Nats graduate 2 top-prospects, and the Nats new top prospect is: Jackson Rutledge

Posted on October 31, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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 →

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The one-year anniversary of the “CLANG” that led to the World Series championship

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

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.


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 →

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With a roster at 29-players, Mike Rizzo can get started on adding players!

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Laura Peebles for TalkNats

With the 40-man roster sitting at 29 current players, Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo can now embark on his off-season journey of building a better mousetrap. Putting together talent is subjective based on the eye of a scout who excels at piecing intricate puzzles together. You cannot force the wrong piece in place or the puzzle does not work. Rizzo has learned through excruciating trial and error that players with immense upside like Elijah Dukes or even Jonathan Papelbon can not seamlessly fit into his clubhouse as that chemistry must work. Sometimes it is the intangibles of a bench player like Gerardo Parra who becomes the x-factor needed to get you to the promised land.  Continue reading →

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We are officially in the off-season and the free agent clock has started!

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Mike Rzzo and Davey Martinez have a lot of work ahead of them: Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

“Next year STARTS NOW” was how the tweet read from the Washington Nationals official Twitter feed moments after the last out was recorded in the World Series last night which advanced the clock officially to the off-season. The free agency clock has started and teams now have an exclusive 5-day window to negotiate with their own free agents. There might not be one of them that the Nats are interested in keeping unless some very deep discounts are available. Continue reading →

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Tonight is the first World Series elimination game; Will Tampa Bay force a Game 7?

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

MLB/FOX graphic

Few people gave the Tampa Bay Rays a chance in this 2020 World Series against the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers. It was billed as a David versus Goliath, and if nothing else, Tampa has put up a good fight to get the series to a 2-to-2 tie. But the Dodgers pulled away in Game 5 with a win to make tonight’s game an elimination game.  Continue reading →

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The baseball economics for 2021 will create the largest drop in baseball payrolls in history!

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Last year, free agency went better than projected for several players like Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, and Anthony Rendon who all cashed in on their Powerballs and each pocketed well over $200 million. COVID-19 threw a wrench into the cog that spins the wheels of business in the middle of Spring Training 2020. The season was disrupted, and most teams never allowed fans in the stands.  Continue reading →

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Baseball is a crazy game and heroes are made in the biggest moments: Brett Phillips! Who?

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Andrew Lang

MLB has been building up Mookie Betts as the hero, but he went 0-5; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

The stage was set for Randy Arozarena to walk-off on Goliath, but they walked him to pitch to Brett Phillips who had not notched a hit in a month. Who? Brett Phillips. Best known for his Arnold Horshack laugh than his plays on the field. Known for being the other player in the Josh Hader trade. Known for his whiteboard signs in the ALCS when he was not on the Tampa Bay Rays roster. Known for a dance-off on a day-off  with his teammates after the Rays beat the Yankees to advance to the World Series. Now known as the only non-Dodgers player to ever hit a walk-off winner with 2 outs in the 9th inning while trailing in a World Series game. Phillips now joins Kirk Gibson and Cookie Lavagetto as the only players to ever accomplish that feat.  Continue reading →

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“The door was never closed” for Kevin Long, and he is back!

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Juan Soto bear hugs his hitting coach after the final game of the season; Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

When you are the youngest National League player to ever win a batting crown, you must thank your hitting coach. That is exactly what Juan Soto did with a bear hug that lifted hitting coach Kevin Long off the ground after the final game of the 2020 season as the 21 year old batted an impressive .351 with an MLB leading 1.185 OPS.

As the offseason started quickly for a Washington Nationals team that missed the playoffs, news broke that the team was going to have a coaching staff shakeup. There were headlines from other media that Kevin Long would not be returning. Our sources told us that was not necessarily the case. KLong, like all the coaches, are Nationals employees through October 31. Often, coaches are given permission to look around to seek other opportunities, and we were told that is what Long did.  Continue reading →

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Our top-10 priorities were set back in September, and we check Josh Harrison off of the list!

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Soto pitching BP in Spring Training; Photo by Craig Nedrow for TalkNats

The Washington Nationals have clear priorities for next year, and we took a deep dive into a Top-1o. We kind of rolled more names into the list, and sure, things changed quickly when manager Dave Martinez opted to make changes on his coaching staff.

Today as you know, the Nationals extended the contract of Josh Harrison as he was technically still under team control and as such was not a free agent.  Also in the previous two weeks, the Nationals DFA’d several players making the roster much more streamlined.

Not originally a Top-10 priority, but it is up there on the list, the Nats must add a new hitting coach to replace Kevin Long … unless the team wisely comes to terms with KLong which seems like a long-shot at this point. This week they named Jim Hickey as the new pitching coach. The team will also need to name a new third base coach after the parting of ways with Chip Hale.

So here is the updated original Top-10 priorites:

Continue reading →

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Priority #3, the #Nats are in need of a #4 starting pitcher!

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Stephen G. "Ghost" Mears

Photo by Sol Tucker for TalkNats

As we work in priority order, we look at what we set as the third priority for this Washington Nationals team which is the spot that Anibal Sanchez held in the starting rotation during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. For Sanchez, he had a very good 2019 season for the Nats, but then struggled for most of his 2020 starts and finished with a 6.62 ERA. His $18 million team option with a $6 million buyout will almost certainly be declined and bought-out, leading to a large vacancy for the team to fill heading into the 2021 season.

The list of priorities has limits with regards to budgetary spending, player availability, and team philosophy. There is always the possibility that the team could try to fill the spot internally which is not optimal, but in these times of budgetary constraints and limited revenue, filling the spot externally is not a given, although we believe the team should look into the free agent market for a candidate who would upgrade the rotation. Continue reading →

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