Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

I came hard in the paint in yesterday’s briefing after a lackluster sweep at the hands of a team that will, in all likelihood, finish in fifth place in the AL East. After venting some frustrations at both on-field and front office management due to some pretty clear signs that this is not in fact a year of “hitting the gas,” I would like to turn my ire today towards ownership, which has given all the appearances of being apathetic and disinterested since they announced that they were going to explore selling the team three years ago. A fifth consecutive winter of scrounging in the discount DVD bin for potentially flippable veterans on one-year deals drove that point home rather emphatically.

First, let me say that I like Mark Lerner personally. I happen to have a passing acquaintance with him because I went to graduate school with his son in a business and sports management program at their shared alma mater, GWU. He has always been courteous, welcoming, and interested in our conversations. I believe that he is still interested in being the owner of the Washington Nationals. However, I do not believe the same can necessarily be said for all of his family members that are named partners (his wife, his two sisters, his mother, and his brothers-in-law). There are several factors that indicate at least one or more of the principals are not committed to the team.

The first and most obvious place to look is at payroll. I will grant that, having made their fortune in shopping malls and other commercial real estate, the Lerners were hit harder than most baseball owners by the pandemic that of course also prevented them from enjoying the proceeds of the charmed 2019 World Series run. However, depending on whom you believe, they have recovered enough to be roughly the fifth-wealthiest owners in the sport, and the Nationals are situated in the third-wealthiest market in MLB. I will also grant that they are the only owners in baseball that heretofore have not controlled their own local television rights thanks to the litigious and since departed Peter Angelos (there is a reason that the Orioles remain the only team with whom Mike Rizzo and the Nats have never completed a trade). BUT that excuse will only take them so far when they are also the only team in baseball without sponsors for stadium naming rights or a jersey patch, which collectively would be worth anywhere between $10-$25 million in annual revenue. With all of their built-in advantages and lost opportunity cost, the Nationals, who have no business tanking in 2025 because they cannot pick in the top ten of the 2026 draft, rank a mere 24th in payroll per Spotrac among all MLB teams at a little less than $137 million for tax purposes.

But wait! The Competitive Balance Tax limit is $240 million, and not only does that $136.9M figure include player benefits, as it does for the other twenty-nine teams…it also includes the annualized $35 million for Stephen Strasburg (and will again in 2026, for the final time), who officially retired last year and has not pitched in three years. That is the definition of a sunk cost. The active payroll for the Nationals, after removing Strasburg and the benefits (which are, after all, the same for every team), tumbles all the way to $72.1 million, above only perennial cheapskates Tampa Bay, Miami, and the Chicago White Sox. It would take the Nats adding $8 million in salary - the amount they were willing to non-tender Kyle Finnegan over this winter - just to catch 26th-ranked Pittsburgh, another perennial cheapskate, and $12 million - more than they are paying any active player this year (Nathaniel Lowe tops the roster at $10.3 million) - to catch the Your-City-Name-Here A’s, who only signed a couple of decent free agent contracts this winter because the MLBPA was otherwise going to file a grievance against them. Woof.

Although they will only play in the shallow end of the free agency pool these days (both in terms of dollars and annual commitments), the Nationals do pay both Rizzo and Davey Martinez top-five salaries for their respective positions, in Rizzo’s case top-two. Which begs the question of what they are getting for that money. Since the Great Fire Sale of 2021, the Nats have been if not the worst one of the worst teams in baseball, and this is looking very much like a sixth consecutive bad season since the World Series run. A championship should not get anyone a lifetime sinecure, yet that appears to be the case for both Rizzo (the second longest-tenured GM in baseball behind Brian Cashman of the Yankees) and Martinez (fifth). Martinez and his entire staff were renewed weeks or even months before they needed to be last summer, despite him owning a winning percentage that ranks 296th of 368 managers in MLB history, one spot above Jim Riggleman, who famously quit the Nats in mid-season 2011 because he hadn’t gotten an extension from these same owners. The only active managers below him are Matt Quatraro (Royals), Derek Shelton (Pirates), and Mark Kotsay (A’s).

Not only has the product slipped on the field, but Bruce Allen would never claim that the Lerners are winning off the field, either. The stadium experience has gotten noticeably worse during the pandemic, with slower lines, closed concession stands scattered throughout the stadium, and shortages all over the place, despite some of the highest prices in baseball (particularly when it comes to beer). Nats Park is turning back the clock to 2009-10, when Phillies and Mets fans outnumbered Nationals fans any time either of those teams visited. Going to a game reminds you multiple times throughout your three-ish hours at the park that ownership, despite publicly saying that they are no longer exploring a sale of the franchise, would jump at an offer they felt was acceptable. If you find yourself frustrated by the pace of the rebuild or your experience (certainly for the price) at the ballpark, voice it towards an ownership group that is at least partially checked out.

If the Lerner family cannot commit to being good stewards of the franchise with their actions as well as their words (not that PR has ever been a Nats strong suit), they risk becoming the most irrelevant franchise in baseball. Every major sport has a team here. The Commanders were hurtling towards the NFL version of irrelevancy before new ownership and what looks like a legitimate franchise quarterback saved them. The Wizards are being run by competent front office people for the first time in forever and have their own crack at a franchise-shifting star when the lottery balls are drawn in a few weeks. Hockey may be a little more of a niche sport, but the Capitals have a soon-to-be record-breaking goal scorer and are about to make their sixteenth trip to the playoffs in the last eighteen years. The Nats, by contrast, have burned a fair amount of their goodwill over the past few years, and ownership does not appear to care about building that back up, certainly as it involves opening their wallets or paying attention to the fan experience.

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

The Nationals were off yesterday, but host the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight at 7:05, with Jake Irvin squaring up against Brandon Pfaadt as the starting pitchers.

 theFUTURE

Rochester Red Wings Bats go Silent as Lehigh Valley Sweeps a Doubleheader!

Last year, the Rochester Red Wings played ten doubleheaders in the 2024 season. They swept four of them and split the other six doubleheaders. That ended yesterday as Lehigh Valley won the first game in the twin bill 8 to 1, and they also won the second game 3 to 1. In the first game, Hyun-il Choi made his Red Wings debut.

He pitched two scoreless innings to start the game. In the third inning, the #3 prospect for the Phillies, Justin Crawford, singled in Rafael Lantigua to break the scoreless tie. Christian Arroyo came up with Carson Taylor on third and Crawford on first and drilled a two-out double to score both, making it 3-0. It stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth when Brady House hammered a two-out home run over the center field fence that landed 428 feet from home plate. Brady also had a single for another multi-hit game. In the top of the seventh, the Iron Pigs got the first two baserunners on base by two errors.

Lehigh scored five runs in this last inning while only two were earned, giving them an 8-1 win!

In the second game, Gabriel Rincones Jr. hit a 2-out home run in the top of the first, giving the Iron Pigs a 1-0 lead. Rochester came to bat in the bottom of the first and answered. Rob Hassell III led off with a well-hit single to right center. Hassell stole second base, and Franchy Cordero hit a 2-out double to score Hassell and tie the game at one in the bottom of the first. Chase Solesky pitched three innings in his debut and only gave up one run in the first inning. He gave up five hits, with two walks and two strikeouts.

The game remained tied until the fourth inning, when the Iron Pigs took the lead 2-1 when they scored on an unearned run. They added one more run in the fifth to make it 3-1, which remained the final score. In the two games, the Red Wings went 1-12, hitting with runners in scoring position. Trey Lipscomb was the only Red Wing with a multi-hit game. He hit both a single and a double. The six-game series resumes Friday night with game four at 6:05. The Iron Pigs will send right-hander Seth Johnson to the mound, and Rochester will send Andrew Alvarez. The series will continue on Saturday and Sunday, with game time at 1:05 p.m.

 Washington Nationals Analysis

Soroka Good to Go (For Now)

Michael Soroka is scheduled to make his next start on time, which will come in the Sunday matinee finale of this series against the Snakes. That is good news and a big relief to the Nationals, who would otherwise be sending Brad Lord or Shinnosuke Ogasawara to the mound for the first few innings of a bullpen game. Let’s hope Soroka doesn’t cramp up again or worse in his second start for the Nats.

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 WHAT WE THINK THE NATIONALS FRONT OFFICE IS READING

Speed Reads

📌 Did You Know Teams Can Offer Extensions to Young Players? (Fangraphs)

📌 Soto Still In Touch With Hagerstown Host Family (The Athletic)

📌 Ugly Early Trends (MASN)