Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, May 16.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing! Haden here. Let’s talk about yesterday’s loss.

Leading this Morning’s Briefing: Nats drop third game of series to CWS

The Nationals dropped game three to the White Sox yesterday, losing the series. They were shut out for the second game in a row. The offense has not gotten into gear, as it ranks 25th in batting average and runs scored. They rank a bit higher in on-base percentage and OPS, ranking 18th and 24th respectively.

The Nationals have five players who rate as above average offensively so far this season. Yesterday, only two of those players got a start yesterday against the tough lefty, Ildemaro Vargas and Nick Senzel. CJ Abrams, who usually starts every day, had a day off as he is hitting .192/.218/.231 in May.

But many regular starters, including Keibert Ruiz, Joey Meneses, Eddie Rosario, Trey Lipscomb, Jacob Young, and the injured Joey Gallo and Lane Thomas, are struggling to pull their weight offensively. For some of them, it’s excusable. Eddie Rosario had a historically bad start to the season, but he has been better of late. Jacob Young’s offensive contributions are a cherry on top, not something to be depended on.

While Trey Lipscomb’s defense has been excellent at the hot corner, the bat clearly is not ready as he is failing to hit the ball for any authority. Joey Meneses is one of the worst players in the majors right now. His on-base percentage and slugging percentage are in the .200s. Sure, Meneses is underperforming his expected statistics, but even if he was performing to those metrics, he would be a league-average bat, which is still not what a competitive team wants from the designated hitter.

Keibert Ruiz was rushed back after losing significant weight from the flu. Since his return on April 25, Nationals catchers have hit .174/.238/.289. Even with those struggles, the catchers are somehow still slugging more than Meneses.

The Nationals offense needs a spark desperately New faces are needed to reinvigorate the team (if the goal is to win games). Even if we want to avoid calling up James Wood, which unfortunately I do not think we see him in a Nats uniform until June at the earliest, adding Drew Millas or Alex Call would make a difference. The Nationals have solid players, but unfortunately, the roster is so left-handed heavy that Davey is having to expose his left-handed hitters to left-handed pitching. Unfortunately, Jessie Winker, Rosario, and Luis García Jr. have all struggled against those lefties. The team needs better right-handed bats to help shield them.

Thankfully, the Nationals have the day off today to figure out how to fix this issue. I will spend the off day talking more about these issues on our YouTube channel, starting at 1:30 pm ET. If miss the broadcast and still want to listen, an audio recording of the show will be available tonight on the site.

Down in the Minors

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