⚾️⚾️ The Morning Briefing: Nationals no longer for sale
Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, February 20.
Good Morning, Washington Nationals Fans,
Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, February 20, 2024.
Welcome to a special preseason Tuesday Morning Briefing! Haden here, as usual, let’s talk some baseball.
Leading this Morning’s Briefing: The Lerner family is no longer seeking a sale of the team
Yesterday, Andrew Golden of the Washington Post reported that the Lerner family was no longer looking to sell the team. The family said that the decision had been made for a while.
My take: This makes sense. Honestly, with how this move to Alexandria has been playing out and vaguely paying attention to the Capitals and Wizards over the past few years, I would rather stick it with the Lerner family than Ted Leonsis, the biggest rumored potential buyer.
While it’s true the Nationals have not bought into this free agent class, can you blame them? There is a reason Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman, and Jordan Montgomery are still without a team for 2024. Would they make the team better? Of course. But they alone will not turn this team into a Wild Card contender.
There is not a single player you can definitively write onto the roster in 2026 outside of Keibert Ruiz, but that is more because of his contract rather than any sort of performance. The team also has no idea what sort of production they can expect from the current roster in 2024. Why lock yourself into a starting pitcher this season when you can instead get a better grasp of what they have? I can list a positive thing or two about every bullpen arm, something that you certainly could not say about Nats’ bullpens in the past.
The team is not without faults. Their reluctance to install more analytically-minded people in the front office and coaching staff over the past few seasons has led to the Nationals falling behind in comparison to the rest of the league. While at any other time in league history this would have been fine, but unfortunately over this same period there has been a radical change in how teams evaluate these players. Talent is still talent, and the Nationals have four pretty talented prospects and plenty more major leaguers, but there is a reason these top teams churn out players like this regularly and get the most out of them.
But hey, winning cures all. If the Nationals sign Juan Soto and a front of the rotation starting pitcher like Shane Bieber, all will be well.
40 in 40 begins
Our 40 in 40 season has begun! We’ll be breaking down every player on the 40-man roster until Opening Day. You can read the first three editions of CJ Abrams, Hunter Harvey, and Josiah Gray by clicking their names.
Catch up on Spring Training News
There is a constant flow of news coming out of Spring Training and Richard has you covered with his Reporter’s Notebook series, where he breaks down each day’s news during Spring Training (and the week’s biggest headlines during the season).
You can read Day 1’s notebook here.
Click here for the latest off-season headlines, rumors, trades, and more.
ICYMI: Latest articles on the Nats Report
Even though it is the offseason, we have been extremely busy producing great content on the Nats Report. Here are just a couple of the articles that we have published recently that you might have missed:
- Podcast: In the Clubhouse (Gallo and Top 30 Discussion)
- Spring Training Storylines to Watch
- Washington Nationals tease new uniform for 2024
- Perspective: When is Enough Enough?
- Sleepers! Get Your Sleeper Prospects Here!
We are working on a lot of great Nationals-themed content all off-season so make sure that you are following us on all the major social media channels for the latest.
Featured Stories of the Day
Ryu returns to the KBO via MLB Trade Rumors
Trout on his future with the LAA via MLB Trade Rumors
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