{"id":17961,"date":"2023-01-11T08:11:37","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T13:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=17961"},"modified":"2023-01-11T08:11:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T13:11:37","slug":"are-we-sure-this-is-the-right-direction-for-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=17961","title":{"rendered":"Are we sure this is the right Direction for 2023?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Corey Dickerson, new Nats signing, from 2019, the last time he was good. Photo via wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Upon hearing the latest “1 year veteran FA lottery ticket” signing (Corey Dickerson<\/strong>), I paused to update the Big Board<\/a> and slot in Dickerson into the starting lineup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the season opened today, here’s what we’re presumably putting out on the field:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CA<\/td>Ruiz, Keibert#<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
1B<\/td>Smith, Dominic*<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
2B<\/td>Garcia, Luis*<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
SS<\/td>Abrams, C.J.<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
3B<\/td>Candelario, Jeimer#<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
CF<\/td>Dickerson, Corey*<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
CF<\/td>Robles, Victor<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
RF<\/td>Thomas, Lane<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
DH<\/td>Meneses, Joey<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This lineup includes now three off-season signings in Dominic Smith, Jeimer Candelario, <\/strong>and now Dickerson. All of them are getting non-trivial money to come here, and all of them are going to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the thing. The team lost 107 games last year. We (arguably) had internal players to cover the three positions these guys are now projected to play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why exactly did we sign them, instead of playing our prospects?? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, instead of allowing Joey Meneses<\/strong> , who lest we forget hit 13 homers in 65 games last year en route to a 165 OPS+ figure, to play 1B primarily, we’ve bought Smith and guaranteed him the spot (2022 slash line for Smith: .194\/.276\/.284.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of seeing if Carter Kieboom<\/strong> can actually hold onto the job at 3B, or (gasp) maybe give a shot to (arguably) the best minor league hitter we had last year in Jake Alu<\/strong>, we now get to watch some random guy named Candelario (2022 slash line: .217 .272 .361).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of rolling the dice in LF with a guy like Alex Call<\/strong> (or even positionally-flexible Meneses or Alu) or newly signed Stone Garrett<\/strong>, or maybe even to continue to give ABs to Yadiel Hernandez<\/strong> (who had a 108 OPS+ last year at the position) … we get Dickerson, who is now on his 7th team at the age of 34, has zero history here, and is literally the definition of journeyman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this what we really want as a fan-base? To have these positions filled by guys we couldn’t pick out of a lineup, instead of seeing if we have internal options that can grow into the positions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s the goal in 2023? To only lose 106 games? Do we really care if we go 55-107 again? All our top prospects are babies, aged 19-20 and playing in the lower minors. It’s going to take several years for these guys to matriculate. We KNOW 2023 is a lost season already. The ownership is in flux, the damn MASN thing still remains unresolved, and we have $65M tied up in two starters who may never pitch again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, what’s next? Do we re-sign Nelson Cruz<\/strong> to paper over Meneses yet again and relegate him to the bench? What’s more valuable to the team: 4 months of a 1yr FA on the off-chance he has a decent summer and can be flipped for some low-A reliever at the trade deadline, or to see if guys like Kieboom, Alu, Garrett, heck maybe even Jeter Downs<\/strong> can compete?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon hearing the latest “1 year veteran FA lottery ticket” signing (Corey Dickerson), I paused to update the Big Board and slot in Dickerson into the starting lineup. If the season opened today, here’s what we’re presumably putting out on the field: CA Ruiz, Keibert# 1B Smith, Dominic* 2B Garcia, Luis* SS Abrams, C.J. 3B […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17963,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17961\/revisions\/17963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}