The Morning Briefing: August 23

Good morning, Washington Nationals fans.

Here are the latest headlines and analyses around the Washington Nationals and Major League Baseball for today, August 23.

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Welcome to the Morning Briefing!

Leading this Morning's Briefing: Gallo Apparently is the Secret Weapon?

On this morning's Nats Chat podcast, Mark Zuckerman brought up that yesterday afternoon's win over the Rockies was the first midweek series win for the Nationals in over two months, since they took two of three in Detroit from June 11-13. The common denominator? That was the last midweek series that Joey Gallo played in before he strained his hamstring. Now, the idea of a first baseman who's hitting .170/.293/.327 being the linchpin is pretty laughable, but one thing Gallo does do is make life a whole helluva lot easier for the other infielders, and thus the pitching staff. Yesterday that meant a comfortable win over Colorado to finally earn Patrick Corbin his 100th career win in his 6th try.

Last Game Out

After a month and a half of hitting tons of 100-mph outs, James Wood was due for a soft hit, and he got one in the third inning yesterday off of Cal Quantrill, a two-run single that left the bat at 73 mph and landed in center field. The Nats strung together five straight hits to open the sixth inning to push the margin to 5-1, and then tacked on a Juan Yepez three-run bomb in the eighth to put the game out of reach for even Joan Adon to mess it up. Corbin, meanwhile, went six strong innings, striking out a season-high eight Rockies and allowing a solo home run with three other hits and a walk. He became the sixteenth active pitcher to reach the 100-win plateau, getting there just ahead of Kevin Gausman and Zack Wheeler (both of whom are sitting on 99).

Nationals Headline of the Day: Putting the Wood to the Ball

Jessica Camerato of MLB.com wrote a column about the historic pace that James Wood is on to begin his career with regard to his hard-hit rate. He's tied for fifth among all players since July 1 - his debut - with 34 batted balls of 105 mph exit velocity or more, tied with Shohei Ohtani and Bobby Witt Jr. and trailing Matt Chapman, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Rafael Devers, and Juan Soto. You might have heard of those guys before.

Down on the Farm

Andrew Alvarez might be the next guy to get a spot start or two for the Nationals (he has to be added to the 40-man roster this winter anyway), and yesterday for Rochester he struck out seven across five innings with no walks while conceding two runs on four hits. Alvarez doesn't have outstanding stuff but is a competitor, and was the Nats' Organizational Pitcher of the Year in 2023.

Featured Baseball Story of the Day

As we approach free agency, it is worth exploring which potential free agents have options on their contracts and what they might do, as Mark Feinsand writes for MLB.com. There are some big names and some medium names on this list, some of whom might be in play for the Nats this winter.

Former National of the Day

During this rebuild a number of replacement-level players have shuffled in and out of Washington, but one of the more enduring ones was Yadiel Hernández, the Cuban-born outfielder who played 218 games for the Nationals from 2020-2022 after three years in their minor league system. Yadi was an undersized corner outfielder with a decent bat (.267/.315/.412) but not enough pop, and he could charitably be labeled an adventure with a glove on his hand.

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