Imagine this scene at Nationals Park

The Nationals are leading by one run in the ninth inning, just three outs away from clinching their first postseason berth since 2019.

The lights go down. The bullpen doors swing open. Music fills the stadium as thousands of fans erupt, screaming at the top of their lungs and celebrating the return of October baseball. All Washington needs are three more outs.

Then a proven closer emerges from the bullpen: calm, confident, and ready to protect the lead.

That is the kind of moment the Washington Nationals need to be building toward. But if they want that scene to become a reality, they must finally invest in a reliable closer.

Instead, the Nationals blew their 37th save on Sunday night, tying the major-league record set by the 2024 Chicago White Sox. With Washington holding a 5–4 lead, Mookie Betts sent Will Dion’s fastball deep into the left-field seats at Dodger Stadium. The three-run homer gave Los Angeles the runs it needed to sweep the series and added another painful chapter to Washington’s ongoing bullpen problems.

“You can’t be a good baseball team if you blow that many saves,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said after the loss. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to take a deep look at what we’re doing and who we have and what makes the most sense moving forward. But it’s something that obviously has been frustrating and a huge weight on all of our shoulders.”

Those comments should serve as the clearest possible message to the Nationals’ front office: The time has finally come to spend big on a proven closer.

There should be no more temporary solutions, converted starters, or attempts to patch together the back end of the bullpen. If the Nationals want to make serious noise in 2027 and beyond, they need a legitimate ninth-inning option.

This is not a problem the Nationals can afford to push into another offseason. The bullpen has repeatedly failed in the moments when the team needed it most, turning potential wins into frustrating losses and placing unnecessary pressure on the offense and starting rotation. After tying the major-league record for blown saves, Washington has more than enough evidence to know that a major change is necessary.

The Nationals need a closer.

Washington has blown 37 saves this season, tying the major-league record. The Nationals currently sit at 67–78, but their season could look dramatically different if even a portion of those missed opportunities had been converted into victories.

If every blown save had instead become a win, the Nationals would theoretically be 104–41. That record would put Washington comfortably atop the National League and likely give the team the best record in baseball.

That is not a literal alternate-season calculation.

Some blown saves occurred in games the Nationals eventually won, while multiple blown saves may have occurred in the same game. Still, the exercise illustrates just how damaging the bullpen’s failures have been.

Even a more conservative scenario would have changed Washington’s season. If the Nationals had converted 20 of those blown saves into wins, they would be 87–58 and firmly in the playoff race. If they had avoided 15 blown saves, they would be 82–63 and likely still competing for a wild-card position.

The point is not that every blown save would have become a victory. However, the point is that the Washington Nationals have repeatedly put themselves in position to win and then failed to finish games.

That is not a small problem. It is one of the primary reasons Washington is looking toward the offseason instead of preparing for October.

The Nationals’ offense has shown encouraging progress. James Wood and CJ Abrams have shown what they can do, and Washington has enough young talent in the lineup to believe it can become a dangerous team in the coming years.

That makes the bullpen problem even more frustrating.

The Nationals are not dealing with an offense that gives them no chance to win. They are not routinely being blown out of games from the first inning onward. Instead, they have often held leads or remained within striking distance before late-inning mistakes changed the result.

A developing offense needs reliable pitching behind it. The Nationals cannot expect Wood, Abrams, and the rest of their young hitters to overcome a bullpen that continually turns competitive games into losses.

The organization also needs to show its young core that winning is a priority. It is one thing to tell players that the team plans to compete in the future. It is another to invest in the roster and give them the support necessary to win now.

The Nationals appear to have the financial flexibility to make a significant addition this winter.

According to FanGraphs, more than $50 million is coming off the books from players who are not even on Washington’s 40-man roster. Approximately $35 million of that total comes from Stephen Strasburg’s expiring contract.

CJ Abrams and Cade Cavalli are the only players on next year’s roster currently expected to receive meaningful raises, and even those increases should remain below $10 million.

If Washington simply stood pat, the Nationals could theoretically enter 2027 with a payroll substantially lower than the 2026 Miami Marlins’ $76 million payroll the lowest in Major League Baseball.

That should not be the plan.

The Nationals do not need to spend recklessly, but they do need to spend intelligently. A proven closer would address the most obvious weakness on the roster and give the team a dependable foundation for the rest of the bullpen.

The Nationals’ struggles finding a dependable closer did not begin in 2026. For years, the organization has searched for a reliable answer at the back end of the bullpen, often relying on committees, inexperienced relievers, or pitchers who were still trying to establish themselves in the major leagues.

That approach has not produced the consistency Washington needs.

The Nationals have repeatedly asked young pitchers to take on important late-inning responsibilities and have converted minor-league starters into relievers in an effort to fill bullpen roles. Some of those pitchers may eventually develop into effective relief options, but hoping someone grows into the ninth inning is not the same as acquiring a pitcher who has already proven he can handle the job.

A competitive team cannot continue treating the closer position like an experiment. Washington needs a pitcher with a track record of success in high-leverage situations someone who can enter a close game, limit the damage, and finish the job.

The Nationals do not need another temporary solution. They need a closer who can be trusted.

The Nationals should not limit their search to one specific player or one type of transaction. They could sign an established free-agent closer, trade for a reliever with years of team control, or pursue a pitcher who has recently shown that he can succeed in high-leverage situations.

The important thing is that the pitcher must have a track record.

The Nationals need someone with the stuff to miss bats, the command to avoid unnecessary baserunners, and the temperament to pitch with the game on the line. They need a reliever who can enter a close game without requiring the entire team to hope he figures things out.

That does not mean Washington should ignore the rest of the bullpen. Signing one closer will not solve every pitching problem. The Nationals also need dependable seventh- and eighth-inning relievers who can protect leads and reduce the pressure on the closer.

But finding the closer should be the first priority.

The Nationals do not need to wait until every prospect reaches the majors before addressing the bullpen. They do not need to wait until the lineup is perfect. Baseball teams rarely get the chance to fix every weakness at once, but Washington has both a clear need and the financial flexibility to address it.

A proven closer would not guarantee a postseason appearance. No single player can make that promise. But adding a legitimate ninth-inning option would eliminate one of the team’s biggest weaknesses and give the Nationals a better chance to capitalize on the progress being made elsewhere.

The alternative is to repeat the same cycle: use a committee, convert another starter, hope a young reliever takes a leap, and then wonder why close games continue to slip away.

The Nationals have already seen how expensive that approach can be.

The organization has reached a point where potential is no longer enough. The offense is beginning to look like the foundation of a competitive team, the young core is developing, and the money is available to make meaningful additions. If Washington truly wants to make noise in 2027 and beyond, it must stop treating the closer position as an afterthought.

The bullpen has cost this team too many games, and the solution is clear: Spend the money, find the pitcher, and give the Nationals someone who can finally close the door.