Opening Day of the 2023 MLB season is less than 48 hours away. We are continuing our NL East preview here at Metsmerized with the Washington Nationals, who lost 107 games last season.

The Nationals are a team that has taken a turn for the worse since their World Series title back in 2019. Nearly everyone from that team is no longer on the roster, although Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin are still around. The 2023 season could be rough in D.C. as the organization has elected to rebuild for the future. Still, the Nationals would like their young talent to thrive in expanded roles.

Projected Starting Lineup (per Roto Champ)

  1. Lane Thomas – RF
  2. Dominic Smith – 1B
  3. Joey Meneses – DH
  4. Corey Dickerson – LF
  5. Jeimer Candelario – 3B
  6. Luis García – 2B
  7. Keibert Ruiz – C
  8. CJ Abrams – SS
  9. Víctor Robles – CF

Lineup Assessment 

The Nationals have a lineup that is filled with guys who are trying to reinvent themselves and young players looking to burst onto the scene. That does not make for a great combination, especially in a division with three of the best teams in the National League. This is going to be a long season in D.C., so any bright spots that come from the lineup will help as the Nationals try to rebuild for the future.

Lane Thomas was an everyday player for the Nationals in his full season with the organization, playing 146 games in 2022. The 27-year-old was solid at the plate, slashing .241/.301/.404 with 17 home runs, 52 RBIs and a 103 OPS+. Thomas doesn’t have the potential to be a star, but the former St. Louis Cardinal is a valuable guy with experience in the big leagues.

The addition of Dominic Smith made a ton of sense for both sides. Smith had been limited to a part-time role with the New York Mets over the last two years, so leaving Queens in search of an everyday role was necessary. The Nationals are getting a guy who hit .316 with a .993 OPS in the shortened 2020 season, good enough for 13th in National League MVP voting. Yes, he only had 199 plate appearances, but he’ll try to regain any of that production with the Nationals. If he does to start the year, they could move him at the deadline for prospects or elect to bring him back for the following season.

Joey Meneses came out of nowhere in August 2022 and finished the season on the highest of highs for a struggling Nationals team. The 30-year-old slashed .324/.367/.563 with 13 home runs, 34 runs batted in and a 165 OPS+ in 222 at-bats. Meneses will be tested as pitchers get more familiar with him as a hitter, but the Nationals will be reliant on him having a strong campaign over the 162-game season.

Corey Dickerson and Jeimer Candelario are two veterans who will look to provide leadership as they try to rediscover their individual production. Dickerson was a bench bat for the St. Louis Cardinals last season, hitting .267 with a .698 OPS in 96 games. Candelario had a difficult 2022 campaign for the Detroit Tigers, slashing .217/.272/.361 and an 83 OPS+ in 124 games.

Luis García, Keibert Ruiz and CJ Abrams are three young players that will have the opportunity to develop in a full-time role. Abrams is the most intriguing of them all, given that he was a part of the trade that sent Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres. The shortstop is known for his defense and speed, although his bat will need to improve (hitting .246 with a .604 OPS in 90 games last season). Victor Robles is a guy who has yet to pan out in the majors, slashing .233/.306/.359 in his six-year career.

Players Lost

The Nationals allowed some veterans to leave in free agency as they continue to rebuild their major league roster. Luke Voit was non-tendered, and Nelson Cruz and César Hernández didn’t return. Former Nationals starter Erick Fedde signed with the NC Dinos of the KBO League.

Pitching

Here at the Nationals’ five projected starters (2022 statistics in parentheses)

Similarly to the lineup, the Nationals’ projected rotation has three veterans and two young guys who are still looking to find their feet in the majors. Patrick Corbin is a two-time All-Star, although his time in D.C. has been far from impressive (4.94 ERA in 106 starts), especially since 2020. Trevor Williams will step back into a rotation after serving as a long man in the bullpen for the New York Mets last season. Chad Kuhl is with his third team in the last three years after struggling with the Colorado Rockies last season.

The most intriguing piece of this rotation is MacKenzie Gore, who also came to the Nationals as a part of the Soto deal. Gore was dominant for the first two months of the 2022 season, but he began to fall apart right before the All-Star break. The left-hander eventually got injured in late July, and he would spend the rest of the year on the injured list. Josiah Gray, who came to the Nationals at the 2021 trade deadline, has not panned out in D.C. The 25-year-old will be looking for more success in his second full season with the ball club.

Kyle Finnegan is expected to be the Nationals’ closer to start the year. If the right-hander does struggle at any point, the team does have some alternative options in the bullpen. Carl Edwards Jr. pitched to a 2.76 ERA in 62 innings of work for the Nationals last season. Hunter Harvey and Erasmo Ramírez are two more names to keep an eye on in middle-inning roles. But overall, the Nationals are going to see a lot of changes and flexibility within a bullpen that may struggle for the majority of the year.

Top Prospects

All three of the Nationals’ top prospects (outfielders James Wood, Robert Hassell III and Elijah Green) are not expected to debut at any point in 2023. No. 4 prospect and right-handed pitcher Cade Cavalli, unfortunately, suffered a torn UCL and will miss the year with Tommy John surgery.

No. 12 prospect and right-handed pitcher Thad Ward is another guy who made get an opportunity to pitch at the big league level early in the season. The 2018 fifth-round pick of the Boston Red Sox shined in spring training, pitching to a 2.92 ERA in 12 1/3 innings of work. He’s a Rule 5 pick, so he’ll have to stay on the big-league roster for the entire season for the Nationals to keep him. (On this roster, that shouldn’t be a problem.)