Washington Nationals

Washington Nationals

2024 had a lot of struggle bug-esque moments for the Braves, but one of the big ones was their inability to do... much of anything against Nationals starter Jake Irvin. The Braves and Irvin faced off four times, and while the Braves came away with two victories, the part where they hit against Irvin wasn't very fun. He dominated them in May (Braves won 2-0 late), had an okay start that the Braves lost in June, had a legitimately bad outing in August, and then beat up on the Braves again in September.

Murakami is a star for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball Organization. Throughout eight seasons in Japan, he has a .945 on-base plus slugging percentage and 262 home runs. Murakami has also become prominent thanks to his performance in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Murakami, notably, hit a two-run walk-off double against Mexico to send the Japanese team to the finals.

The Athletic reported earlier this week that the team has contacted several active members of other MLB clubs' front offices, including Cubs GM Carter Hawkins, Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye, and Dodgers senior VP Josh Byrnes. The report also indicated that these are by no means the finalists for the position, though it did note that former Twins general manager Thad Levine has not, at this time, been contacted by the Nationals.

This week's mailbag gets into potential offseason targets for the Giants and Nationals, the potential free agencies of Trent Grisham and Ha-Seong Kim, and the Mets' current six-man rotation. Neil asks: Giants fan here. They are killing me with this Jekyll and Hyde act on offense this year. It's the .500 team I was expecting but they need more team speed and the OF defense gives me a headache. Who should they target in free agency?

It's almost poetic that the player in the cover image for this article, Christian Franklin, who is a former prospect of the Chicago Cubs, is one of the main featured players ot my article for today. Over the weekend, The Washington Nationals won a series over the Cubs on the road in Wrigley field in shocking fashion, and Sunday's comeback victory was an instant classic.

As alluded to, the Nationals made their choices for September call-ups last weekend, and brought up lefty Andrew Alvarez and infielder Nasim Nuñez, who combined to make a huge impact on the sweep of the Marlins. Alvarez joined catcher CJ Stubbs as the second Nationals battery in team history to make their MLB debuts simultaneously, and accomplished some team history in the process.

It is no secret that the Nationals are in a rebuild. Luckily for them, a head start is already underway with many young prospects already with the major league team. Some are already established, while others came up more recently. Three of them, in fact, are thriving as of recent, and they are not named James Wood. The key to the final two months was to see success in the youth, and it is happening.

The Nationals announced Friday that infielder/outfielder Darren Baker, whom they had designated for assignment earlier in the week, went unclaimed on waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. He'll remain with the organization but will no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. The 26-year-old Baker made his major league debut with Washington last September and went 7-for-14 with two doubles and five singles.

Alfaro, a CAA client, is signing a major league contract, Golden adds. The 32-year-old Alfaro hasn't appeared in the majors since 2023. He appeared in 82 games and tallied 326 plate appearances with the Brewers' Nashville affiliate in 2025, hitting .244/.285/.430 with 15 home runs and a dozen steals. Alfaro walked in only 3.4% of his plate appearances with Milwaukee's Triple-A club and also fanned at an alarming 36.5% clip.

In four games, Willits is hitting .429/.529/.958 with three RBIs and two walks. In 14 at-bats, the switch-hitting shortstop has struck out just once. In the field, Eli has shown range with a diving play to his left and a strong arm, throwing a batter out after fielding a ball deep to his right. His left-handed swing is very smooth, while his right-handed swing is more compact and to the point.

Keibert Ruiz is currently on the concussion IL. His last game was July 5th and he still hasn't begun a rehab assignment. Just over a week ago, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com provided an update on Ruiz. He had begun doing some first base drills, not for a positional switch, but just to get him on the field and tracking baseballs without putting him at any real risk of exacerbating his situation.

While all of the positive news on the farm and prospect front for the Washington Nationals has been focused on several of their top prospects, most notably Eli Willits and Jarlin Susana, they were not the only ones who made significant noise over the weekend. In fact, there could be a very real argument that the player who had the most impressive performance came from a prospect that is pretty unknown to the common fan.

On the bright side, the Nationals' bullpen turned in another phenomenal performance, putting up a load of zeroes after start Jake Irvin failed to make it through the third inning. Irvin has seen the wheels completely fall off in the second half of this season, as he now owns a 5.40 ERA and 1.43 WHIP, and it's pretty hard to argue that him and fellow struggling starter Mitchell Parker give this team any sort of chance to win every fifth day.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Jose A. Ferrer tossed two consecutive scoreless ninth innings to secure the Nationals' series win over the Mets. The new Nats closer now has four saves on the season and has pitched nine and one third consecutive scoreless innings. For a relief unit that has been historically bad throughout the year and has lost a number of key contributors, Ferrer is a bright spot.

García hasn't played anywhere other than second base since the end of 2022. He got a few months of shortstop run that year but clearly wasn't cut out for that position. He's not a particularly good second baseman either. Defensive Runs Saved has graded him negatively in three straight years. Statcast's Outs Above Average gave him above-average marks in 2024 but has had him as a subpar defender in every other season of his career.

There are two general strategies Washington could employ. The first is to continue the process of rebuilding; the second would be to make a concerted effort to start winning again for the first time in years. They don't necessarily have to sell out for one strategy or the other, but they should at least have an idea of what the general direction of their organization is.

Chaparro should have a great opportunity to soak up a lot of the vacated playing time after Nathaniel Lowe was DFA'd last week.