On September 29th, the Washington Nationals wrapped up their 2024 campaign, taking a 6-3 loss to the division rival Philadelphia Phillies. Washington finished with the same record as they did last season, 71-91, and 4th in the NL East, disappointing to many fans. There were many positives for the Nats, such as significant progress from their young starting rotation, shortstop CJ Abrams’ first playoff appearance, and the debuts of top prospects James Wood and Dylan Crews. On the flip side, Washington posted the second worst batting average, tied for the worst on-base percentage, and the worst slugging percentage as an offense since moving to DC in 2005. The lack of power on the roster was shown by ranking 29th of 30 teams in home runs. Despite that, the Nationals announced on August 14th that hitting coach Darnell Coles and the entire coaching staff will return for 2025. This has raised many questions from the fanbase as to whether the organization is putting its young players in the best position to succeed, and whether there is a lack of urgency despite no improvement record-wise from the club.
The expectations were still low coming into the regular season, some fans were optimistic that the team would improve, while others had doubts after a quiet offseason following 2023. Last winter, the Nationals would only sign players to one year deal, including opening day starters such as first baseman Joey Gallo, third baseman Nick Senzel, outfielders Jesse Winker and Eddie Rosario. Many fans shared that they were tired of veteran players that didn’t seem to have a future with the team, and 2024 was supposed to be the year that fans saw the debuts of many young, highly anticipated players.
Three young starting pitchers would start the season in the rotation, 2023 all-star Josiah Gray, former top prospect LHP MacKenzie Gore, and 2023 rookie Jake Irvin, a 2018 fifth-round pick by the Nationals. In the lineup, young shortstop CJ Abrams would lead the way, with outfielder Lane Thomas behind him, who led the team in 2023 with 28 home runs. Washington would stick with hard-throwing right handers Hunter Harvey and Kyle Finnegan at the back end of their bullpen. For the first time in several seasons, the Nationals had a similar roster on opening day as the previous year.
The first forty games were a pleasant surprise for Nats fans, with the club reaching their peak with a 20-20 record, their best at that point since 2018. The starting rotation was the highlight of the team in the early stages, with Trevor Williams and MacKenzie Gore each posting ERAs under 3.20 in April and 2.70 in May. Williams, who was in the midst of a bounce-back season from his abysmal 5.55 ERA in 2023, was placed on the IL on June 4th with a flexor muscle strain and would not return until September. Luckily, Williams and Gore had help from the back end of their rotation, with Jake Irvin posting a 2.45 ERA in May and a 2.31 ERA in June. Mitchell Parker, a left-handed pitcher, made his debut in April after Josiah Gray was also placed on the IL with a flexor strain, proved to have settled in by June and posted a 3.15 ERA in the month. The rotation didn’t have a deep lineup to back them up, but CJ Abrams provided a lot of the production in the first half, posting a .992 OPS in April an 1.127 OPS in June, leading him to wide praise across the league, despite his disappointing May.
The rest of the lineup was disappointing throughout the start of the season, and proved to be the deciding factor of the team’s inconsistencies throughout the season. Throughout an eight-game stretch from May 15th through the 22nd, Washington would drop 7 of 8 games with less than five runs scored in seven of those games. The club would struggle in late May and in early June, landing them at 27-35 on June 6th. The Nationals would follow their cold streak up with their hottest of the season, winning 8 of 9 games and never allowing more than five runs in a game over that span. The club continued to play good baseball throughout June, and got their record to 38-39, surprisingly only one game under .500, almost three months into the season. Fans began to talk about potentially being buyers at the trade deadline, which would have seemed unrealistic to many back in March.
The Nats traveled to San Diego on June 24th, and would take the lead in the 10th inning of a thrilling, back and forth game. Hunter Harvey would blow a save in the bottom of the inning, handing Washington a brutal loss that they would never recover from. By July 11th, the team would be 42-52, ten games under .500, with a team once again looking toward the future and a starting rotation showing signs of fatigue. The Nationals would make a highly-anticipated move on July 1st, giving James Wood his call to the big leagues. Wood was Washington’s #1 prospect, was acquired as a major piece in the Juan Soto trade in 2022, and had emerged as one of the game’s top prospects quickly. Wood posted a 1.058 OPS in Triple-A Rochester over his 190 at bats, with a .353 batting average and 10 home runs. Despite the fans being brought back to reality about the present, Wood’s call-up had them even more optimistic about the future. DeMatha junior Andrew Speed has high hopes for Wood, an Olney native, saying that he will “be an all star, and his 25+ home runs” next year.
July and August provided much less to cheer about, with Washington’s record progressively slipping further under .500 and many standouts from early in the season going through struggles. MacKenzie Gore had been on a noticeable decline since June 14th, and posted a disastrous 7.62 ERA in the month of July. Jake Irvin, who had been mentioned in all-star game conversations after a standout June, posted a 4.75 ERA in July and a 6.61 ERA in August. Mitchell Parker, a pleasant surprise in the early stages of the season, had an awful 7.89 ERA in July. CJ Abrams, an all-star alongside Kyle Finnegan, posted a .176 batting average in July and minimally improved a .187 in August.
The focus for the team turned to the trade deadline, where they dealt rentals Jesse Winker to the Mets and Dylan Floro to the Diamondbacks, as well as Lane Thomas to Cleveland and Hunter Harvey to Kansas City, both of them with an extra year until free agency. The players that they left behind expressed motivation for that deadline to be their last as sellers for the foreseeable future, with the front office hoping the same as well, and treating the deadline as one final influx of young talent before the team was done rebuilding. Multiple of the young players acquired saw major league playing time in the later stages of the season, with first baseman Andres Chaparro from Arizona and third baseman Jose Tena from Cleveland showing promise. Those young players would share the field with Wood, Abrams, and Dylan Crews, the 2023 #2 overall pick from LSU, who was called up on August 26th.
Washington would see positives and negatives from their especially young team in September, with the team limping to a 71-91 record. The major story of the month was unfortunately off the field, with news breaking that CJ Abrams was optioned to the minors for non-performance issues. Abrams was reportedly out until 8am at a casino in Chicago, even after receiving multiple warnings from the organization about similar situations. GM Mike Rizzo assured fans that Abrams is “still our guy”, some fans are in agreement and are supportive of the young shortstop, while some are suggesting that Abrams’ disappointing second half is largely due to his conduct.
After the conclusion of the season, there are more questions being asked by the fans than ever. Will ownership return to spending money and committing themselves to winning a championship? Many fans are dreaming of a reunion with Juan Soto, including Andrew Speed, who says that they should “go for Soto”, and look at alternative options if they miss out. Can CJ Abrams rebound from his tough second half and early end to the season? DeMatha junior Roman Zentek says that Abrams has the “same future, in a good way.” Is a young team enough to get this team to the playoffs in the near future? Does the coaching staff deserve to return after a disappointing second half? The Nationals have the pieces in place to build a winner, but everyone from the players to the ownership group has to make progress year after year to get there quickly. It could be an exciting offseason in D.C.
