Going Deep with The Nats

Rizzo spent $40 million so far on new acquisitions, but why didn’t he spend some of that on a top free agent?

Was it all about the money — or was it about how the money was spent? Another local writer questioned why the Washington Nationals did not sign a big free agent. We will discuss this in detail.

So why didn’t the Nats sign a top free agent? If you believe general manager Mike Rizzo, he decided not to sign players with QOs attached to them as well as he made the point that they did not block any prospects. He knew what his budget was in early December. We don’t know that exact number — but suffice it to say that it was at least $40 million because that is what has been spent, so far, on new additions to the roster.

On August 6 of last season, Luis Garcia Jr. captured the lead in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) for position players on the Washington Nationals roster. That was a positive impact from Garcia who was demoted a year before in that same week when he was sent to Triple-A Rochester — and was not a lock to make the Nats’ Opening Day roster in 2024. Not only did Garcia come into training camp in great shape, his defense was markedly improved and rated third best on the team.

Times flies when you’re having fun. Are you? Fans of the Washington Nationals are still probably a little unsettled at this point in the offseason. Building a roster is tedious work for a team trying to transition out of a rebuild. There still seems to be unfilled needs on the roster. Two weeks from today, the offseason officially ends as the team opens up their 2025 Spring Training camp at the Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches .

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. 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.

The calendar is 9-days from turning to February, and you can almost smell the green grass being freshly mowed at the Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches . Yes, three weeks from today marks the opening of Spring Training camp to pitchers and catchers on Feb. 12 for the Washington Nationals.

The comments from the previous TalkNats article contained an interesting discussion regarding whether MLB was broken. Looking forward to the next CBA, is a Cap/Floor needed? Here’s my 2cents: ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY YES. MLB Trade Rumors did a poll on this subject with over 35,000 votes.

The issue is, how does MLB and the MLBPA get there? MLB likely wants a salary cap ceiling; the MLBPA does not. MLBPA likely wants a salary floor; MLB does not.