Mets are spending and the Phillies are reportedly selling!

Swing and miss on another strikeout; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

Everyone believes that the new Mets ownership will be spending in Flushing, but they won’t be flushing “stupid money” down the loo like Phillies owner John Middleton proudly did after he exclaimed those words less than two years ago before they signed Bryce Harper as their team’s highest-paid player. Rumors are out there that Harper is on the trade block and will join Jean Segura and now reportedly Zack Wheeler as pieces that the team from Philadelphia could move as the Phillies face a “financial crunch” according to Buster Olney of ESPN. Continue reading

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Rankings of the non-tenders. Who could the Nats look at?

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

Across Major League Baseball, the non-tender moves hit hard even before the actual deadline of 8 pm on the second day of December. Arbitration-eligible players were DFA’d long beforehand like the Nats did with Michael A. Taylor, Roenis Elias, and Javy Guerra in early October. The Rays who just finished up a World Series run did the same with Hunter Renfroe. These players were not factored into the final tallies that ended at 59 players non-tendered according to Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic. Technically, that was only three players more than last year in a growing trend of year over year moves to cut arbitration-eligible players that saw 53 non-tendered in 2019, 41 in 2018, and just 25 in 2017. This has to be addressed in the next CBA.  Continue reading

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Let’s Look at the Early Odds for the Nats’ 2021 Season

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A non-tender day like no other in baseball’s history; Nats agree with Joe Ross and can sit back and watch!

Photo by Laura Peebles for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals took care of their non-tender decisions early. Actually very early. When the team parted ways with Michael A. Taylor, Roenis Elias, and Javy Guerra in early October, they were essentially done. They could have waited until the 8 pm deadline tonight to non-tender them along with other teams, but created no drama in waiting and allowed those players to find jobs early in the process like Taylor did with the Royals on a one-year deal. Sure, MAT took a paycut from what the Nats paid him in 2020 ($3.325 million), but he has a job. Continue reading

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A non-tender deadline looms, but teams are trying desperately to make some trades before the deadline!

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The non-tender/tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players is at 8 pm ET on Wednesday, and we still do not know if Juan Soto and Wander Suero cleared the Super-Two threshold. What is happening behind the scenes is there are cellphones connecting between general managers who are discussing trades of non-tender candidates and also players who do not fit into the plans of some teams. So far, nothing has broken loose with Kris Bryant and Francisco Lindor as the two biggest names being shopped around.  Continue reading

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Do the Nats band-aid 2021 and then go all in with money in 2022?

Nationals Source- The real question for the Nats is do they want to band-aid 2021 and go all in with money in 2022… or sign the big one this year.

Steve – I have wondered the same if you step back for 2021 and let COVID go away and watch the Braves and Mets duke it out and eat your popcorn. Or do little and hope for a Nats miracle and retool for 2022. Or do you get methodical about adding 5 players who can add 10.0 WAR combined and go for it. Plenty of good names and bargains out there. Continue reading

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Point-Counterpoint: Starting Pitching #Nats

Photo by Craig Nedrow for TalkNats

Ray: Everyone loves the long ball, but Starting Pitching is what brings home the hardware.  Ten minutes of listening to the pundits on MLB Radio will invariably lead to the discussion that the Angels MUST make a dramatic addition to the starting rotation.  Trout and Rendon won’t win squat without the arms.  But, the Angels are at one extreme of the spectrum; Position-player-loaded while devoid of top pitching talent.  On the other hand the Nationals are a pitching-centric franchise.  If you’re going to build on a foundation of great pitching it better darned sight be really good.  2020, despite all of its weirdness only reinforced the point.  The Nats’ starters were awful.  The losing record is hardly a surprise.  Will turning the calendar fix that on its own?  Don’t bet the ranch on it. The worry beads are there in abundance.

Steve: So far I agree with everything you said. The most expensive starting rotation in baseball history at $98 million in 2020 and they sucked as a group and were statistically the worst in Nats history in ERA. That is hard to do when the Nats had a $5 million starting rotation back in the Jim Bowden years. If I told you this group was a combined 5.38 ERA with Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez, you would ask me what drugs I’m on because that was a typo. Last year they were 3.53 so it looks like a typo and I assure you that is accurate. Continue reading

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Black Friday is here and we have your 2020 Holiday Gift Guide!

From Forever Collectibles (FOCO) and the company that gives you the best bobbleheads, they have the Dr. Fauci first pitch bobblehead as well as your favorite Nats ornaments!


Why not shop the official Jostens’ fan collection of World Series items! They have a great selection and look for discount codes on their site!

Continue reading

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A Thanksgiving journey for Andrew Stevenson continues!

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

This is a long story that and much has changed since we published this originally four years ago. Some might think it begins on the fields of Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the Little League World Series or finishes after scoring the tying run in 2019 Wild Card game. It actually begins when Andrew Stevenson was growing up in Youngsville, Louisiana near Lafayette. The ending has not been written yet nor has the middle of the story.  Continue reading

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Jackson Rutledge was named MLB Pipeline’s #1 prospect of the Nats. What is he all about?

Rutledge was the Nationals’ top draft pick in June 2019. (MLB)

It has been a little over a full year from his draft in the first round in 2019, and Jackson Rutledge is now MLB Pipeline’s № 1 prospect for the Washington Nationals. He holds the same spot that Stephen Strasburg once held for the Nats, and the pair have many things in common including going undrafted from High School and straight to the first round in the draft out of college.

On the Baseball America rankings, Cade Cavalli is on top of that list for the Nats with Rutledge as the № 2 prospect. Both players spent a lot of time together at the 2020 Alternate Training Site in Fredericksburg, and yes, Cavalli had his barbershop scissors and clippers with him and cut Rutledge’s hair a few times. In return for the haircuts, Jackson would cook breakfast for Cavalli in a swap.  Continue reading

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