Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

Having already homered earlier in the game (turning on a high inside fastball and sending it ten rows deep for his second bomb in as many games), Dylan Crews winced on a check swing in the bottom of the fifth and immediately called timeout. He eventually walked and was forced out at second base, but was then replaced defensively by Nasim Nuñez - who almost immediately had to deal with a sinking liner with a .550 expected batting average (he caught it with a terrific sliding grab). Crews’s issue seemed to be with either an oblique or his back, but hopefully he caught it early. Regardless, with Jacob Young still out after banging his shoulder on Saturday, the prudent thing to do was to put Crews on the 10-day IL and recall Robert Hassell III (who went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles last night, ohbytheway) to make his debut perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

In August 2022, Bobby Barrels was considered the safest bet to become an MLB regular of any of the five players (plus Luke Voit) that the Nats received from the Padres for Juan Soto and Josh Bell. Fast forward through two years of wrist injuries and Hassell’s status has definitely slipped to the point where he now profiles more like a fourth outfielder or strong-side platoon guy than an everyday regular. Still, he had a strong enough spring training that the organization felt he might finally be ready for prime time this year, and has hit .288/.337/.405 for Rochester this year - including .365/.403/.603 in a torrid May - with only one fewer home run than all of last year. There exists an opportunity here with Crews’ injury and Young’s struggles for Hassell to reclaim his status as a future core piece and make an impact - it will be interesting to see how he does.

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

Mitchell Parker faced the Barves just last week, but you wouldn’t have known it from his first inning, a 12-pitch breeze with a strikeout and two infield grounders, after which the Nats immediately strung together four hits in a row off of the recently activated Spencer Strider and staked Parker to a three-run lead. Big Pitch Mitch, alas, gave it all back on a solo shot and three doubles in the top of the second, but recovered to toss three and a third further scoreless innings, getting lifted in the sixth for Cole Henry after registering his fourth strikeout, of Matt Olsen. And against the Acuña-less-but-still-powerful Atlanta lineup, the Nationals bullpen had one of its lowest-stress innings of the season, with Henry, Jose A. Ferrer, Jorge López, and Kyle Finnegan going 3 2/3 scoreless innings while allowing just a lone base runner, a single off of Ferrer in the eighth.

While Parker and the bullpen were keeping it cool, the Nationals broke the tie in the bottom of the second on the Crews missile, then added one more on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Nathaniel Lowe after Aaron Bummer demonstrated that he wanted no problems with James Wood (including getting called for a balk that opened up first base and made it even easier to pitch around Wood). Alex Call and Nuñez (who only had one AB) were the only Nats who did not find themselves a way to first base, with Wood, Crews, and Josh Bell all reaching twice (two hits for Wood, two walks for Bell, and one of each for Crews). The offense did right in jumping on Strider from the get-go in his return from a hamstring injury. It helped that Strider’s usual 99 was 95 in the first inning, 93 thereafter. That is something to monitor.

 STORY TYPE

Trader Mike

You could make an excellent argument that as of today, the 22-27, destined-for-fourth-place Nationals should have four All-Stars: CJ Abrams is by a comfortable margin right now the best-hitting shortstop in baseball with a 159 wRC+ and .404 wOBA; James Wood is tied for fifth in the league in home runs and might lead baseball in holy-crap-what-did-I-just-witness looks from his peers; MacKenzie Gore does lead the majors in strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings (84 and 13.4, respectively, the latter number one that is more associated with elite closers than starters); and Kyle Finnegan is tied for the major league lead in saves (15) and is having far and away his best season yet by FIP. Three of those were of course part of the return for Juan Soto, and a fourth (Hassell) is on his way to DC to probably make his debut tomorrow against AJ Smith-Shawver (I highly doubt that they will ask the lefty Hassell to make his debut against Chris Sale - eek!). The early returns on that trade are very promising indeed, especially when one considers how other multi-prospect packages performed (see below).

Nolan Arenado was shipped to St Louis for Mateo Gil, Tony Locey, Jake Sommers, Austin Gomber, and Elehuris Montero. If you recognize any of those names beyond Gomber, take a bow.

Miguel Cabrera AND Dontrelle Willis netted the Marlins six guys, and only a late-career turn as an elite reliever on other teams got Andrew Miller to two All-Star games, while the rest were bench and role players.

The best player that the Red Sox received for slam-dunk Hall of Famer Mookie Betts at his peak - plus David Price and his contract, was Alex Verdugo, a reasonable enough strong-side platoon outfielder on a team without better options.

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 WHAT WE THINK THE NATIONALS FRONT OFFICE IS READING

Speed Reads

📌 Which Hitters Have Seen Their Projections Change the Most? (Fangraphs)

📌 Good Stuff, Bad Results (The Athletic)

📌 Luzardo Hitting Another Level (Yahoo!)