In the midst of a fun World Series, I took a quick peek at the Transactions pages for both the Major League team and the Farm system of the Nats today… not one transaction for the entire month, anywhere in the system. I suppose this isn’t too much of a surprise, given our new GM and the wholesale shakeup of the entire front office, but it is a little curious since smart GMs often use this period to try to sneak players off the 40-man to try to stash them back in the minors before the wave of MLFAs are declared right after the World Series ends.
Update: of course, the moment I publish the Nats do exactly what I said they should be doing, which is to try to “sneak” four guys off the roster and outright them. Salazar, Thompson, Ogasawara, and Stubbs were DFA’d, cleared waivers this week, and were all outrighted to AAA. Both Thompson and Salazar were out of MLB Options and thus could (and did) elect to refuse the outright and are thus now FAs. Ogasawara was a $3.5M IFA signing that hasn’t really panned out, but we’re lucky he sticks around. Stubbs probably took one look at our paltry C-depth and chose to stick around for the time being.
These four moves put the 40-man roster at 36 for the time being and clears the way for the eventual return of the 60-day DL guys, which happens almost immediately once the World Series ends. We have five on the 60-day DL (Grey, Herz, Williams, Millas, and Law) but Law is a FA so will also get cut loose once the WS ends. After that, we’ll have FAs get cut loose, further lowering our active 40-man count, and there’s still plenty of names who probably could/should get DFA’d themselves to make room for this off-seasons Rule5 and FA acquisitions (not the least of which is several from this list: Loutus, Alfaro, Brzycky, Lara, Tena, Pilkington, or even Nunez.
Note: you can get quick links to Transaction pages, all the resources I maintain, and a slew of other baseball related links at my “Nats Quick Links Page” which I basically use as a bookmark manager for Nats and Baseball stuff at this point.
So, with very little to talk about, we’ve been quiet. Seaver King has come back down to earth; he’s now “only” slashing .354/.456/.583 in the AFL. Fun fact; the Scottsdale AFL team also has a player with both DC and personal ties; one Nick Morabito. Morabito is the son of Brian Morabito, who is the exact same age as I am, and who was a Little League legend growing up in the Vienna/McLean/Reston circles. You know you’re good when, in the 1980s pre social media you were a “known name” to rival little leagues. Brian ended up going to JMU (as I did) and played baseball all four years at JMU before heading back to the DC area to live. His eldest son Nick went to Gonzaga, and was a 2nd round pick, and has been moving up the chain, playing the entire 2025 season at AA Birmingham.
Anyway. once the WS ends, we’ll get all our MLB FAs declared (there’s only a few left: Bell, Law, deJong, and maybe a couple of these mid-season guys added), plus a slew of MLFAs who will have aged out of the system (all 2019 draftees and 2018 IFAs who weren’t older than 18). We don’t have too many of these guys left in the minors, but should include the likes of Cluff, Arruda, Shuman, Knowles, and Cuevas maybe (he was a prep draftee so he may have another year). 2018 IFAs include guys like Atencio, De La Rosa, Colomenares, Vasquez, Otanez, and Rivero. There’s a few more 19D/18IFAs on the roster who we acquired via MLFA already (Santos, Solesky, Narajo) who might be MLFAs again … or maybe they signed multi-year MLFA deals. Or perhaps they’ve already reupped for 2026; this is where tracking the Big Board sometimes gets a little murky. We also have all our 25MLFAs who may or may not be coming back, some of whom played pretty well this year (Schnell).
So, it’ll certainly be interesting when Baseball America lists their declared MLFAs in a few days. We’ll do the requisite XLS work online and then make the inevitable observations about what it means for (especially) the AAA roster, which looks to get gutted of a ton of org guys/MLFAs/4-A types.
So, we’ll be back in November with some of our favorite off-season things to write about: Rule-5 protection, non-tender analysis (both usually in the Mid-November timeframe). The other two main things to talk about in November are Awards Season and Qualifying Offers. Here’s the 2024 off-season Key Dates column for last year that helps drive this year’s schedule.
ask and you shall receive, per MASN Mark
Eduardo Salazar and Mason Thompson, left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara and catcher CJ Stubbs were dropped from the 40-man roster, with Ogasawara and Stubbs assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Salazar and Thompson refused their outright assignments and instead declared for free agency
FredMD
29 Oct 25 at 7:26 pm
That brings the 40 man down to 38.
Jorge Alfaro, Ryan Loutos, Sauryn Lao, Zack Brzykcy, Andry Lara are also still on the 40 man too, and may get bumped as the winter progresses. Unless they go wild and drop someone like Lipscomb, Millas, Alvarez or Parker, it seems the lower bound is 33 players to retain on the 40 man. Then the R5 should bump it back up. Wallace, Franklin, (maybe) Schnell, Bennett, Stuart (depending on injury timelines), Cornelio, Luckham, Grissom and Aldonis all being R5 eligible are going to force some very tough decisions this winter, before we even get to the point of adding free agents.
Will
30 Oct 25 at 5:32 am
Doesn’t it always work out that way? The moment you publish something … it becomes obsolete.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/nationals-outright-four-players.html
There’s absolutely still players on the 40-man who should make way; The #1, #4, and #5 on my “next to DFA” list are still on the 40-man; that’d be Loutus, Alfaro, and Brzycky. They’re still going to lose some FAs, which will lower it down even more, and then indeed they seem to have a ton of R5 possibilities, a post I won’t write for a few weeks.
Todd Boss
30 Oct 25 at 9:28 am
I certainly agree that there are still plenty of 40-man spots being tenuously occupied, with Loutos, Brzykcy and Alfaro at the top of the list.
But I’m not sure I see so many players in need of R5 protection. I don’t want to run through the whole list of potentials until Todd has a chance to post his thoughts but I see Bennett and Franklin as the only locks, and I think it might be just those two. In fact, maybe the way to interpret the recent batch of DFAs is that they were clearing exactly as much space as they needed.
SMS
30 Oct 25 at 11:21 am
My count of 38 was already excluding FAs like Bell, DeJong or Law, but adding the 60 day IL guys (Millas, Herz and Williams). (List here has 41, including the aforementioned 3). Alfaro is a funny exception, because he’s still under team control, accruing less than 6 full years of team control even though he made his MLB debut 10 years ago. But I expect the Nationals will release him too, and add a similarly incompetent catcher, who won’t eat up a 40 man spot until necessary.
SMS, I do agree that not all of these guys listed would get added, but unless we make some pretty significant moves on the pitching side of the FA market, we can’t afford to expose all of our limited AAA depth (Cornelio, Luckham, Grissom, etc.). I also don’t know how the rules work regarding Stuart, who will miss basically all of 2026 to injury. Would Stuart’s “season” extend in 2027 if he were picked this winter? Could a team stash him on the 60 day IL, rehab him for a month in September, and then earn themselves a new prospect for the 2027 season? We kind of pulled this with Thad Ward, though Ward got hurt AFTER picking him, so there might be different rules.
Will
30 Oct 25 at 11:39 am
Missing link: https://www.mlb.com/nationals/roster
Will
30 Oct 25 at 11:40 am
@Will – I forget the exact cutoff, but you basically have to be on the active roster at least half the season. If you’re on the IL for more than that, the acquiring team still retains rights but the R5 requirement to offer him back to the original team before he can be optioned is extended for a second season.
In Stuart’s case, an acquiring team would be taking over his rehab in 2026 (and paying him a ML salary) in order to give him a trial by fire in 2027. They couldn’t option him until 2028. Maybe if he was a top 100 prospect, some team would sign up for that, but with Stuart, I just don’t see it.
SMS
30 Oct 25 at 11:55 am
And now the Nats apparently have a new (and young) manager . . .
Yeah, my main comment was going to be that the Rule 5 discussion will be a lot more meaningful than any MLB or MiLB free agents. One would expect that the new regime likely will be cleaning house beyond just these guys. You’ve still got to be able to field the MiLB teams, but the new folks will have no ties to any of them.
Bennett is the only Rule 5 lock, but there are three or four others who will be (and should be) in play. I don’t see why Stuart should be one of them. The chances of him being picked are quite low. He’ll be 27.5 before he’s ready to pitch, and he has almost no experience above AA (16.2 bad innings at AAA in 2024).
Alfaro already should have been released. Among the others, I could see the new regime wondering if Brzykcy could be “fixed.” That said, it’s also the perfect time to DFA guys you hope to re-sign to MiLB contracts because every other team has tight rosters with Rule 5 decisions looming.
KW
30 Oct 25 at 1:31 pm
If you want a sneak peak on R5 needs … Roster Resource has a little “R5” in red for those who are eligible.
https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/nationals
A quick glance shows half a dozen names i’d consider protecting right now. Lots to consider.
Todd Boss
30 Oct 25 at 3:35 pm
In 2010, the Nats won only 69 games. Two years later they won 98 and easily made the playoffs. In 2025, the Nats won only 66 games. What would a similar turnaround take?
Well, almost a complete roster turnover. There were only three everyday regulars in common between 2010 and 2012 who played nearly all the season: Zim, Desi, and Mikey Morse. If you count Stras’s 12 starts in 2010, there were five pitchers in common, with Stras as the only one who was starting in 2012. So that’s three regulars, one starter, and four relievers (Clippard, Storen, Stammen [2010 starter], and Burnett).
It really feels like for the Nats to get back toward .500 in 2026 (they went 80-81 in 2011) and then contend in 2027, they’re going to have to do a similar total roster reconstruction.
For the record, Nyjer Morgan’s 73 OPS+ was better than Jacob Young’s 68. Much as in 2010, the Nats have A LOT of fringy players, guys who won’t be around whenever they get good again. The new leadership has to think in those terms.
Also, there will be growing pains. Desi posted an 89 OPS+ in 2010 at age 24, regressed to 80 in 2011, but then jumped to 125 and All-Star selection in 2012 at age 26. We have to hope that Crews and House can make a similar progression toward stardom and that Wood will stop making those who compared him to Adam Dunn look so on the money. (Dunn only topped 200 Ks once in his career, after he left the Nats.)
Before the transitional 2011 season, the Nats did something else: they started spending. They made the major deal (and necessary overpay) for Werth, and they also paid $7M to Adam LaRoche. If 2026 is going to look like 2011, the purse strings HAVE to loosen.
KW
30 Oct 25 at 10:20 pm
On the brightside, even once you factor in all the arb raises, the Nationals payroll is going to sit at $90m, which includes Strasburg’s $35m (last season of it)! Median payroll was $166m last year, so even if the Nats want to remain pretending to be a small market team, there’s still massive space for them to shell out a ton of money in free agency, while remaining a below average payroll team.
I think I made the point last winter that the Nats could’ve signed the best/most expensive SP, 1B and 3B possible on the market (Fried, Alonso and Bregman instead of retreads in Soroka, Bell and DeJong), and our payroll would’ve still been only $188m (tied for 13th highest in MLB), and that’s after hypothetically signing the 3rd, 5th and 6th most expensive free agents last year, which is pretty absurd (even in the Dodgers’ crazy spending spree in 2024, they “only” signed the 1st, 3rd and 8th most expensive FAs)
Adding one premier free agent, a la Werth, wouldn’t even move the needle. Before any free agents additions, our payroll will already be around $30m lower than last year (by shedding the contracts of Lowe, Soroka, Bell, Lopez, Finnegan, Sims, etc.)
All that to say, there’s a way to spend significant money this winter while still being stingy and cheap and spending significantly below their means.
Will
31 Oct 25 at 4:52 am
Will, your assumption that the Nats could have signed Fred, Alonso, and Bregman for the deals that they inked for 2025 is … not realistic. For one thing, it assumes that the players would have picked the Nats from two competing offers. It also assumes that the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox wouldn’t have simply upped their offers.
But the basic point is correct. Of course, they could also have spent that money on players who face planted (Santander, Cortez, etc.). The tricky part is spending money on the RIGHT players.
John C.
31 Oct 25 at 9:01 am
KW: Observationally we’ve been at the “2010” level in Rizzo Reboot 2.0 for several years now. I keep waiting for the leap, but it’s been one thing after an other.
2012’s success was driven by these factors; some are acquiring outside assets, some are internal options coming to fruition:
– Acquisition of an “Ace” to lead the rotation (Gio Gonzalez): needed a huge, groundbreaking trade for a solid starter, trading multiple top-10 prospects
– FA acquisition of a veteran leader who’s been around the block and who can still contribute (Jayson Werth): $125M deal
– Solid production from 1B from a veteran FA acquisition (Adam LaRoche): early 30s guy, still productive
– Finding a solid #4 starter on the FA market who gives us guaranteed 100 ERA+ production (Edwin Jackson); maybe a pillow contract for a veteran who still produces
Internally:
– A top prospect starter matriculating to the majors and immediately producing (Stephen Strasburg): could this be Cavalli? Susana?
– Major step-up from an existing home-grown 2nd round Starter (Jordan Zimmermann): could this be Jake Bennett? Maybe Travis Sykora in 2 years?
– Young #1 overall Draft pick getting to the majors incredibly early and immediately producing (Bryce Harper): Eli Willits?
– Cornerstone defense and middle of the order production from 3b (Ryan Zimmerman): Brady House is setup here to be this exactly.
– A huge step forward offensively from our starting SS (Ian Desmond): maybe this is also Willis, moving Abrams over to second
A rotation two years from now of Gore, Grey, Cavalli, Sykora/Susana , veteran FA could fit the bill. But they have to pitch better than they did in 2025.
Todd Boss
31 Oct 25 at 9:06 am
John, I totally agree signing all three was not realistic, I even described it as “absurd” above. I was merely illustrating that last winter, Rizzo saw 3 clear needs for the team and (mostly) addressed this via free agency: SP (Soroka and Williams), 1B (Bell and Lowe, though not exactly an FA) and 3B (DeJong and Rosario). I took the 3 most expensive players in free agency at those positions to show that even if in some bizarre scenario we signed the best & most expensive players at those positions, our payroll would STILL be significantly below the club’s means. There is an outrageous amount of growth to our payroll.
Todd, I agree that we’re still some ways away from 2012 v.2, and that only got pushed further away with the collapse of the health our top arms (Sykora, Susana, Stuart, not to mention Herz). The pieces might have fallen into place if Sykora and Susana stayed healthy for that needed boost in 2026, but even if Herz and Susana return in record time, their ETA in DC is still at best late 2026, which is too late to make a difference.
Will
31 Oct 25 at 11:57 am
Nats spent $113M last year, Phillies $280m. We could still have all our ex players who now play for Philly (Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber) for $27+26+20M = $73M in payroll and we still wouldn’t have even been to #200M. Add $60M of FA pitchers … and that’s how you keep a team relevant.
Can’t make Lerners spend money.
Todd Boss
1 Nov 25 at 2:22 pm
Oh yes, it has felt like we’ve been stuck in 2010 mode for at least the last three seasons. What made me bring it up now was discussion of so many marginal (or sub-marginal) players. I’m thinking, I don’t give a crap about these guys because as long as we’re dealing in this level of talent, we’re gonna suck. That line of thought led me to look at 2010 with an eye toward how few of players were still around in 2012.
We’ve been looking in vain since 2022 for the Werth-similar signing and the Gio-similar trade. They haven’t even had a LaRoche-similar signing, unless you count the overpay for Nellie Cruz.
Of course overpaying is absolutely what they’re going to have to do, as John C. notes. Why would any player want to come to this wasteland right now? Rizzo not only had to sell Ted Lerner on actually spending money, he had to sell Werth and Boras on this “culture change” idea. And overpay, significantly.
And pick the right lottery ticket, as John C. also notes. Remember who the other hot free agent was during the 2010-11 offseason? Carl Crawford, who was coming off a 7.0 bWAR season. He posted only 3.6 collectively for the rest of his career, with the Dodgers finally eating an astounding $43M to release him. Werth’s 9.0 total with the Nats certainly didn’t pay off his contract in terms of WAR value, but he and LaRoche (and Davey Johnson) did have a lot to do with changing the culture.
Could the Werth money have been better spent if it had been spread across three or four players and not extended for so long? It’s a fair question, and probably a relevant one, as it’s hard to see the current ownership ponying up for a similar contract.
Another key question for the Toboni regime will be whether he will play in the Asian market, which Rizzo never did. Munetaka Murakami and/or Kazuma Okamoto would make a lot of sense as a 1B/DH. As some commenters used to note, DC being such an international city should be a selling point for Asian players, but we have to go all the way back to — oh — 2010-11 for the largely failed Chien-Ming Wang rehab experiment.
Of course another point for 2012 that can’t be forgotten is that the Nats had drafted two generational players — a future HOF in Harper and a guy who likely would have been in that conversation in Stras if he had been able to stay healthy. No matter how much one believes in Willits, he’s not that level. We were told that Crews might be, but we haven’t seen it yet. I still have some hope for high ceilings for Crews, Wood, and House, but it would help to have a hitting coach who can emphasize contact.
KW
1 Nov 25 at 2:36 pm
The Nats/Rizzo “never” played in the Asian market? Shinnosuke Ogasawara has a sad.
Harper did deliver his “bring a championship to DC” promise, he just did it from Philadelphia. Other than that, drafting future HOF/generational player Harper had no impact on the Nats’ 2019 championship.
As for totaling up the contracts for the ex-Nats in Philly, that suffers from the same fallacy that the “Fried, Alonso, and Bregman” collective suffers: that those contracts were not really available to the Nats. To just use Harper as an example, he wasn’t shooting for the contract that he got – he was aiming for >$400M (“don’t sell me short”). He and Boras were praying for another team to create a bidding war. When that didn’t happen, Harper folded and accepted the Phillies’ offer as the best he could get. If the Nats had jumped in with that contract offer at that point, it wouldn’t have landed the player. It just would have ignited the bidding war that Boras was aiming for. Harper tried to make noise a couple of years back about getting an extension, but unsurprisingly the Phillies ignored him.
The larger point, of course, is that SOME money needs to be spent WISELY for success. See, e.g., Steve Cohen’s Mets spending north of $300M, and signing contracts that have their payroll near or over $300M for the next three years, and playing the same number of playoff games as the Nats.
John C.
2 Nov 25 at 12:51 pm
I was talking about Harper’s impact on the massive improvement in 2012, not 2019. There wasn’t a very direct line from 2012 to 2019, other than Stras.
The Nats used a lot of the money from not signing Harper to sign Corbin, without whom they wouldn’t have won it all (no matter how bad the contract eventually became).
Ogasawara was an extremely marginal player, but it is true that he is from Asia. The Nats wouldn’t have given him the time of day if they were actually trying to contend, though.
Of course there are no guarantees from the Asian market either, and a number of cases of guys who haven’t panned out.
I don’t expect a sudden jump that puts the Nats playing at the top of the free agent market. There’s nothing that suggests that will happen (although the same could have been said when they signed Werth). But please at least start playing in the mid-level of the FA market. These past few years they’ve been shopping the bargain basement. The “strategy” of hoping that these retreads will show enough to be trade bait at the deadline is depressing.
KW
2 Nov 25 at 8:59 pm
“everything changes everything” as Earl Weaver said.
Harper was a big part of the transformation of the franchise from 2012-2018. to say he had no impact on them ultimately winning the WS is a gross overstatement.
FredMD
3 Nov 25 at 8:02 am
On the Asian marketplace … i’ve said this in this forum before, but the Nats just aren’t a destination spot for marquee Asian FAs. Time and again, they’re either going to Seattle or LA (to be closer to Asia from a time perspective) or they go to a “famous” franchise internationally known to the Asian market willing to pony up dollars (Boston, Yankees, Cubs).
here’s the top Japanese players to have played in the MLB (by career impact) and what team brought them here to illustrate:
– Ichiro Suzuki: Seattle
– Matsui: Yankees
– Ohtani: Angels
– Seiya Suzuki: Cubs
– Yoshida: Boston
– Fukodome: Cubs
– Hideo Nomo: Dodgers
– Yu Darvish: Texas
– Kuroda: Dodgers
– Tanaka: Yankees
– Dice-K: Boston
– Maeda: Dodgers
– Kukuchi: Seattle
– Yamamoto: Dodgers
Basically, every single marquee Japanese player who has come here and made an impact played for one of 3-4 franchises. Yu Darvish and Ohtani are literally the only exceptions to this … and Ohtani was still in LA.
So … i’m never going to fault the Nats for not being able to “compete” for these players; we’re just not geographically well suited and/or Famous enough to draw them.
Todd Boss
3 Nov 25 at 8:26 am
@JohnC: on the adding up Harper/Turner/Schwarber 2025 salaries … understood that those contracts/players weren’t “available to us” necessarily, each for different reasons, but it does illustrate a point. Good teams endeavor to extend their good players. The Nationals have struggled in this regard. Its why we acrimoniously parted ways with a guy in Harper who should have been a life-long National, but committed so much money to a fragile pitcher in Strasburg who has hamstrung the payroll for the better part of a decade. We dodged a bullet with Rendon … but look like fools for not re-pursuing Trea Turner.
I think the more important point i was trying to make is that Washington isn’t spending. At all. They’re actually a textbook example of what’s wrong with the finances of the sport; wealthy teams in major markets literally not “trying” to compete. They could have pursued FA contracts, they could have been buyers. They spent 113M on the 26-man opening day roster. Philly spent $283M, the Braves $215M, and the Mets spent $332M. There’s just zero excuse for this team not having another $100M of payroll right now. And I was using those three ex Nats as convenient examples of what $25M/year buys you in terms of players. We should have FOUR guys like that added to our roster. Take our four worst hitters, replace them with four $25M/year boppers, and we’re not a 66 win team.
Todd Boss
3 Nov 25 at 8:38 am
I said nothing of the sort about Harper. I’m never been a Harper hater. They established the culture of winning with him here. But he was not a part of things in 2019. In fact, they had already traded for Eaton as part of the contingency plan in case he left. Some say that the Nats won in 2019 in part because Harper was gone. That seems unlikely given his talent, but who knows.
KW
3 Nov 25 at 10:01 am
I’ve been saying that the players, in upcoming labor contract negotiations, are focused in the wrong place. They’re obsessing about not having a spending cap. You know who a cap affects? No more than five teams, and mostly just a handful of very high-end players with big contracts. Their focus should be on getting a team-spending FLOOR, which would benefit all of baseball. A floor would inject a whole lot more money into the general player pot than a cap would remove.
More importantly, a floor would force more than half the teams in baseball to attempt to be competitive. That’s what’s infuriating — the Lerners aren’t even attempting to be competitive. Dan Snyder made some of the dumbest moves in pro sports history, but at least he was attempting to be competitive.
KW
3 Nov 25 at 10:13 am
@John C – I absolutely disagree with the idea that Cohen’s Mets are some kind of cautionary tale. Their fans got to watch a much better brand of baseball than we did, including enjoying two hall of fame talents in their prime.
Yes, they missed the playoffs, but they were playing meaningful games until the absolute last day of the season. I just don’t understand any fans who looks at their season and ours and prefers ours.
Teams that spend don’t always win but they almost always compete. And that would already be a good deal better than what we’ve had the last few years.
SMS
3 Nov 25 at 10:54 am
@KW, I was responding to John’s comment
FredMD
3 Nov 25 at 11:36 am
@KW: the MLBPA has ALWAYS focused on the wrong areas. Absolutely. Look at how much they’ve focused on this stupid Qualifying Offer, which impacts perhaps 10-15 players a year. Meanwhile there’s 1200 players in the union. How stupid is it to dig your heels in on an issue that affects 1% of your union at the expense of the other 99%? They gave up draft slotting, they gave up luxury tax. They gave up shortening the draft and eliminating an entire short-A minor league.
I’m not sure that has changed. And Its one of the reasons I think there’s going to be a massive work stoppage at the end of hte next CBA.
Todd Boss
3 Nov 25 at 11:39 am
Mets as Cautionary tale: would you rather
a) Go 66-96 and spend no money in FA and throw out the 2 worst starters in the Majors as your 4th/5th starters all season
b) Have $60M/year Juan Soto in your lineup as well as half a dozen other $20M/year guys and compete all season and actually try to make the playoffs?
I think we all know the answer. We’re not a small market team. We need to stop acting line one.
Todd Boss
3 Nov 25 at 12:59 pm
Bringing this convo back to the new GM … who comes from Boston, who has zero issues spending money … i wonder if he got assurances that the ownership group is going to spend money? The Red Sox have actually kept spending down comparatively speaking to their big-money rivals as of late, but they still spent $194M last year on their opening day roster. I can’t imagine a GM coming here and then being completely hamstrung from a payroll perspective.
Todd Boss
3 Nov 25 at 1:02 pm
@Todd – 100%.
The fallacy that I think filters through this conversation is that the team has a pot of money that they can spend. If they spend it this year, they don’t have it to spend next year when we’re better positioned to contend.
I just don’t think any team operates that way. I think teams and owners have a preferred budget and a maximal budget, the latter of which is only tolerable for most teams during brief periods of peak contention, but any money saved below their preferred budget just goes into the owners’ bank accounts.
A team like the Nats should have a baseline budget in the $160-200M range. And then I’d like them to occasionally “go for it” and brush up against the first tax threshold, but fair enough if that’s too rich for the Lerners. But this $100M bullshit like we’re one of the poorest teams in the league is simply unacceptable.
I hope Toboni feels that way too, and we’ll see soon enough.
SMS
3 Nov 25 at 2:02 pm
I expect that he has a blank check on player development spending. I doubt Toboni would mention “player development monster” as a goal without that.
Beyond that I would not be sure of anything.
FredMD
3 Nov 25 at 2:11 pm
@Fred MD — OK, thanks.
And wow, former Nat Craig Stammen is the Padres’ new manager. Speaking of the heroes of 2012 . . .
KW
6 Nov 25 at 1:16 pm
@Todd — I asked the same thing at some point: Toboni HAD to have gotten some assurance of an elevated spending level, right? I mean who, anywhere in baseball, would advise him to take the job if he didn’t? At the same time, the thought lingers in the back of the head that if a well-established, championship-winning, strong personality like Rizzo couldn’t convince them to spend, then what chance does a kid in his 30s have?
That said, the well-established, championship-winning Stan Kasten couldn’t convince Ted Lerner to spend, but the newly elevated Rizzo did, so you never know.
KW
6 Nov 25 at 1:41 pm
Probably grist for another post, but I’d be interested to see who Todd and our other compadres here would sign from this FA class if the purse stings were to loosen. This is an interesting class, with nothing close to Ohtani or Soto at the top but apparently with significant depth, which should be good news for a franchise that won’t be shopping with Cohen-level money.
KW
6 Nov 25 at 1:49 pm
KW, IIRC Boswell (who I regarded at times as being Stan Kasten’s mouthpiece) reported that Kasten sold the Lerners on the need to tank now, spend later.
John C.
6 Nov 25 at 5:57 pm
Boz also wrote, many times, that Kasten gave Rizzo a lot of credit for getting Ted to spend, said he never could.
KW
6 Nov 25 at 8:04 pm
Kasten certainly is enjoying profligate spending at his new shop….
FA projecting: honestly i’ve never been one to try to make “Free Agent” predictions since, well, we havn’t really bought any significant FAs in years, and the ones they did get were usually shocks.
But, it’s not hard to see areas of need here: A good team would buy two front-line starters and send most of the 2025 rotation to the bullpen/minors. I think your OF is mostly set: you have to play Wood, Crews, Lile based on a combination of performance and potential. That leaves Young, Hassell, Pinckney, and others out; trade from that depth to acquire something. You also get a big bat for 1B and 2B, keep Abrams at SS, give House another year at 3B before making a move.
Todd Boss
7 Nov 25 at 8:53 am
since the prior management and coaching team were mostly a holdover from a contending team, I’d like to see if some of the current rotation pieces can be helped by the new development model. specifically Gray and Irwin.
any significant additions will come from trades of Gore or possibly Abrams, IMO. a MLB ready or established starter is #1 on the list for me. you won’t get one for Young or Pinkney and I am loath to deal Hassell.
FredMD
7 Nov 25 at 9:54 am