Shohei Ohtani the Mona Lisa.

When a general manager speaks about not blocking prospects versus a manager’s desire for competition for roster spots, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Mike Rizzo, the Washington Nationals’ President of Baseball Operations, gave several interviews at the Winter Meetings earlier this week in Nashville, and a key point is that he was not going to make a free agent acquisition that would block a top prospect. But he has been clear in the past that he has no problem promoting prospects, even as teenagers, if they prove to be ready which would give his manager a better roster without regard to service time manipulation that many teams partake in.