Nationals 2026 Season Preview

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Runner goes the pitch, swing and a miss. Throw by Ruiz. They're going to get him.

He is out at second base. With Abrams applauding the tag on Nimble,

it is a strike amount. Throw him out, double play.

He made Ruiz fires and darted. Again, Josiah Gray's out of the inning.

And welcome to Natschat, along with Washington Nationals

inside remarks. Socerman of natsjournal.com.

I'm Al Goldie, host of the Al Goldie podcast.

And this is the season preview installment of the podcast as we now are on the doorstep

of MLB's 2026 regular season. Nats at the Chicago Cubs this Thursday afternoon at 220

in Gamewood of a three game series for season number 22 for the Nats.

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If you have not yet done that, we have quite a bit to discuss.

So we are recording this late Tuesday morning, March 24th.

We over the previous 11 days have had an avalanche of notable roster transactions by the Nats,

just to take you through all that has gone down in terms of announced moves by the Nats.

And actually, this isn't even all that has gone down.

These are just the most notable items that have gone down.

March 13th, the Nats announced having option pitcher Mitchell Parker to AAA Rochester.

March 18th, the Nats announced having option catcher Harry Ford to Rochester,

and announced having reassigned catcher Riley Adams to minor league camp.

March 19th, the Nats announced having option starting pitcher Josiah Gray,

and outfielder Robert Hassel III to Rochester.

March 20th, the Nats announced having optioned outfielder Dylan Cruz,

San reliever Jackson Rutledge to Rochester.

March 21st, the Nats announced having unconditionally released veteran reliever Drew Smith.

And then on Monday evening, March 23rd, just awful news,

the Nats announced having recalled Josiah Gray and having placed him on the 60-day injured list

retroactive to March 22nd due to a right flexor strain, a lot to get into with all of this.

But Mark, you've covered the Nats since the franchise moved to DC.

Have we ever had this many significant slash surprising roster moves by the team

in the days leading up to an opening day?

I'm going to say not this many of them.

Typically, at least the way the old administration used to work,

you'd get a bunch of them in one big dump,

usually towards the end of camp.

And what you had this year is this drip, drip, drip,

as you just outlined all the different days over the last week or so,

where there was significant news coming out.

As a reporter, I kind of preferred it this way,

because it gave me something interesting to write about every day,

instead of lumping them all together into one gigantic article,

where maybe some of the important stuff gets lost in the shuffle.

There was none of that because it gave 24 hours for everybody to discuss almost every one of these moves.

It's surprising in some ways, not surprising in others.

I think my biggest takeaway from all of this,

and we knew this going in, but you didn't know what that was necessarily going to look like

in terms of the actual opening day roster.

This group is very much focused on the future and not on the present.

That's going to be frustrating for a lot of people to hear and to accept,

but it is clear to me that they are doing what they think is best for these individual players

and the organization in the long run,

at the expense of what is going to be at least to start the 2026 season and maybe extend for a while

into the 2026 season. And I think we're learning that there's just a lot that we don't know,

and a lot that we can't predict when it comes to what Paul Toboni is thinking

and what he's going to be doing.

I mean, Dylan Cruz, Robert Hasselbe third, Harry Ford,

it was not necessarily anticipated that those guys would be demoted to Rochester.

Drew Smith, that wasn't anticipated that the Nats were going to be releasing him.

So yeah, a lot of ground to cover here, but I suppose we should acknowledge, again,

just the awful news that came out on Monday evening.

The Nats on Monday evening in announcing a second batch of roster moves on Monday.

Announced having recalled Josiah Gray and having put him on the 60-day injured list retroactive

to March 22nd with a right flexor strain. You know, this comes out and I'm looking at it and

I'm saying to myself, okay, am I missing something here or is this as bad as it appears to be?

And the answer is this is bad. Now, you know, how bad we'll see, but you know, here you have

Josiah Gray coming off two consecutive law seasons off on July 24th, 2024, having undergone both

Tommy John surgery and an internal brace procedure on his right UCL. He had been sent down to

AAA with the idea of, you know, he would build up his velocity and the Nats could more

carefully manage his innings to at least begin his 2020-60s. And but, you know, the idea was always

for him to be a piece of the major league rotation. And then, out of nowhere came this news on Monday

evening, right flexor strain, which can be though, isn't always a precursor to further UCL surgery

here. In this case for Josiah Gray, do we know anything about what exactly is going on here and

what we should be thinking here with Josiah Gray? We don't know details and that's frustrating,

I think, for a lot of us. And I don't think we're going to get any kind of formal answers

until Thursday when everybody gathers for opening day, every glee field, and we'll, you know,

get to ask questions of Blake Buterra and Paul Taboni. It definitely came out of left field to say

the least. I mean, here's what you need to understand. Literally four days earlier when

the option to Josiah Gray to AAA, I and a couple other reporters there in West Palm Beach

interviewed him. And I got to tell you, he was optimistic. He wasn't upset. You know, he

disappointed. I think he was hoping to start the year with them, but he understood why he wasn't.

He kind of saw it coming. He felt, as he said, so close to being the picture that he used to be. Those

were his words. And his first start in spring training, he was throwing 94. The velocity dipped a

few miles an hour. He pitched in some minor league games, but his feeling the way he conveyed it.

And even the way that the team seemed to convey this was that he just needed some time to build his

arm back up. You know, it's been a long time since he's pitched. And get him going on on every five

days rotation, give the arm time to build up. And that at some point, whether that would be

within a month or two, whenever it would be, he'd be back in the big leagues pitching for them.

So to see that news come out of the blue, definitely shocking and definitely makes you ask, okay,

what happened between Thursday and Monday for that to be the case. Now, I don't want to completely

speculate here because I don't know the specific answers, but I'll just say this when you look at

the wording of the announcement. And I think it's important to know if you're a minor leagueer,

you've been optioned to the minor leagues and you suffer an injury while you're in the minor leagues.

You go on the minor league injured list. Josiah Gray was recalled from AAA and placed on the

major league 60 day, I L. And typically that would mean that he was optioned. And at some point,

within those first couple of days, if not immediately, he would have had to say to them,

hey, you know what, my arm hurts. Something happened that didn't feel right prior to you sending me

down. And then they get the info they look into it. And if they determine, yes, he's injured,

you recall him and put him on the major league, I L. Now, you could take a cynical view and say

sometimes a player is going to say that because when you're on the major league, I L, you gain

service time and you're full salary as opposed to minor league salary and no service time. I don't

believe that would be the motivation here for this. Obviously, there's something going wrong

with him. But it just suggests to me that it's not like in those four days, he got hurt again.

It suggests to me that maybe he didn't reveal it, but he did after the fact say, hey, by the way,

my arm doesn't feel right. And that's why they end up making the move they did. Now, again,

it's terminology. And we know that this doesn't flexure strains a fairly generic term. But for

the record, this is what he was originally placed on the I L with two years ago that he tried to

rehab from seemed like he was close to returning from it and then had the MRI that showed torn UCL

Tommy John surgery. Doesn't mean that's where he's headed again. But when you see that term,

it has history with it. You know what this could mean. It's just got to be crushing news for him

and very disappointing news for the nationals. It's also notable that that's put him on the

60 day injured list and not the 15 day injured list. You know, then that's didn't have to put him

directly on the 60 day I L could have put him on a 15 day I L. And if things continued to not

look good, you transfer him to the 60 day I L, then that's did not do that. They sent him right to

the 60 day I L. And that seems rather ominous. You know, it's funny. We over the years with all of

these picture injuries have come to know like forearm soreness, forearm tightness, flexure strain,

all of these things can be code for this guy's going to need UCL surgery. Not definitely,

but I mean, how many times over the years has it been the case that a guy is labeled as having

one of those ailments and then he ends up needing the surgery. And you know, first of all,

you feel for Josiah Gray. This has got to be awful for him to deal with. But the other thing is this

so he didn't just undergo Tommy John. He also underwent an internal brace procedure. He underwent

a double whammy on his right UCL with the idea of okay, this will really get it right and this

will really hopefully keep it intact. And if he needs another UCL surgery, that's an if. But if he

does, you say to yourself, man, what was the point of undergoing the Tommy John and the internal brace

if he ends up having a flexure strain and ultimately needing further surgery? And he ends up having

not just two law seasons, but maybe even three law seasons. Yeah, I don't want to go down that

path yet because it's too demoralizing to think about for a lot of reasons. You know,

let's take a more optimistic view here and this could be the scenario. He was sent down. He said,

you know what? My arm doesn't really feel 100%. I think that's why the velocity went down a little

bit. Can you guys give an MRI and take a look at this thing and said, all right, we'll do that. And

okay, yeah, you know what? We see a little something there. It's a strain. This is kind of a sign

that you're just not all the way back yet and that the workload you had this spring might have been a

bit aggressive and too much. So let's take a step back. Let's give you time off. Let's not force

the issue by putting you on the 15 day IL. Let's just put you on the 60 day IL immediately,

which buys us two months to figure this all out. And oh, by the way, that also clears a spot

on the 40 man roster, which they used for CNL Perez, the veteran reliever, who they brought in on

a minor league deal. So they did serve a practical purpose, putting him on the 60 day as opposed to

the 15 day. So perhaps after all this in two months, he's back out there. He goes to AAA, he's

pitching and maybe we see him again before the season's over. Do I think that's an overly optimistic

view? Probably true. But I want to at least acknowledge that maybe it's not the worst case scenario.

Hopefully we find out more here in the next few days. But either way, it definitely caught everyone

off guard. And again, if Josiah Gray was lying to us the other day when he said he felt that

as good as he did, boy, he's a great liar because he came across as extremely genuine. And

he looked like a guy who understood that he was close to being back to a big league pitcher again.

You know, keep this in mind too. So he's out for at least two months. Whenever he comes back,

he's going to have to build himself up again. You know, then he'll go to AAA as was the plan. I

mean, best case scenario. How much major league time are we talking about for Josiah Gray this

season a month? Maybe two months if like everything goes swimmingly. You know, I mean, that's

part of the devastation here too. It's like this is looking like a lost season here. Hopefully not,

but you know, it's hard to concoct a realistic scenario by which this isn't a season in which you

say to yourself, man, it's another lost season, a third consecutive lost season for this guy.

Right. I think you have to remember 60 day IL doesn't mean he's back in the big leagues in 60 days.

Now, he can rehab prior to that point, but I would imagine there's going to be a long road. And

we know how careful they were with him prior to this. There, of course, going to continue

to be careful with it. So if you were counting on Josiah Gray to do something substantial for

the Nationals in 2026, I'm not saying it's impossible for that to happen, but I would back off

of that prediction. And I would assume that whatever major league contribution he provides this

year is going to be minimal. If any, if you listen to Nat's chat, you're probably a Nat's fan.

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Chris Adele and he took it like a pro. He was awesome.

Awesome. These are never easy and he, you know, looks in the eye the entire time, you know,

understood. Said he was going to do everything you need to do in AAA and we told him it's our

job to make sure he has a clear understanding of what we need him to work on while he's there.

Dylan Cruz demoted Robert Hassel III demoted Harry Ford demoted as we said a lot to get to here.

The cruise one clearly is the headliner. We on the last installment of the podcast talked about

the wretched exhibition season that he was having, but I don't think either one of us thought

that the gnats would actually do what they ended up doing, which is sending him to AAA.

And, you know, it was really interesting hearing the way that Blake butera talked about this,

you know, saying that we don't think less of Dylan Cruz, but, you know, clearly there are

problems here. You don't do this if there isn't something really wrong here with how this guy

is approaching his plate appearances. I guess let's start with this. Do you think the gnats

internally are viewing measuring Dylan Cruz's latest in AAA Rochester in weeks or in months?

I think they are completely open-minded to it and they're going to let his performance dictate.

I think they hope it's weeks and not months, but I don't think they're going to feel like

they're obligated to bring him back within weeks if the performance doesn't suggest that he's

ready for it. I think what this is an acknowledgement of. It's a couple of things. First, he did look

lost this spring. We talked about it last week. It wasn't just the numbers, which were awful,

but the quality of the bats was really low, swinging at bad pitches. The contact he was making was

weak and on the ground. There just wasn't anything that made you say to yourself, hey, this guy

looks like he's about to break out. I think it starts with that. If you take the name Dylan Cruz off

of him and just say this is any other relatively inexperienced major leager who looked like that

this spring, you wouldn't think twice about sending him down. You would say, no, this guy shouldn't

be on the opening day roster. The only reason that we assumed, and most people assumed it wouldn't

happen is because he is Dylan Cruz, and he was the number two pick, and because the team has

for so long touted him as a critical part of their future. I think that's where the internal

debate probably was, but it's important. Remember, Paul Taboni and Ani Kalambi and Blake

butarr and everybody else in charge right now, they inherited Dylan Cruz. They didn't draft him.

He's not their guy. Would Mike Rizzo have made this move? Absolutely not. I would be stunned.

Absolutely stunned if Mike Rizzo had made that move, but if you're Paul Taboni, you can make

that move a little easier because he wasn't your guy. You weren't the one who decided to bring

him up to the big leagues as quickly as Rizzo did. You weren't the one that kept him up here

even when he was struggling. I think that gives him a little cover for doing it. As far as what he

needs to do down there, he needs to relax. Number one, he looked like the weight of the world was

on his shoulders the way he was pressing. It needs to go down there and just relax. Take the

coaching that he's been given. I do believe that applies to everybody, but in particular him,

he's been given a whole lot of information and it's probably a lot different than when he was given

last year and the year before. It's just taking him a while to process that and then implement that

into his swing. I think some significant changes for him. He needs to go into a less pressurized

environment, work on that and then hopefully see the results happen at which point they call him

back up. The reason I didn't think they would do this and the concern I have with it is where

is Dylan Cruz's head right now? Like I said, he looked lost. He looked like he was pressing.

I don't know if he's a self-doubler but he's never struggled like this in his life.

So to have that happen, can he now flip that switch and use this to make himself better?

And come back up here or does this cause even more self-doubt and more pressing and now he's

feeling like, man, I'd better get off to a great start that first week in Rochester or I could

be stuck here for a long time. That's the worst thing that could happen. Now, in asking Butera

about that, their feeling is he's a mentally strong kid. He took it the right way. The message they

all gave to him as you noted was like, hey, we believe in you big time. This is not a sign that we're

giving up on you. We just know that you need some time to get things right before we bring you

back up. One thing that we made sure Dylan was where I was like, we absolutely believe in Dylan.

Like our thoughts on Dylan as a person, as a player have only changed in a positive direction.

That all sounds great, but we have to see what that looks like in practice. Triple A is the hardest

place in baseball to be. Nobody wants to be at Triple A either cause you're on your way up or

you're on your way down. It's really up to him to stay motivated and take the right approach to

all this and not try to force the issue, but just go be a good baseball player to the point that

they say, okay, you're ready to come back up. Blake butera had a great line. It was something along

the lines of I still see when the gnats are good. Dylan crews running in from the outfield and

being a part of the celebration pile on the field. When we see ourselves making a playoff push,

this year, next year, wherever it might be, we envision him running in from the outfield that

dog pile. Like he's going to be a big part of that. It was such a nice image for just a moment to

take yourself away to a faraway land in which the gnats are clenching something of meaning,

and we're celebrating on the field like that. And Dylan crews is running in to jump on the pile,

but you look now at what we have seen with Dylan crews. Number two overall pick in the 2023

MLB draft out of LSU. Two MLB regular seasons OPS and just 634 OPS plus just 79. He had this

horrific 2026 exhibition season albeit a small sample size. We get that. But man, it did not look

good. 34 played appearances OPS of 309 and it's not like he was hitting balls hard is hard hit

percentage per stat cast for the exhibition season. I'm your 26.3. And I guess here's what I think

about as much as anything. Are we now at a point where we have to adjust what we think Dylan

crews is going to be? I mean personally, I don't think he's a lost cause. You know, MLB success stories

vary in terms of paths to greatness. So like, I don't think that Dylan crews all of a sudden now

you write off and say is a bust. Okay. It's only his age 24 season. But most great players

demonstrate being great early in their careers. You know, it usually doesn't take two or three years.

It's usually not this extended struggle session. It usually does it require being

demoted to triple A before you start what is in the minds of many a very crucial season for you

in terms of your professional career. And I think that's the thing that I find as sobering as

anything is, okay, maybe he'll be a good player. But is it time for us to get off this idea of

him being the franchise player who he was drafted to be with that number two overall pick? A guy

who was comped to Mike Trout. I mean, yes, that's a high standard. I understand that. But is it

time for us to get off this idea of Dylan crews being a truly special elite player? I think it's

probably wise not to be thinking of those terms right now. You leave open the possibility. But like,

let's take this step by step. He's got to prove he's a big leaguer first. Any kind of big leaguer,

then he can prove that he's a good big leaguer. Then he can prove that he's a great big leaguer.

There's no reason right now to be thinking in terms of greatness with him. It's really a matter

of, hey, can he get back up here and enjoy any kind of success, which we just haven't seen

this level? Let's also acknowledge his minor league numbers. Other than maybe the first stop in

Fredericksburg were okay. They weren't bad, but they weren't great. It wasn't like he was forcing

the issue the way that James Wood did when he just tore up the minor leagues, and especially at

Triple A before he was finally called up. There's that as well. When the move was announced,

I got a few different reactions from fans. I heard more than one comparison to Nick Senzel,

who was the number two overall pick he played for the Nats. Eventually, we know his career didn't

pan out at all. I even had somebody tweet without saying anything. Just tweeted back at me a photo

of Carter Kebum. I think the implication there was pretty obvious. Look, Carter Kebum was never

supposed to be the kind of player that Dylan Cruz was supposed to be, but we know that Kebum

didn't have any kind of career as well. I don't want to go there at this point, but let's just

acknowledge he just needs to have some success somewhere that being Triple A for now. Then,

if that happens, show that he can have some success in the major leagues and then go from there.

Maybe in a way, it's better for him not to have that weight of the world,

not to think of himself as I am the future of this franchise. His face is still going to be all

over the place. It's on a lot of their promotional material for 2026. That was the intention of the

organization. You're going to see posters of him. You're going to see him with others on the cover

of the media guide this year. It's too late to change anything like that. But maybe for his sake,

it's best just to not think in those terms, just go be another guy, try to play as well as you

can. When you come up back up here, not that he carried himself like a superstar. That's not who he

is at all. But maybe when it comes back up, it is a little different scenario. It's not viewed as

the great hope of this team is going to be Dylan Cruz. Maybe eventually he gets there. Let's also

acknowledge there have been others in this situation who have come back and had fantastic careers.

Mike Trout was one of them who was sent down when he struggled early on. I know Gunner Henderson

in Baltimore had this. They're not apples to apples comparisons, but it's not unprecedented.

Certainly for a top rank first round pick to struggle, be sent down and then eventually come

back and be really good. I had this thought when the Nats demoted Dylan Cruz and that is this.

So I think one of the most frustrating things about the Nats never ending rebuild is that so many

of the well-regarded prospects have disappointed. You know, maybe due to injury, maybe due to

ineffectiveness, but like just so many guys who we have heard about have talked about when cold

up to the majors just have not produced. And when you look at other than James Wood, all of these

guys having struggled and then you compare that with Ryan Zimmerman and Jordan Zimmerman and Steven

Strasper and Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon and Trade Turner. What is happening now has given me a

greater appreciation for what happened then because those guys to their credit all were good at

the major league level quickly. And I feel like a lot of us just took that for granted, but like if

you look at each guy Zimmerman Zimmerman Strasper Harper and Don't Turner, basically all were good

quickly. And when you compare that with what we've had over these last few years in which other

than James Wood, every other well-regarded prospect has struggled either due to injury or ineffectiveness.

It is such a juxtaposition. And it does make me have greater appreciation for what those

aforementioned well-regarded guys did. I mean, you go back and you look at them and man, all of them

basically from the get go were good. And if they weren't good from the get go within like a season or

two, they were really good. Yeah, I think it's also a credit to we're going back

away. It's not just the Mike Rizzo organization, but some of the people who worked underneath him

back in those times in their player development and then they're scouting. And even what they had

at the major league level so that when those guys were called up, they were promoted into a setting

in which there were already some established good players at the big league level to help show them

the way, good coaches to help them make that transition to the big leagues. And I think what you've

seen in recent years, of course, it's a reflection of the players themselves and what they've done

or not done, but it's also a reflection of the organization not doing the best they could

to bring the most out of them. Everything we hear about this new organization is that they are

all about player development. I buy into what they're selling. I do, but I think we all have to

acknowledge that it does take time. And while you hope that as many of the players that they inherited

as possible are a part of this thing. When they do finally have that moment that they all get to

celebrate and have the dog pile at the pitcher's mount, we also have to acknowledge that in the minds

of the people now running the organization, they're probably thinking more about and prioritizing more

the players that they brought in themselves as opposed to the ones that they inherited.

And this is telling us something about what Paul Toboni and Ani Kalambi think about what they

inherited. You know, maybe the cupboard wasn't totally bare, but I don't think that Toboni and

Kalambi were overwhelmed with what they took over. There's something else with the Dylan Cruz

demotion and it'll tie into our Harry Ford discussion. And that is this. Him being demoted does

pause his major league service time. And I'm not saying that that's why the ads demoted them,

but if you're looking for a silver lining here, if he stays at Rochester for about two months,

his free agency gets delayed until the 2031-2032 offseason. The free agency right now is scheduled

for the 2030-2031 offseason, the same offseason in which James Wood is scheduled to be a free agent.

And I've never liked that those two were on the same service time timeline. And so maybe if there

is something good that comes from this, it is that those two guys get off the same service time

timeline. But with Harry Ford being demoted. Look, I'm going to ask a question. I think a lot of us

were wondering, how much of this do you think is service time that the ads view him as the

catcher of the future? They do think that he still needs some work. And so why have him burn

valuable service time in a season in which the team is not expected to be good? Have them in the

minors, go with Cape at Ruiz. And then once you get to that two month mark or thereabouts and

you're getting that extra year team control, then you bring up Harry Ford. How much do you think

service time factored into what the ads did with Harry Ford? I think it's probably a part of that

conversation. But I honestly believe the number one reason for his demotion was this.

He didn't show enough. And again, he left for the WBC. So that's part of it. But he didn't show

so much in spring training as to say, Hey, I'm ready to be the guy, the number one catcher here.

And Cape at Ruiz at the same time didn't show so little to suggest that he can no longer be the

number one guy. I don't think they wanted to go into the season and say that they're going to

just be a straight up time share or that Ruiz is number one and Ford is number two. Ford needs to

play on a regular basis. He's only played eight big league games. He's still young. It's it's not like

there was ever a guarantee that he is ready to be the guy right from the get go. So I think the

feeling there is that he's better served starting four or five games a week at AAA than two or

three games here. And I think also we have to acknowledge the cable Ruiz contract. You're talking

about inheriting players. Well, they inherited, you know, the one bad contract that this team has

at the moment. They inherited that as well. You have to at least give Ruiz the opportunity now

to play and maybe play his way out of the number one job. He looked fine the spring. Not great,

not bad. He drew more walks than he has in the past. That's a good sign. I think they're pleased

with some of the work he's done behind the plate some improvement. Let's see how this goes through

the first month of the year with him as the number one. And then if he's back to the old Ruiz that

we had seen pre-concussions and if Ford is off to a good start at AAA, then you can think about

making that move. And maybe the service time considerations don't really come into play. So I

think it has more to do with that than anything. And as we said, their focus is on the long term.

It's not on the short term. And so if they think Harry Ford is the long term answer behind the

plate, they don't necessarily need him to do that at the big league level right now in April.

There's no reason to rush that might as well let him have some success in Rochester and then

call him up along the way. Yeah, I mean, it's still hard to believe that they don't view Harry Ford

as the long term number one catcher. I mean, you don't make the trade that the Nats made for him

without thinking that you don't trade for a highly talented catcher period. If you still look

at Cabo Ruiz as the guy, right? So you got to think like bigger picture. They still must be

viewing Ford as the guy. Just need some more work. And yeah, if you gain that extra year of team

control, so be it. What about Robert Hassel? That's another one. Most people were not anticipating.

Why was he demoted? I think that's also a playing time thing that at least at the time he was sent

down prior to Cruz. And so the thought was, well, they already have four outfielders for three

spots. We saw last year when he was on the roster, you know, as like the fifth outfielder,

he got some playing time, but not a ton. And so maybe again, it's better for his development to

play more regularly and triple A. Now they send Cruz down. I can't remember if it was the next day

or two days later. I'm sure Robert Hassel in that moment is thinking to himself, hang on a second.

Why am I not back up there? If he's not on the team, then shouldn't I be on the team? Because now

there's more of an opportunity. But likewise, it's not like he tore it up this spring. It's not like

he's been fantastic when we have seen him in the big league. There have been moments, but he hasn't

done what Dailin Lyle has done so far. So I think he does still need to prove himself in some way.

We don't really know what he is. Is he an everyday outfielder? Is he more of a platoon player?

He's a good defender, can play all three positions. Seems like he makes good contact, but we haven't

really seen that enough. Now you could argue he just hasn't been given enough of an opportunity

to play every day at the big leagues. But again, this is a new organization. They're not wedded to

players they inherited. And right now they don't see him as one of their three best outfielder. So

better off having him play regularly at AAA and force that issue and show that he should be up here.

Well, he was a well-regarded guy when the Nats got him in the Wansoto trade. He has been

referred to as the Forgotten Prospect by Mike Rizzo. It's interesting. It does seem that Paul

Taboni values playing time at AAA. Like he rather you, if he sees you as a piece or a potential piece,

he rather you develop and get at bats and playing time in the minors, then have you in the majors

and maybe not play as much or maybe struggle a whole lot. I mean, there is a school of thought that

says, especially for a guy like Dylan Cruz, it's not about how he does in the minors. He's got to

develop in the majors, but it seems like, you know, Taboni and the new brass here looks at it as no,

you know, it's okay to have guys who you like a lot playing in the minors and the guys who you

have in the majors aren't necessarily all your best guys or your most well thought of guys, you know,

and it would appear that that's the way that Taboni in this front office are thinking.

This is not the best 26 players that are going to open the season with them and that's by design.

They are much more focused on who are the best 40 in the long term and not just right now. I think

something else that speaks to a different issue here, but don't worry too much about who's on

the opening day roster, especially when comes to things like the bullpen and the bench. This is

going to be a constant roster turn, I think. They are going to try to match up with different teams.

They play early in the season. They're going to move guys. They have a ton of guys. I think it's 14

players that they've optioned to triple A and a bunch of others on the major league roster who have

options as well. There's going to be a lot of movement up and down this season. It's going to be an

ever-changing roster and I think one of the things we're going to have to remind ourselves, I have to

do it as well myself because you get so caught up on who's going to make the team and who doesn't.

I think the roster is going to look very different in April than it doesn't may in June, July,

August and September. There may not be a lot of consistency in terms of who the 26 are and I think

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What I say is, hey, we're going to compete regardless. We're helping on making the playoffs regardless.

What we want to guard against though is, you put in the windows and the doors before the foundation

is really, really strong. I think we're in this process now of making sure that the foundation

is really, really strong. Like I said, we can withstand a run for years to come.

All right. So the Nats in their exhibition season when 14 11 and three had that offense actually had

good run prevention. I would not say good defense, but good run prevention. I don't know that any

of this means anything, but just for the record, that's what went down in the exhibition season.

The Nats exhibition season concluded with games against the Baltimore Orioles over back to back days

and eight one loss at the O's at Oriole Park. It can't be yards on Sunday afternoon at two

nothing lost to the O's at Nationals Park on Monday afternoon. If you go by draft Kings as of

Monday morning, the Nats for the 2026 regular season had an over underwent total of 65 and to half

and had odds of 500 to one to win the World Series. So you're telling me there's a chance. The Nats,

the Chicago White Sox and the Colorado Rockies tied for last in the majors for draft Kings as of

Monday morning in terms of odds to win the World Series 500 to one. The lowest over under

wind total per draft Kings as of Monday morning was the Rockies 54 and to half. So the Nats at 65

and a half not the lowest, but second to last in terms of what is anticipated with the over under

wind total. So we know the deal. You know, for this season, we may have the lowest expectations yet

for a singular Nats regular season since the franchise came here. I mean, it's hard to remember

going into a campaign with expectations lower for a Nats ball club. So we make now our season

predictions in terms of records, any other footnotes you want to provide. You may go first,

my friend. The floor is yours. I think that line was 65 and a half. I think that's about right.

That I think that's, you know, where it should be at this point. Remember, they won 66 games

last year. So that's essentially saying they're going to be very similar in terms of record.

I want to believe they're going to be at least a little bit better. I don't think they're going

to be dramatically better. Is it possible? They completely bought them out and lose 100 plus games.

Yeah, but I keep thinking about just how bad last year was, especially the second half once they

done the firings and everybody was just counting down the days until the season ended and they

still wound up with 66 wins. Not a good total at all, but not, you know, so bad that you're talking

about anything historic and nowhere close to where they were a few years earlier when they only

won 55 games. So I want to believe that they're going to be a little bit better than that. I think

the pitching is going to be better. I don't think it says good as we saw this spring. They

know lowest ERA in baseball. I don't think that is a sign of anything, but I do think they're going

to be better from pitching standpoint. I was surprised and really concerned about the lack of

offense this spring. I thought if anything, this team is more likely to lose games this year,

you know, seven to six than two to one. I was worried about the pitching staff. I wasn't as worried

about the lineup. I thought there's enough in there that makes you say they can score some runs.

So the fact that they struggle to that extent does worry me and the defense really concerns me.

They can work on it all they want. They can preach it all they want. What I saw in spring training

looked very similar to what we had seen last year and for several years beyond that. Yeah,

they might be a little better up the middle with Jacob Young playing every day in center with

Nassim Nunez playing a lot at second base. I think Brady House is solid at third.

CJ Abrams, we know it's all about consistency with him. I'm not sold on the first baseman.

I don't know the Lewis Garcia is going to be a big positive contributor for them at first. I don't

know about the catchers, the corner outfielders, the pitching defense. I have concerns about

that's a long-winded way of me saying I think there are reasons to think they're not going to be

god-awful, like historically bad. But I don't see a team that is going to make a major move

forward this year. And I don't think the organization expects them to do that. I don't think they're

that concerned with a win total this year and result of all that. I'm going very slightly

better than last year and saying 68 wins in 2026. One of the counterintuitive realities of life

is that so often the best things happen when you have the lowest expectations. And so at the very

least, I'm saying about this Nass season, we all have no expectations. So it almost feels like

anything good that does happen will provide some joy, some enjoyment, some fun. I think we all could

use with this team. So I think we all get it. This Nass season is primarily not about wins and

losses. That's not to say that you shouldn't care about wins and losses. But you know, I know from

me personally, I'm focusing on two things. Number one, the nucleus of key young Nats players,

how these guys do and how we come to define that nucleus, you know, because who we include in

that nucleus now might be different than who we include in that nucleus come September. But

James Wood, Dylan Cruz, Robert Hassel, the third Dailin Lyle, Cade Cavali, Harry Ford,

Louise Garcia, Jr., CJ Abrams, if he isn't traded, how these guys do, how they develop matter so

much, you cannot emphasize that enough. And then the other thing, and this ties into that first

thing, but this process, which we all believe has improved with Paul Taboni, if the process is

legit, if the process is as good as we think, if this incorporation of analytics and sports

science like never before is a sound and is as robust as we hope, then we should see signs of

that this season, not necessarily in the form of the team, you know, winning the National League

East, but we should see signs of, oh, this guy's better because of this. That guy's better because

of that. There will be an article on natsjournal.com at some point in the season, writing about how

the Nats new ways, the Nats new process have led to these improvements for these players,

that kind of a thing. So I am seeking and searching for and hoping we can revel in tangible signs

of the process working. If we get the nucleus doing well, the nucleus expanding and the process

being proven to be good, then I think this is a successful season. Nobody's expecting a lot in

the ways of wins. I know that there is this expectation that especially early on things could

be ugly than that's from a scheduling standpoint. We're done no favors. A lot of teams anticipated

to be good early on in the regular season. I would say this though, I could see the Nats over say

the first 50 games, treading water more than people might think, you know, maybe like 26 and 24

over the first 50 games. I think where the struggles really happen is in the back half of the season,

especially if the team trades CJA Abrams. But, you know, I could see the starting pitching,

you know, a foster Griffin, a Miles Michaelis, a Zach Letel, being able to keep things okay for a

little while. And then what we have seen for many seasons in this rebuild is things really fall

apart as the season goes on. What you usually are rooting for with a rebuilding team is things get

better as the season goes on. We have not seen a lot of that in recent years. Usually the trajectory

has been opposite. Maybe things are good for both players in the team early on or at least not

bad early on. And then they really fall apart as the year goes on. I could see this team with

whoever gets traded and just with the attrition of the season having real problems come August

in September. I could actually see things maybe being kind of sort of okay early on. I will take

the over the 65 and a half. I'll say 70 wins 70 and 92. But again, man, no expectations, no pressure,

just sit back, relax, enjoy the season. And hopefully we'll all be pleasantly surprised.

You know, I know we've come across as kind of pessimistic here over this course of this show.

Let's take a step back and acknowledge that overall you should have an optimistic view of where

this franchise is headed. The reason for pessimism right now in 26 is not because of what's happening

right now. It's because of what happened the last few years. It takes time to clean that up.

The people they've brought in the processes they've put in place should all be good. They should work

in the long run. When that happens, I don't know. It may not happen immediately. But I do think

there are reasons to be encouraged and optimistic about where this organization is headed.

I'm a little different from you. I get what you're saying. And their pattern the last few years has

been like, they've peaked in like May the last few years. And then it's kind of gone south once you

get to the summer. I just look at that initial schedule 12 with their first 15 games are against the

four teams that have the best records in the national league last year Dodgers Phillies Cubs and

Brewers. I think there's a more likely path that they show improvement over the course of the year

because knock on wood. Eventually you are going to see crews and Ford and some other guys that we

haven't really talked about, but younger guys who might have a big role for them in the future.

I think we're going to see more of them in the second half. And so my hope is that the first half

may be ugly, but that it actually starts to look better in the second half. I think that would be a

better path. Honestly, if that's the way they get to, whether it's 68 or 70 wins or whatever the

total ends up being. Oh, I hope you're right. I would must prefer that path than what I said,

because that's what you want. You want things getting better as a season goes on. It's unfortunate

that we had the Josiah Gray news and the Dylan Cruz demotion for this episode because, ideally,

your season preview episode is a hope springs eternal type episode. But you know, we had these

downtrodden items to discuss. And I don't know how you put a happy face on the Josiah Gray news.

I don't know how you put a happy face on the Dylan Cruz news. So we'll see. But yeah, I'm with you.

Paul Taboni, I think, was an excellent hire. I think Auntie Colomby was a very good hire.

And I am intrigued by Blake butera. I mean, total unknown as an Ebobe manager clearly.

But if you're just going off like the way he comes across and the things that he says,

I like the way he comes across. I like the things that he says. I know that doesn't mean that,

you know, he's Miller Huggins here, okay? But like he does seem to know what's up. I think his

way of viewing baseball is very modern and very progressive and very encouraging. And so I'm excited

to see what the gnats have in Blake butera as a manager. And I think that'll be an intriguing

storyline this season. He speaks a very different language than we've been used to around here.

And I'm not just talking about Davey but even going back to Dusty Baker and a lot of all the

previous managers. This is a very different kind of manager. I think we talked about the starter

spring training. Are they all going to buy into this 33 year old who's never been above single A?

They have. They have legitimately bought into him and his coaching staff. Now the caveat,

let's see when if they start off three and 12 or whatever it might be against that brutal

schedule we talked about. Let's see if he keeps them all together. I think his biggest test this

year is keeping everybody motivated if they are well out of it. If he can pass that test,

I think they found themselves a winner in Blake butera. I'm really fascinated to see how this all goes.

Well, you tell us what you expect for the gnats in the 2026 regular season. Hit us up on

exit gnats underscore chat. Hit us up on blue sky at gnats chat podcast. You can email the show

as well. Nats chat podcast at gmail.com. We have a website. You could check out to natschatpodcast.com

at which you can purchase a nats chat podcast t shirt. And here we go season number six. We will

be with you with an episode of this podcast for the morning after every nats regular season game

day weekday and weekend. So you know, it doesn't matter if it's a Tuesday night or a Saturday afternoon

we're with you the following day with an episode discussing what went down with the nats and mark.

We will engage in this voyage together and we will see where it takes us man. This is one of these

deals where you know, maybe things are rough but then again, maybe we get pleasantly surprised.

You know, in sports when you think you know, you so often do not know and that's something I always

try to remind myself of like don't be so certain of anything because sports tend to surprise you

and tend to humble you in that way. You know, just to close out on a more optimistic tone,

you mentioned that this might be the least optimistic or the lowest expectations we've ever had

going in to season for nationals. The other contender I'm going to say goes all the way back to

when they were in kind of a similar position 2007, starting a rebuild with a new ownership group.

The manager was a first-timer in Manny Acta. There were people talking about they're going to be

the worst team in the majors. They might lose way over 100 games. They wound up winning 73 games

and surprising a lot of people. Now, that team did not have anything sustainable and that was not

the beginning of success that came five years later in 2012 but you're right that very often when

you think a team is going to be the worst or when you have the least level of expectation going

in, very often they're better than you think and maybe that's what the 20s and 26 nationals

all nationals radio highlights on that chat occurred to see of 1067 the fan from Mark

Sockerman. I'm Al Goldie. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the

that chat podcast. Here's Abram's pitch to CJ. So we had a long drive left center field. Taylor

going back to the warning track. He leaps at the wall. Can't get it. It's off the top of the wall

rolling in a straightaway center picked up by the left fielder Nibbo. Yacht race he ran third.

He's headed home and standing in third with a triple his CJ Abrams.

Matt Sleen and Zudadothay first hit for Abrams off the edge or list as a triple off the very top

of the left center field wall scoring up from first.

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Trek's marine grade decking is 100% submersible built to resist rod and sold and fresh water.

Water has met its match. Trek's decking visit trex.com slash docks.