Trying to stay realistic as the Nats have their best start to a season since 2018!
Photo by DH for TalkNats
Through the first 50-games of the 2026 season, the Washington Nationals are sitting at 25-25 and in second place in the NL East. Per BaseballReference.com, the Nats have playoff odds are 3.8 percent to make the postseason.
This is the Nats best start to a season at the 50-game mark since 2018. All of that is great in a year that was supposed to be a rebuild of the failed rebuild. The team spent under $20 million in new acquisitions, but they spent on coaches, analysts, player development personnel, and upgraded technology.
The Nats have the best scoring offense in baseball and the second worst pitching ERA in baseball and the worst infield defense. That’s probably why the team isn’t 5-games over .500.
— said Paul Toboni on his 106.7 The Fan radio appearance with the Sports Junkies
❝… It’s starting to really believe like this is who we really are. They’ve been working their tails off. They have to still go out and prove it. A couple months in — it’s really fun to watch. It just makes it really exciting. It’s not just the offense, but also how they run the bases.❞
With the individual players, the WAR statistics from FanGraphs give you a realistic ranking on the players who are contributing to wins — and those who were not. Joey Wiemer stats dropped off significantly since the first series of the season, and he was sent to Triple-A and the same with Brady House who has struggled with his defense. Both could still help the team in the future.
Yesterday, we posted up our outfield best defense configuration, and coincidentally, the Nats put that into motion last night. The Nats had no errors in the game, and the better defense was evident from the start. Dylan Crews made a leaping catch on the wall in right field to rob extra bases from Juan Soto in the first inning. And as expected, Jacob Young made every play in center field. In the infield, Nasim Nunez was spectacular too.
The coaching is making a difference. Manager Blake Butera made all the right moves last night in the win. But maybe they can pick better moments to pitch to Soto!
Could the defense be at a point where it can improve? It should help the pitching. The offense is still churning. But there are still 112 more games to play. The schedule is still brutal. We will remain cautiously optimistic and see where this goes.
