The Nats Failed All Expectations This Season As The Mets Clinched the NL East Yesterday
Yesterday marked the official end of the Nationals’ season. A season that many throughout baseball thought would end in an early November parade throughout the Nation’s Capital is unceremoniously finished with 8 games remaining in the season. This team entered the year considered as the team to beat throughout baseball and, unfortunately, they were beaten way too often. The team that entered the season with the #1 spot in the ESPN Power Rankings wound up ranked worse than 10th in 12 of the season’s 25 weeks. The Nationals dealt with various injuries to important players like Rendon (who played 72 games), Werth (82), Ryan Zimmerman (95), and Denard Span (61) but, ultimately, it was a blend of poor management and overall disappointing and underwhelming play that did the team in. A team that was touted for its ‘5 aces’ is sitting here, with just a week to go in the season, and only has 1 starting pitcher with a sub-3.00 ERA (Scherzer, 2.98) while the other 4 ‘aces’ all have earned run averages of at least 3.63 (Strasburg) or 3.68 (Jordan Zimmermann) and one (Doug Fister) was relegated to the bullpen after injuries and 15 ineffective outings. Not for nothing, the Nats’ starting pitchers still finished 6th in the NL in ERA, but behind all 5 playoff teams (STL, PIT, CHC, LAD, NYM).
This team did not come close to meeting its lofty pre-season expectations and I think its very fair to say that Yunel Escobar, Bryce Harper, and Clint Robinson are the only three players to really meet or exceed their pre-season projections. Wilson Ramos has been a disappointment while Ian Desmond was the worst shortstop in baseball for the first half of the season. Jayson Werth has picked it up recently but his injuries and overall lack of production make for a hideous final statline, and Ryan Zimmerman’s blistering August wasn’t enough to save his season from injuries and non-performance. Denard Span was excellent when he played (as was Anthony Rendon) but neither Span nor Rendon took the field enough to make the difference that they should have. Danny Espinosa was fine but he’s … well, Danny Espinosa. Finally, Michael A Taylor had a knack for getting that big hit but he never really got any other hits. MAT is young and has a very high ceiling, so I look forward to watching him progress next season and beyond.
On the pitching side of things, Drew Storen was one of the few constants in the bullpen…yes THAT Drew Storent…until the team acquired Papelbon and Storen punched a locker. The rest of the pen was adequate but seemed to give a way a lot of should-be wins over the final few weeks of the season. I already talked about the starting 5 but Jordan Zimmermann cobbled together his worst full-season ERA (3.68) in what is likely his last season as a National; Gio Gonzalez just didn’t seem to have ‘it’ and also put together the worst full MLB season of his career (If you take out a dominant July, Gio has a 4.70 ERA). Gio and Zimmermann were bad by their standards but Doug Fister was absolutely terrible. Fister’s 2014 ERA was 6th in all of baseball but, in 15 2015 starts he just could not get batters out and will not factor into the Nationals’ future plans. Max Scherzer was arguably the Cy Young winner of the 1st half but absolutely disappeared to the tune of a 4.41 ERA in the 2nd half. Nagging injuries kept Stephen Strasburg from contributing much in the first few months of the season, his 2nd half would be Cy Young caliber if it weren’t for Jake Arrieta’s absurdness. Just look how filthy Strasburg’s September has been:
Advertisement
Scherzer’s first half and Strasburg’s 2nd amount to a sparkling 2.11 ERA in 192.1 innings. Strasburg and Scherzer are going to be integral to this team’s 2016 success and if they can somehow harness their amazing talent for a full 162, they could challenge the Dodgers for the best 1-2 punch in baseball. Bryce Harper is the NL (and MLB) MVP, no question about that. As I said above, injuries are not an excuse for this team’s struggles, but you have to look at it rationally. Sure teams like the Mets faced injuries as well, but they had .200 hitters getting injured and replaced with other .200 hitters. The Nats were without their core all year- .300 hitter Span, 25 HR guys in Zimmerman and Rendon, lights out pitcher Strasburg, etc. I can’t help but feel optimistic about what this team could do next year with some better health.
And of course, without manager Matt Williams. A Williams-less Nationals team with a healthy core of Scherzer, Strasburg, Harper, and Rendon should not be taken lightly and remains firmly a top team in the NL. A lot could change in the offseason but the Nationals will once again challenge for the World Series next season. If the Mets don’t resign Cespedes and are back to not putting up any offense, the NL East should be ours once again.
Follow me @NatsBarstool
PS: What a dick! What an asshole!