Nats Add Three to 40-Man Roster
For the first time in ten years, the Nationals added three players to the 40-man roster:
- LHP Jake Bennett
- RHP Riley Cornelio
- OF Christian Franklin
While the usual caveat applies to Bennett (if you’re lefthanded and can throw strikes…) for Cornelio and Franklin, it’s about preserving organizational depth.
Cornelio, 25, has added nearly 3mph to his average fastball as a starter, so it’s not unthinkable that he’d also add another couple of ticks if he were to be used as a reliever.
Franklin, who turns 26 at the end of the month, may have a hard time moving up from the de facto #6 OF slot. But I don’t think I’m jinxing anyone by noting that the primary backups—Daylen Lile and Robert Hassell—have had durability issues while Jacob Young’s value is almost entirely his glove.
Of course, there will be some handwringing over who didn’t get protected: RHP Tyler Stuart, 3B Cayden Wallace, and RHP Marquis Grissom Jr., but I don’t consider any of these gambles. Stuart is hurt. Wallace had one good month at AA. Grissom was unimpressive at AAA.
Next up: The non-tender deadline, for which there is consensus that Riley Adams and Luis García Jr. will be Nationals no more.
Speaking of non-tendering Adams and Garcia…
The lowest-hanging fruit for Toboni to get instant results is by building a better defense. I strongly believe guys like Irvin and Parker would look a LOT better without an awful defense behind them. The Nats had, by a significant margin, the 2nd worst ERA in baseball (5.35), but their FIP was a more reasonable 4.72. If you could make the defense better, you could potentially see a half run improvement on ERA without even touching the pitching staff.
It all starts with catcher, though. With a catcher who isn’t statistically the worst defensive catcher in the game (and Ruiz is, and Adams is VERY close behind) behind home plate to frame pitches better, catch runners better, and just generally call a better game. (It would be icing on the cake if they could hit too). These days, it isn’t that hard to find a catcher with some defensive chops. The problem is getting one who can catch AND hit. Unfortunately, we have two catchers who can neither catch NOR hit. And none of our catchers in the minors are close to contributing (Lomavita didn’t exactly wow us in 2025, and still appears likely 2 years away), so make a very un-sexy signing in Christian Vazquez or Elias Diaz, a catcher who can handle a young pitching staff, and give them confidence. I think that would bring A LOT more value to the Nats than their sub-1.0 WARs would suggest. You can keep Ruiz around for another season as the back up, but have him extensively revamp his plate approach with the new coaching staff.
Another area that could massively improve this team without any splashy signings is in the defense beyond home plate. This can be pretty significantly resolved by moving CJ Abrams, the worst defensive infielder in baseball, to 2B and non-tendering Garcia (who is merely well below average), and bringing in a competent-to-good defensive SS. Ha-Seong Kim is my choice. If you’re risk averse, you could also hope Garcia improves with better coaching and keep him around as a right-side of the diamond utility player, to fill in at 2B, 1B and DH. That improvement behind the pitchers would also have the same effect of making them much more confident with balls hit into play. There’s still significant problems with the OF defense. Wood and Lile are awful defenders. And I think swapping them, with Lile in LF and Wood in RF, could potentially have some defensive improvements.
But there, with 2 extremely unexciting FA signings, I think the Nats could rather significantly improve. Then add a couple non-bargain-bin arms, like Cease and Gallen, and we could have an interesting team. Maybe if all the pieces fell right, we might be .500.
But let’s see who we non-tender. There’s a very strong likelihood Toboni doesn’t rock the boat too much right off the bat at the big league level, and prioritizes his efforts at building from the bottom up.
What is the basis for believing that CJ would be even an average defensive 2B?
I’m surprised that you don’t give any consideration to Millas.
I’ve always liked Ha-Seong Kim, but it must be acknowledged that he is trending in a negative direction.
WAR:
2023: 5.4
2024: 2.6
2025: 0.3
That includes his defensive metrics. He is now on the wrong-side of 30. Would tread carefully on HSK.
If you look at games played, it’s not nearly such a steep drop off, and this risk will be baked into the contract figures. I see him more of a placeholder on a 3ish year deal until Willits (or Dickerson/Feliz) arrives.
I have my fingers crossed that Aldonis is in WPB in February.
now on to scanning those available to pickup!
I don’t watch as many Nats games as I used to, but to me it seemed like Garcia didn’t take the game seriously. He was laughing and joking around while in the field. I know guys are supposed to have fun, but he seemed to go too far and it affected his play.
Lots of buzz that Toboni is shopping McKenzie Gore.
Maybe Toboni is shopping Gore. He’s got a lot of work on his plate already, but it would be POBO malpractice if he didn’t at least listen to offers and have conversations.
One thing that I do know is that if Toboni does trade Gore, a fair number of people will be angry that he traded him at all, and more still that will say that Toboni didn’t get enough in return. And if he doesn’t trade Gore, still more folks will complain that he missed an opportunity and will be sharpening their knives if Gore struggles or gets injured. For people in Toboni’s position, it’s an occupational hazard.