by Stan4Nats
by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears
In most years, Mike Rizzo, the President of Baseball Operations and General Manager of the Washington Nationals, likes to have all of his offseason business finalized before he meets with season plan holders to give his Hot Stove speech at the State of the Nationals event. This year, that date is January 25th .
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The wait to get to January 15 marks the date that the Nats will announce their newest international free agency class led by two Venezuelan players, shortstop Brayan Cortesia, and catcher Daniel Hernandez. Official signing lists can get announced at 11am on Jan. 15.
Per @francysromeroFR rankings (h/t to Wadlez), Cortesia and Hernandez ranked at №7 and №13 respectively. Cortesia has speed and only turned 17 in November. His tools should get even better with his 6.4 speed in the 60, and his above average defense and arm. Hernandez is considered a strong offensive player with solid defensive skills at catcher. Could he be the next Wilson Ramos? Romero and FanGraphs have Hernandez ranked as the best catcher in this international class. Baseball America does their rankings based on bonus dollars paid, and FanGraphs ranks the prospects on Future Value (FV).
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When the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005, Canada’s teams decreased by 50 percent. The Canadian love of baseball; however, is still alive and well. Maybe even enough to get a new team in Montreal when MLB expands to 32 teams.
In 2024, the MLB witnessed a high growth in fan engagement as attendance peaked over seven years, with more than 71 million fans, up 1 percent compared to 2023. The Washington Nationals are no exception. League initiatives to cut down game times and add more action helped boost attendance by 13 percent on weekdays compared to 2022.
Baseball is reaching younger audiences more, as evidenced by double-digit percentage increases in the 18-34 age group through significant networks. This demographic shift in their favor comes with a Nationals team geared towards the arrival of young talents with James Wood and Dylan Crews and a young starting rotation. Getting closer is Brady House and maybe even Robert Hassell III. For this reason, the Nationals should be in their window to compete for contention.
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Can you believe that 10-years ago this week, that the rumors broke that the Washington Nationals were signing Max Scherzer. There are so many parallels to Alex Bregman that I feel that if Ted Lerner was still running the team that he would make that move in an instant to acquire Bregman. Maybe that would be more of a Jayson Werth type of signing. Those three players have a few common traits: Leaders, Achievers, Winners
What made Scherzer so special was his desire to win and his continual improvement. He was never satisfied with the past. Bregman is that same type of player. A leader. An achiever. A winner. Scherzer made his debut on April 29, 2008 at the age of 23 ¾. Since then, his resumé has added three Cy Young awards including two with the Nats, and one in the AL, eight All-Star games, immaculate innings, a 20-strikeout game, and now a 2-time World Series champ.
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For Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, his offseason got going with a lottery win on the №1 draft pick then a sneaky good trade for Nathaniel Lowe for first base. It seems every week he has added a new player to ratchet the Nats closer to an 80-win season on paper.
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While we are just 75-days to Opening Day, the Washington Nationals, like many teams, are not done with their 2025 roster. Close maybe, but not done. Eight spots are set in the Opening Day lineup, and the final spot is for the Nats’ third baseman. There are also openings for the bullpen, the final spot in the starting rotation, and the bench is almost all up for grabs.
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The Washington Nationals exchanged numbers with their six remaining arbitration-eligible players since Mason Thompson came to terms earlier in the offseason. Today, the Nats came to terms with four more players, and leaving just the newly acquired Nathaniel Lowe and Luis Garcia Jr. as the final two players to come to terms with. If the two sides cannot come to terms, they will head to separate arbitration hearings.
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The stealth Washington Nationals made an official signing without a hint that they were trying to acquire utility man Amed Rosario in a $2 million 1-year deal per Jon Heyman of the NY Post. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Nats DFA’d Joan Adon. What surprised many was that Rosario was given an MLB deal and not a minor league deal. Can’t Nasim Nuñez and Alex Call do more than Rosario for less money as bench players? Or was Rosario signed to be a full-time starting third baseman? Right now, we don’t have those answers, so why assume. Right?
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With all the attention being paid to AI now, I thought it might be interesting to ask ChatGPT a couple of questions relating to the Nationals. So I went to the ChatGPT.com website and used the Surprise me option ask them. I did not create an account, so I can’t say if the generated text would have been different if I had.
I did have to create an account and log in to create the image above. I asked it to create an image of a Washington Nationals fan (the left image) and then one of a Washington Nationals fan using AI (the right image). I then asked it to combine them.
To reinforce the point, everything that follows (until the My Conclusion) is a direct copy and paste from my ChatGPT conversation.
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The Washington Nationals spoke about bringing in veteran leadership, and general manager Mike Rizzo signed Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell, and Trevor Williams as three veteran leaders. Lowe, a World Series champion, is already talking about being a team leader for these young Nats.
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"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
