With some of the best starting pitchers in major league baseball (and one who managed to throw not one, but two no hitters) combined with an MVP candidate, it seemed a foregone conclusion for the Washington Nationals to make the playoffs this past season. Somehow, they managed not to do so.
Five months ago, the Nationals had all of DC excited for the upcoming season –they had just signed a new ace, former Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, known to be one of the most consistent pitchers in Major League Baseball. Scherzer would add to a rotation that already included former National League All Stars Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg, and Gio Gonzalez. This made the Nationals the top pick in the preseason to win the 2015 world series by most analysts, but they came nowhere close to these high expectations. No World Series rings, no NL East title, not even a wild card berth. Saying the Nationals are a disappointment would be an understatement.
Pitching was supposed to be on point, and the Nationals were “guaranteed” to have some of the best bats in the league as well. Former NL All Stars Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon seemed to be ready to take on the season, along with star teammates Jayson Werth and Ian Desmond. In a controversial offseason move, the Nats traded fan-favorite reliever Tyler Clippard for infielder Yunel Escobar. Many fans were skeptical about this trade, but it ended up being one of the few moments that actually paid off in the season. The Nats were missing a bat, and Escobar filled that role. Although the Nationals were missing an arm in their bullpen, it was not Clippard they truly missed; instead, the loss of Craig Stammen, who was out the entire season recovering from elbow surgery, doomed them.
Rendon and Werth were both injured for the majority of the season, and Desmond went from an exceptional shortstop to a player with inconsistent defense and seemingly unending strikeouts. Power hitters Harper and Escobar both had excellent seasons, but their efforts were not enough to pick up the slack from the tragic performances of their teammates.
The blame cannot all be directed towards the players, for management was definitely an issue as well. Two years ago, the Nationals hired Matt Williams to bring in a new energy, which would hopefully lead the Nats to success. Last year, Williams proved himself, winning the NL Manager of the Year award; however, this year’s events took a slightly different turn. Fed up with the poor decisions regarding the bullpen and day-to-day managing of the team, General Manager Mike Rizzo, fired Williams on Monday, October 5. Manager of the Year to jobless seems to reflect the Nationals as a whole pretty well, for they went from National League East champions to seven games behind the Mets in the span of one season.
One of Williams’ worst decisions may have been playing closer Jonathan Papelbon even after he got into a fight with Harper, attempting to choke him in the dugout. Papelbon is known for being hot tempered, and any good manager would realize Papelbon was not in the right state of mind to pitch. When asked why he put Papelbon back in, all Williams could respond with was, “he’s our closer.”
The humiliation of the Nationals’ season is undeniable. They went from first to worst in the blink of an eye, destroying any hopes they had at a World Series. This offseason brings changes — Jordan Zimmermann and Desmond will both most likely leave as free agents, meaning there will be a lot of roster turnover. No one knows what is in store for the Nationals next year, but it cannot be much worse than this year’s letdown. Until then, the team is off to the offseason, for there is no post-season for the 2015 Washington Nationals.
