{"id":19473,"date":"2026-03-25T14:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=19473"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:33:23","slug":"nats-2026-opening-day-roster-announced-who-are-these-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=19473","title":{"rendered":"Nats 2026 Opening Day Roster Announced &#8212; Who are these guys?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Major-League-Who-are-these-Guys.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Major-League-Who-are-these-Guys.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Major-League-Who-are-these-Guys.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Major-League-Who-are-these-Guys-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The PG version of this image from the movie Major League, without the actual dialog in caption.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Today 3\/25\/26, the Washington Nationals, a franchise in Major League Baseball purportedly worth more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebiglead.com\/most-valuable-mlb-franchises-of-2026-ranked\/\">$2 Billion dollars,<\/a> rolled out the following <a href=\"https:\/\/natsjournal.com\/p\/nationals-announce-opening-day-roster\">opening day 26 man lineup<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SP: Cavalli, Griffin, Mikolas, Littell, Irvin <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>RP: Henry, Beeter, Poulin, Varland, Granillo, Waldichuk, CPerez, Lord,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>C: Ruiz, Millas<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>INF: LGarcia, Abrams, House, Vivas, Nunez, Tena, Chapparo<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>OF: Wood, Young, Lile, Weimer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>By way of comparison, here&#8217;s 2025&#8217;s opening day 25-man roster.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SP: Gore, Williams, Irvin, Soroka, Parker<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>RP: Finnegan, Lopez, Sims, Ferrer, Poche, Salazar, Ribalta, Lord<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>C: Ruiz, Adams,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>INF: Lowe, LGarcia, Abrams, DeJong, Tena, Rosario<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>OF: Young, Wood, Crews, Call<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DH: Bell<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So that&#8217;s 1 returning Starting Pitcher, 1 returning Reliever, 1 returning catcher, 3 returning infielders (against all odds since Tena should have been DFA&#8217;d the moment we acquired Vivas), and 2 returning outfielders.  That&#8217;s just 8 of the 26 men who made it a year on the roster from this time last year, and probably half the roster that even the most experienced fan couldn&#8217;t pick out of a lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps another way to look at it: acquisition method of this 26-man roster.  Here&#8217;s a breakdown:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Home grown players: 8: Garcia, House, Young, Lile, Henry, Cavalli, Irvin, Lord.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trade acquisitions: 9: Ruiz, Chapparo, Abrams, Wood, Beeter, Granillo, Millas, Tena, Vivas<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MLB FAs: 3: Griffin, Mikolas, Littell<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MLFAs: 1: Perez<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Waiver claims: 4: Weimer, Poulin, Varland, Waldichuk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rule5: 1 Nunez<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On the one hand, yes it&#8217;s great that 17 of the 26 are either home grown or trade acquisitions, since for the most part these trade acquisitions were prospects when we got them.  But 6 MLFA\/Waiver\/Rule5 guys is embarrassing.  That&#8217;s 6 guys who weren&#8217;t worthy of being on some other team&#8217;s entire 40-man roster but who are now on our MLB active lineup..   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Somehow, this roster is <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1A7XlAdd094f4mgiYP1Hs3FFsKiuS5KWQRK0eiMP_V5M\/edit?gid=1520401900#gid=1520401900\">costing the team $92M in 26-man payroll<\/a> &#8230; until you realize that figure includes Strasburg&#8217;s $35M annual salary still on the books (as well as Adam&#8217;s split contract $500k figure and Ogasawara&#8217;s $2M\/year figure still owed despite his outright).  So it&#8217;s actually closer to $58M to field this team &#8230; or about $25 less than what the official 30th ranked team (Miami) is spending.  Wow.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, hey Season Ticket Fans, welcome to 2026!  Thanks for your checks last fall securing your seats; hope you enjoy the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today 3\/25\/26, the Washington Nationals, a franchise in Major League Baseball purportedly worth more than $2 Billion dollars, rolled out the following opening day 26 man lineup. By way of comparison, here&#8217;s 2025&#8217;s opening day 25-man roster. So that&#8217;s 1 returning Starting Pitcher, 1 returning Reliever, 1 returning catcher, 3 returning infielders (against all odds [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473","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=19473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19478,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473\/revisions\/19478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}