2021 Washington Nationals: Can We Just Forget 2020?

Petey Bienel · Nov 26, 2020

Nats sign LHP Sam Clay to a major league contract out of the Twins system.

Clay arrives after spending seven years in the Minnesota Twins’ system. He was part of their 60-player pool in 2020. He became a free agent in early October. In 2019, when he last faced opposing batters, Clay led all of minor league baseball in groundball rate. He was one of 11 pitchers to log 60 or more innings and not allow a home run. He has yielded only six homers in 405⅓ innings that span his 187 career appearances. He said he has allowed just one homer as a reliever since 2013.

Clay is a sinker-heavy pitcher who throws that pitch, a slider and a change-up. He says he can go to any pitch in any count and has never been considered a lefty-lefty specialist. His success rides on whether he can locate his sinker low in the zone and use it to get groundballs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/11/18/nationals-sign-sam-clay/

sean1562 · Nov 26, 2020

Kieboom and Robles really need to take leaps forward if this team is gonna be any good next year. If they dont't, may be time to sell some pieces off at the deadline.

Petey Bienel · Dec 1, 2020

sean1562 said:
Kieboom and Robles really need to take leaps forward if this team is gonna be any good next year. If they dont't, may be time to sell some pieces off at the deadline.

Robles I don't think could handle the weight he put on. They call it "muscle." 15 pounds of it. Whatever it was, his D dropped off and he started missing pitches in the strike zone. His contact on swings on strikes and overall dropped about 5% per both ways Fangraphs tracks it. I'll settle for what he did his rookie year offensively and strong (not supernatural) defense. IF the weight gain was really working out after the end of the spring (as Martinez says), then maybe it really was too quick to adjust to. By the way, Saturday MLB.com reported he sprained his ankle in the DR winter league; has missed 3 games and is day-to-day.

Kieboom? At least his D improved over time. They rushed him in 2019 when Turner was hurt, but last year, how do you have an ISO of .010 over 120 PAs? I know cost-controlled slightly above average players are valuable, but they actually have to play that way when they are cheap, which means 2021-22 for him.

As for deadline deals breaking them up, I would have sold in May 2019

sean1562 · Dec 29, 2020

There is probably some desire to have Ryan Zimmerman play one more year. He has been pretty bad over the last few years but he still crushes LHP. Limited role in a platoon with Bell seems to be the play here.

loshjott · Dec 29, 2020

sean1562 said:
There is probably some desire to have Ryan Zimmerman play one more year. He has been pretty bad over the last few years but he still crushes LHP. Limited role in a platoon with Bell seems to be the play here.

Especially with Howie Kendrick's somewhat unexpected retirement. They need a RH bat to platoon or come off the bench.

Petey Bienel · Jan 1, 2021

A Jesse Dougherty article on how the Nats don't have Jackson Rutledge or Cade Cavalli available in trade has a kind of jaw-dropping recap of the pitching they've dealt in the past 5 years or so.

"Giolito and Dunning, by contrast, were traded to the Chicago White Sox for Adam Eaton in 2016. Reynaldo López, another young arm, was included in that deal. Jesús Luzardo, another top pitching prospect, headlined a trade package for Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson in 2017. And just last week, Wil Crowe and Eddy Yean — a pair of consensus top-10 prospects for Washington — were sent to Pittsburgh in exchange for first baseman Josh Bell."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/12/31/jackson-rutledge-nationals-future/

There was also the July 2016 trade of Felipe Vazquez (Rivero) for Mark Melancon. Maybe best not to mention him.

Dougherty also reports that they have signed Javy Guerra and Welington Castillo to minor league contracts, but I don't see an announcement from the Nationals about this. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/12/21/nationals-javy-guerra-welington-castillo/

jose melendez · Jan 5, 2021

Thames was a huge star in Korea. He was on the Masked Singer and everything. I have no idea if that translates to Japan.... probably depends entirely on how well he plays.

Petey Bienel · Jan 9, 2021

Kyle Schwarber to the Nats for 1 year, $10MM, pending physical, per multiple sources.

Nationals Sign Kyle Schwarber

1:31PM: The signing has been officially announced by the Nationals. USA Today's Bob Nightengale reports that the deal also contains …

www.mlbtraderumors.com

Likely means Soto plays right and Schwarber plays left. I'm surprised that he grades out as average in left per UZR. Negative in terms of some other measures. I'm surprised the article says the Nats lineup "still leaned mostly towards right-handed hitters" even after Bell. I see now Schwarber, Bell, Ted Williams Soto, and possibly Garcia as left handed regulars, v. Turner, Robles, mostly Gomes, probably Castro, and possibly Kieboom as right-handed hitters. I guess that's right-handed hitters in terms of quantity, not quality. Soto hits everything, so I guess Soto alone was not going to be enough to discourage throwing righties against lesser hitters. Both Schwarber and Bell have bad platoon splits. Maybe the Nats will still see a lot of RHP and Schwarber / Bell will feast.

E5 Yaz · Jan 18, 2021

Lester driven to 'bring another ring' to Nats

Fifteen Major League seasons, five All-Star selections and three World Series championships later, Jon Lester still has something to prove this year with the Nationals. “Win -- that’s never wavered for me,” Lester said on a Wednesday Zoom call after the 37-year-old left-hander’s one-year deal...

www.mlb.com

Petey Bienel · Jan 27, 2021

behind Gomes right now, the Nats have 2 minor leaguers who have been busted for PEDs (Tres Barrera on the 40 man, Raudy Read with invite), Welington Castillo, and Swihart.

Petey Bienel · Saturday at 1:51 PM

JimRiceHOFer said:
Nats Catcher situation now has the following depth:

Yan Gomes
Alex Avila
Wellington Castillo
Blake Swihart
Raudy Read
Tres Barrera

I liked the Avila signing because the Nats seemed very vulnerable to righty starters last season. Gomes has trouble with righties over his career and recently, so this has the potential to be a nice offensive platoon. That depends a bit on whether Davey wants to line up pitchers with catchers or not. Avila has handled Corbin, who Martinez used to line up with Gomes almost exclusively. Having two catchers who can both handle him is nice.

how much worse was it against RHP vs LHP? .845 OPS, .357 wOBA, 121 wRC+ vs. .741 OPS, .320 wOBA, 97 wRC+. I can't quite lay my hands on it at Fangraphs or Baseball Reference, but I recall the numbers were even more split comparing vs righty and vs lefty starters. When you think about it, Soto kills everybody, and then you had Thames, Eaton, and Garcia among the regulars as lefty batters, so it makes sense. Also explains pickups like Bell and Schwarber and Avila.

Of all the moves so far, the one that I shake my head at most is the Schwarber signing, in light of the Pederson and Rosario contracts. All 3 of those are 1 year deals, and I don't see why Schwarber is the one who got $10 million (plus an option) while the others are worth only $7 million and $8 million relative to Schwarber. I can sort of understand not getting into the Brantley bidding due to years and age (although at $16 million, he would have fit under the CBT and left the typical $10 million the Nats like to be at going into the season), but, for the money Pederson got, they might have been able to sign Pederson and Duvall ($12 million total) and still left them $14 million below the threshold.

Makes me wonder if they are leaving money to try to sign Turner long term.

2021 Washington Nationals: Can We Just Forget 2020?

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