Going Deep with The Nats

Can you believe that yesterday marked the 9th anniversary of the signing of Max Scherzer by the Washington Nationals? What made Scherzer so special? It was his desire to always be improving and never being satisfied with the past. Scherzer made his debut on April 29, 2008 at the age of 23 ¾. Since then, his resumé has added 3 Cy Young awards including 2 in the NL and 1 in the AL, 9 All-Star games, immaculate innings, a 20-strikeout game, and now a 2-time World Series champ.

That 2004 contract that MLB and Baltimore divvied up to bring the Montreal Expos to Washington D.C. was always going to put a governor on the Washington Nationals revenues. That contract stated that the Orioles had to receive the same amount of annual TV revenue as the Nationals. Equal. The Washington D.C. TV market is ranked 8th largest by the Nielsen ratings and Baltimore is 28. Washington has higher income demographics than most of the markets ahead of them — making Washington very desirable. But yet, Washington receives small-market money on TV revenues and only $5 million a year more than the Tampa Bay Rays per MLBTR.

The Nats 2024 season is getting closer by the day, and pretty soon, before we know it — pitchers and catchers will be reporting to West Palm Beach. With the upcoming season, there is growing concern on the uncertainty of who will be playing Center Field. Who will play it? Will there be a rotation in center field? What happens if that doesn’t work? Those concerns will be the main center of attention in the next coming weeks. After last year’s carousel in the middle of the outfield, Nats fans are eager to find out who will be their next center fielder, but most likely that definitive decision won’t happen this early. These young men listed below are good candidates to take over that Center Field role. 

Do you want the good news or the bad news? Okay, it isn’t really bad news — more like no news. It has been well over a month since Dylan Floro was added to the Washington Nationals roster on December 12, and time is running out on the offseason as the preseason officially starts on Valentine’s Day when pitchers & catchers report to West Palm Beach for the Nats. That is exactly FOUR WEEKS from today!

Here (pictured above) were 11 of the 14 new Washington Nationals prospects signed officially one year ago today as part of this International Free Agency (IFA) class of 2023 as reported by Anthony Puesán and @NationalsSource. Today, the Nats will announce a class led by  OF Victor Hurtado and SS Angel Feliz that should eclipse the size of last year’s class. Speaking of size, there are some big-bodies teenagers in this group. Hurtado is 6’3″ at 16 years old, and Feliz is 6’2″. Many of these prospects can still grow in height, and as usual their weight will increase as their frames widen.

While the 2023 Washington Nationals were compared to the 2010 team, it is not like a parent comparing their own children with a shared DNA. The only similarities between the two teams are the general manager, owners, stadium, and name on the front of the jerseys.

The projected active roster has totally turned over with Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list just like that 2010 team — but that 2010 team knew they would be getting a healthy Strasburg back the following season. The 2024 team knows that their former ace is never coming back, and the starting rotation is a bunch of question marks compared to that 2011 team which was anchored at the end of that season by Stras and Jordan Zimmermann.

The free agent market for starting pitching has shrunk considerably in the past few weeks while the left-handed bats are all still available. Pitching is the need that every team has, and most cannot compete in the deep end of the swimming pool. That leads to more competition for the middle of the free agent market.

(UPDATED at the bottom of the article) There are a quartet of Nats players who are arbitration-eligible and have not agreed to their 2024 salaries. Lane Thomas, Kyle Finnegan, Hunter Harvey, and Luis Garcia have until today at the 1 p.m. deadline to either agree to a salary or else they will have to submit salary demands by 8 p.m. tonight with the Major League Baseball office. After that, they will have a date scheduled for an arbitration hearing for sometime before training camp. Of course, the team and player have the ability to negotiate an amount until the start of an arbitration hearing.

We have MLB Trade Rumor estimates to give us some guidance on these players: