The Washington Nationals defense was supposed to be a strength of this 2025 team. With injuries, the Nats are missing 3-of-their-top-4 defenders with Paul DeJong, Jacob Young, and Dylan Crews all on the IL. DeJong’s replacements have been a combined -8.0 OAA in his place and -6 runs given up. That is a difference of 11.0 OAA and an 8-run swing versus DeJong who has been on the IL since April 15 and was the best defender in baseball when he went on the IL. Last year, Young was a Gold Glove finalist, and Crews won the Minor League Gold Glove as an outfielder.
In today’s game, three tough plays weren’t made by three different different players. Third baseman Amed Rosario, left fielder Alex Call, and center fielder Robert Hassell III could not make plays that resulted in all of the Giants 3-runs in this game. Rosario missed a foul popup over the dugout railing, Call miss-timed a jump at the short bullpen wall that hit off the top of the wall for a home run, and Hassell missed a ball near the center field wall that turned into a triple. If DeJong, Young, and James Wood were in their usual positions, all three balls are probably caught, and that would have led to starting pitcher Michael Soroka tossing a 6-inning shutout with a much lower pitch count — and the Nats would have won. Yes, defense matters.
None of those aforementioned plays ended up with a ruling of an error — but exceptional fielders make those plays. Hassell is in an acclamation period with only three games in Nationals Park. He has an excuse. But Call has been a negative defender, and Rosario has been horrific as an infielder. And let’s face it, the Nationals are not a team that can overcome multiple plays not made.
“When your margin for error is smaller, you have to play a cleaner brand of baseball.”
— Rizzo said last week on 106.7 The Fan radio
In today’s game, the Nationals lost 3-2. This game was always within reach. When you lose a 1-run game, all of the plays become open to analysis and a healthy dose of second-guessing — and that includes coaching decisions.
Managerial and coaching decisions can also fall into the category that could affect the margin for error. Nats’ manager Dave Martinez made three late-inning pinch-hitting moves — and none of them paid off — unless you consider ‘close’ as counting as a good move.
With a leadoff double by CJ Abrams, Martinez went with the struggling Josh Bell to pinch-hit for Rosario in the 9th inning. But why would you go with Bell instead of the lefty Jose Tena who would need to come into the game as the third baseman if the game went into extra innings because Bell pinch-hit for Rosario, the third baseman.
“I liked the matchup. … If we get [Josh Bell] going, he is a difference maker for this lineup.”
— manager Dave Martinez said after the game, defending his decision to go with Bell as the pinch-hitter
For the pinch-hit spot with Bell, that was an instant RISP spot with Abrams on second base. Before today in RISP spots, Bell was hitting .116 (5-43) while Tena was batting .350 (7-20) in those spots. On top of that, Bell was batting just .069 BA in Hi Lev while Tena had a .368 OBP in those spots. Now there was one prior Bell at-bat versus the Giants’ pitcher, Ryan Waker, a year ago that went Bell’s way for a double. But as we know, those sample sizes mean nothing when a batter is struggling. Tena had no history versus Walker.
How long will we hear that they are waiting for a Bell hot streak? It is almost June 1. Hope isn’t a strategy.
Bell ambushed Walker’s first pitch and hit a 324 flyball that was a can of corn. You could say he just missed it because he got under the ball with a 35 degree launch angle. But you could say plenty of players just missed balls. This is a game of inches — and in this case, only results matter. Bell failed on a pitch he should have punished. Bell made the first out and those RISP and Hi Lev stats will deteriorate further. Batting after Bell was Wood, who knocked in Abrams with a double to make it a 3-2 game. The Nats couldn’t knock Wood in to tie the game. Who knows if Tena could have done better than Bell. But that seemed to be the move. Again, if the game went to a 3-3 tie, Tena would have come into the game as the third baseman, and the bench would have been empty.
Baseball is a game of failure — but you want to go with the players who have failed less often. Isn’t that what managerial decisions are all about? Make the highest probability move based on current trends.
But this showcasing of Bell has become tiring. Nobody is trading for him unless he gets on a long hot streak. The money has been spent. He has the worst per-game WAR of any player in baseball with at least 150 plate appearances. We were assured by both Rizzo and Martinez that this season would be about winning as a priority. The 31,581 fans who attended today’s game deserved better. They didn’t pay to see Bell. The fans paid to see good baseball. While the injuries have changed the personnel, you still have to write in the best nine names, and make the best in-game decisions. We are less than a week to June. When exactly is Bell going to do something positive for this team besides a game here or there? The team is 18-26 when Bell appears in a game and 6-3 when he’s not in a game this season.
While Bell has been a positive in three wins this season, a replacement player would hopefully far exceed that. He is a DH, not a defender making a difference with his glove. Rizzo spent $6 million to acquire Bell which was mind-boggling given how poorly Bell played most of last season. While we all loved the younger Bell who was with this Nats’ team back in 2021 and part of 2022, he is three years older now and nearly 33 years old. He didn’t come into Spring Training in great shape, and his average exit velo at 88.1 mph is the lowest in his career since his rookie season. Bell’s line drive rate of 19.3 percent is also the lowest of his career. Lastly, his speed is nearly non-existent and in the bottom 7.0 percent in baseball. Bell used to be a ‘plus’ runner. He used to be a lot of things.
“He’s struggling mightily. He’s mightily struggling. … He knows he is struggling. He’s in the cage hours after each game trying to figure this out. … And .143 is not cutting it. He knows it. I know it, and everyone else knows it. … He’s always been a streaky hitter — but you need a long streak to get out of .143.”
— general manager Mike Rizzo said about Josh Bell on an appearance on the Sports Junkies radio show
Yes, Bell will most likely get more chances. Maybe he will get a hot streak, and Rizzo and Martinez can say “I told you so.” But it will take a very long hot streak to get those numbers up to acceptable levels. You want consistently good players — not streaky good and streaky bad players. And getting back to the defensive issues, this team has to improve in many areas.
While we spent a lot of time discussing Bell, there are other problems that exist like Trevor Williams struggling as a starting pitcher. He was signed this off-season to a 2-year $14 million deal. His 6.39 ERA is not cutting it. Is it time to put Brad Lord back into the starting rotation and move Williams to the bullpen?
The Nationals have been playing better baseball. With the Crews and Young injuries, they brought in Hassell and Daylen Lile as new outfielders. There will be some growing pains as we saw today with defense and those players not getting on-base. The bullpen has been an asset for the past two weeks since the team DFA’d two free agents they signed in the offseason, Colin Poche and Lucas Sims. Defense and starting pitching and timely hits have been the current issue, but the team had a 5-game winning streak, and that certainly was a positive to build upon.
At times, it feels like this team is close. Then the team gets mired in a 7-game losing streak, and the team feels far away. Even things out, and the team really feels close to being a competitive team. One big bat away is how it feels. The starting rotation is close, and with this re-worked bullpen — you feel like you have a chance on most nights. The team has the No. 1 pick in the draft. There are positives. Another 5-game winning streak, and the team will be back to .500.
The team has a road series with the Seattle Mariners that begins on Tuesday.
