A recent article Andrew listed his thoughts on the Nationals favorites at each position!. So we thought it might be a fun exercise to start a discussion of the least favorite position player at each position. In the discussion there was lots of agreement and disagreemnt – all in good fun.
So here is my list of least favorite players at each position.
The semi good news about this list, is that none of the names listed here still play that position for the Nationals. For some of the positions, the worst guy is so far ahead of the second worst, that it was not worth listing or thinking about them.
As I watch games this year I will take some comfort that none of the 2026 players likely have a shot at displacing any of the names below (yes, a pretty low bar 😂).
Catcher – Matt Wieters. Admittedly Kiebert Ruiz takes a close second, but not that close.
First Base – Nathaniel Lowe. Perhaps there is some recency bias in this selection. And there are lots of guys, especially in the last 5 years who tie for second place. Admittedly some would want Joey Gallo here. He does not make my list simply because of how good his defense was.
Second Base – Starlin Castro. This was a tough choice. But Castro is a close call on this as Felipe López was also pretty bad. The suspension for DV is the tie breaker for me. That and the fact that he was DFAed once his suspension ended.
Third Base – Maikel Franco. Franco was someone who was signed a couple of years after he should have been. And he was so bad that I am not even going to list Carter Kieboom in second place. Yes, Franco was that bad.
Shortstop – Luis Garcia Jr. Luis is still on the team but not as the shortstop. The complaints here at TalkNats about how Luis just was not a good fit at shortstop are legendary. Regardless, I do feel a bit guilty by including him in the picture above with the others. A final comment on Luis at SS: anyone who wants to complain (legitimately) about CJ Abrams defense, you need to watch just about any game with Luis at SS.
UPDATE: Mea Culpa. SS has to be Lopez. For some reason I remembered him at second and neglected to confirm it by looking it up. The net result is no current National make my list of least favorite.
Left Field – Wily Mo Peña. The Nats acquired Wily Mo from the Red Sox for a PTBNL (Chris Carter). He was a Jim Bowden special – a guy with a big bat and an even bigger bad reputation.
Center Field – Lastings Milledge. Milledge was another Jim Bowden special. Bowden traded two popular players to the Mets for him (Ryan Church and Brian Schneider). He somewhat redeemed himself by getting Sean Burnett and Nyjer Morgan (and honorable mention below) a year and half later in a trade with the Pirates.
Right Field – Elijah Dukes. Another big bat, lousy reputation, player that Bowden got from the Rays for Glen Gibson.
Designated Hitter – Nelson Cruz. Need I say anything? He was signed as a favor to Juan Soto in the hopes that . . . . who the [exploetive deleted] knows.
The Honorable Mention list is waaaaaay too long to list. But two guys stand out as the worst of the worst. Nyjer Morgan (aja Tony Plush) was simply a player who cared more about having fun than playing hard. The good news about Nyjer is that Jayson Werth identified him early on as someone who needed to be gone. And speaking of not playing hard, the clear winner there is Eddie Rosario. It took way too long to cut Rosario loose; but it did happen before the season eneded.
Now it is your turn to weigh in.
