Atlanta Braves: how the Nationals have done this off-season

The regular season ended October 2, so we’re nearly 3 months into the 4-1/2 month hiatus before Spring Training. How’s it going in the NL East?

We knew that the Atlanta Braves would be slow-playing the off-season. With Front Office upheaval and new staff, anything else would really have been a surprise.

In the meantime, let’s check in on the rest of the NL East and see whether they’re improving themselves with another 7 weeks until Spring camps launch. This will be the first of four posts to do just that.

Let’s start with the current top dogs:

Washington Nationals

SIGNINGS:

1B/Bench Matt Adams
RP Brandon Kintzler (returning free agent)
RP Tommy Milone (minor league deal)
RP Jeff Ames (minor league deal?)
RP Chris Smith (minor league deal)
RP Tim Collins (minor league deal)

The Nats know their weakness lies in the bullpen (23rd in relief ERA in 2017), but they haven’t been overly aggressive in fixing that thus far… and very possibly for the reason noted below: money. They had been linked to several top relief options before signing Kintzler.

TRADES:

(crickets)

That’s right… none.

DEPARTURES:

1B Adam Lind (presumably now replaced by Matt Adams)
SS Stephen Drew
RHP Matt Albers
LF Alejandro de Aza
LF Jayson Werth
RHP Joe BLanton
RHP Edwin Jackson
C Jose Lobaton
LHP Oliver Perez

Many of these were either for depth, bench or experimental purposes. But the elephant in their room for 2018 will be Bryce Harper.

Harper likely enters 2018 in the lame duck position: his last year of team control as a Scott Boras client. Could they re-sign him? They’ll certainly try, but having that occur before another 365 days has elapsed?

I’ll set the odds of that at 2%.

OTHER:

Projections indicate that the Nats will be above the luxury tax limit in 2018… their second straight year doing so, which puts them in the 30% tax range for additional monies spent.
Almost inexplicably, Dusty Baker was relieved of his duties and replaced by Dave Martinez. He becomes their 8th different man at the helm since moving from Montreal to Washington in 2005.
3B Anthony Rendon would be open to discussing a contract extension with the Nationals.
The team has been linked to both Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi. Also Jake Arrieta, but as noted above, the latter is probably above their payroll limit.

BOTTOM LINE

Not much has changed.
The Nationals will see the return from injury of Adam Eaton – probably to replace Werth in left field. That’s likely a strong upgrade, despite the lack of other changes.

Once again, the Nationals will have a strong team – strong enough that their lack of real depth to cover injuries should not be a big factor.

What could derail their assault on the NL East? Multiple extended injuries to starting pitchers or a bullpen that’s ineffective at the back end.

Next: Adieu to Adonis?

All indications are, though, that the Nationals will feature a lineup that has real weapons at most positions, and thus the reason for their quiet off-season is because they don’t really need much tweaking… except perhaps when playing in October.

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