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Another Soto home run; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

2020 BBWAA AWARDS FINALISTS REVEALED

Winners Will Be Announced November 9 – 12 Exclusively on MLB Network

When the major award categories were revealed, it was not a shock that Juan Soto was not in the Top-3 of candidates for the NL MVP Award. This kid had been snubbed for the All-Star game and other awards before.  Why would we expect that to change? Hours before Opening Day, Juan Soto was place on the IL for what was later described by Soto as a “Fake Positive” COVID test. It was suspect, and it really threw off the entire balance of the Washington Nationals beginnings to their start of the 2020 season. Continue reading →

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

It feels like a high stakes game of musical chairs when it comes to — should you take a chair deal when the phone rings with an offer or keep circling around and hope the phone rings again and again with a better offer. Sure, there are plenty of spots for the top of the free agent market with Trevor Bauer, J.T. Realmuto, George Springer, and Marcell Ozuna. But what about the rest of the nearly 200 free agents who are now on the clock? Add to that the surprises as teams have tagged some of their top pending free agents with Qualifying Offers. Players like Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman are two players who could take a guaranteed $18.9 million deal based on the rules of the Q.O. Continue reading →

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

Two more Nats prospects graduated to rookie status in 2020 when they passed over the  130 at-bat threshold that defined their career in terms of officially categorizing them as rookies. Both Carter Kieboom and Luis Garcia are off the 2021 Washington Nationals prospects list as they will matriculate to the next levels in their pro careers. The new prospect list is led by Jackson Rutledge in a Top-10 that features all pitchers in MLB Pipeline’s rankings. Over at Baseball America, they have not published their 2021 list, but here is their mid-season report which still listed Kieboom and Garcia on top of the list and Drew Mendoza ranked 8th.  Continue reading →

Max Scherzer warms in the bullpen as the World Series flag blows in the wind; Photo by Steve Mears for TalkNats

Can you believe it has been exactly one year since the Nationals won the World Series! Savor it, enjoy it. They do not happen often — even when you spend so much money that you blow through the CBT cap to win. It took a good team with incredible chemistry and veteran leadership along with some youthful exuberance and some divine intervention from the baseball gods.  The “CLANG” heard ’round the world courtesy of Howie Kendrick put the final clang exclamation mark on it.

One year ago today…

Howie Kendrick hit the CLANG! heard ‘round the world.#NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/U38UXHT3vf

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) October 30, 2020

Remember those days when the Nats spent to win it all with what they thought was their best team assembled in 2016? It did not happen. They tried again in 2017 and busted through the cap and in 2018 they were over cap even after they traded off veteran players. The 2019 roster had no Daniel Murphy, Gio Gonzalez, or Bryce Harper. Two-thirds of the trio of bullpen arms they dubbed, “The Law Firm” were gone. The 2019 team added Patrick Corbin as their most substantial acquisitions and a bunch of fill-ins as the team absolutely was committed to staying under the CBT cap.

That is the thing about baseball — you just never know. After the disappointment of the 2018 season, the jury was still out on Nationals manager Dave Martinez. Some gave him a “rookie” pass for an 82-80 season and stunts like bringing camels to Spring Training camp to signify the Nats needed to get over the proverbial hump. Continue reading →