Still a work in progress
The Nationals will be better in 2025, but don't expect miracles
Associated Press photo
Thanks to Jayden Daniels and Alex Ovechkin — the youngest and oldest sports superstars in D.C. — expectations for the 2025 Washington Nationals are probably higher than they should be.
If a rookie quarterback can lift a moribund football franchise to the NFC title game for the first time in 33 years and a 39-year-old veteran can threaten to simultaneously catch Wayne Gretzky and win a Presidents’ Trophy, why can’t a talented, rebuilding baseball team make some serious noise in the National League?
And the opening of spring training is a time for optimism, especially when it’s warm in Florida and snowy inside the Beltway.
Ah. but if baseball teaches us anything — and for some people, it doesn’t — it’s that patience is necessary. Unless you’re Juan Soto or Bryce Harper (two instant stars Washington let get away), success doesn’t come overnight.
Given the circumstances he’s had to work with, general manager Mike Rizzo has done an admirable job in rebuilding a team that took a steep nosedive after winning the 2019 World Series. Through mostly shrewd trades and drafting, he’s overhauled his roster with promising young players who should, in time, develop into an annual contender in the same way the Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles have. He’s also got the No. 1 pick in this summer’s draft in his pocket to add another building block.
Far be it from me to squelch enthusiasm, but all that said, a 2025 playoff spot seems an overly ambitious goal, given the Nationals’ youth and their high-rent neighborhood.
They share the NL East with three teams that rank among Major League Baseball’s eight highest payrolls. That includes the Mets, who are No. 1 at $321 million, according to SPOTRAC, and will pay Soto $51 million, or close to two-thirds of Washington’s total projected payroll of $84 million. (And roughly a quarter of the Nats’ total goes to Stephen Strasburg, who won’t pitch again.)
The Phillies, with former Nats Harper and Trea Turner in their primes, rank third ($279 million), and the Braves are eighth at $199 million. Atlanta gets unanimous 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuna and former 20-game winner Spencer Strider back from injuries that curtailed their 2024 season and ended the Braves’ streak of six straight division titles.
That’s fast company for any team, especially one that will rely so heavily on youth.
Washington fans got a taste of the future late last summer, when outfielders James Wood and Dylan Crews got their callups. This spring, Brady House hopes to win the third base job, and young pitchers MacKenzie Gore, DJ Herz, Cade Cavalli and Mitchell Parker will try to continue their progression.
But it won’t be linear, and the Nationals will surely absorb some lumps (and losses). They’ll need to regain trust in All-Star shortstop CJ Abrams, who was suspended near the end of last season for staying out all night before one of the final games.
Whether by design or necessity, Rizzo was not very active this winter, trading for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and bringing back DH Josh Bell as a free agent. The goal is to give his young players a chance to succeed, fail and learn at the big-league level.
That plan is likely to bear more fruit in 2026 than in ’25. So if you’re a fan, try not to equate Wood with Daniels or Crews with Terry McLaurin. Good things take time.