Offseason Update: January 28, 2026
…As noted in the comments, Andry Lara has cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Rochester. It’s unclear what his usage will be this season. Eleven of his last 12 appearances for the Red Wings were in relief, but prior to 2025, 57 of his 59 appearances were starts (the two that weren’t were in the FCL, following an MLB rehabber “working on some stuff”).
…On Monday, the Nats announced ten non-roster invites, eight of whom are on the 2026 watchlist.
…Four Nationals made the MLB Pipeline Top 100, with Travis Sykora (#54) joining Eli Willits (#13), Harry Ford (#71), and Jarlin Susana (#80).
…Three Nationals made Keith Law’s 2026 Top 100, with Eli Willits the sole holdover from the other two lists at #53, recently acquired Gavin Fien at #76, and Seaver King at #94.
…The differences between the three lists are kind of interesting, but one has to think about the inherent biases. I respect Law for not ranking Sykora or Susana until they prove themselves healthy. MLB proclaiming Susana’s slider to be the best is assuming he’ll still be able to throw it the same way after his surgery. Sorry, but as my favorite Journalism professor used to say “Even if your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
..Finally, I’m finished with the full-fledged categories and working on the essays for the 2026 Watchlist. I slotted the four guys expected to play and added the Nats elbow to the notables.
We now return you to your National Lego Day festivities. If there are any places having sale, get there early because people might be lined up for blocks!
Has anyone heard why the Nats haven’t released the names of their Minor League Managers and Coaches yet?
Matt Lecroy is managing AAA Rochester again.
Link to full Rochester staff: https://x.com/RocRedWings/status/2016934653588853017
FredNats staff just announced: https://x.com/FXBGNats/status/2016934385757425756
Manager: Chris O’Neill
Hitting Coach: Jake Scheiner
Pitching Coach: Luke Diazdos
For the full staff, see the link. At face value, it appears that like the Nats are using a more “robust” staffs at the minor league level.
I believe Chris O’Neill was the hitting coach at VCU prior to getting the F’burg gig.
Here’s Wilmington’s coaching staff: https://www.milb.com/wilmington/news/nationals-announce-2026-blue-rocks-coaching-staff
In case anyone was wondering, in Wilmington, head coach, Tom, is in his 40s. But basically every other coach is in his 20s.
Similar story in Fredericksburg: head coach, O’Neill is in his late 30s/40s (and was a coach at GW, Marshall and UMD-Eastern Shore before VCU), but much of the rest of the staff are very, very young.
I admire the commitment to the bit!
Add another to the list: ESPN’s top 100: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47684202/top-100-mlb-prospects-2026-kiley-mcdaniel-konnor-griffin-kevin-mcgonigle-jesus-made
41. Willits
58. Sykora
74. Susana
82. Ford
I was reading through the watchlist profiles (thanks for doing these!), and I realized Ortiz and Chaparro could turn into a really nice platoon.
Ortiz hit .279/.372/.505 against RHPs between AA and AAA in 2025 (and a measly .698 OPS vs southpaws, almost .200 OPS lower). Chaparro has similar reverse splits. In the minors in 2025, he had a highly underrated line of .347/.437/.707 against lefties, over .400 points higher than his respectable .725 OPS vs RHPs). Chaparro has similar extreme splits in his limited time in MLB (.517 OPS vs RHPs, .764 OPS vs LHPs).
If Ortiz could bring something close to a .764 OPS vs righties, for a platoon DH/1B coming out to a .764 OPS, that would be a great outcome. League average DH OPS was .758 last season (1B was almost identical: .755). I don’t expect we’ll have too many positions putting up league average offensive numbers, so to get that at DH and/or 1B would be great.
I hear it’s Kolko & “Franny” for tv this year. Thank goodness my tv has a mute button.
Who would you like to see in the Nats’ TV booth?
I like baseball because it’s a slow, cerebral sport with occasional flashes of extreme athleticism, so my perfect announcers would allow for a decent amount of silence (TV is a visual medium, after all – you don’t actually have to narrate what’s happening unless it’s out of the ordinary or confusing), would have genuinely interesting and unexpected insights to offer when they did feel the need to interject, and would exude spontaneous and authentic joy the dozen or so times a game when someone does something amazing.
Kolko feels like a below average play by play guy, but he’s fine. I cannot stand Franny and was really hoping he was going to be replaced. He will not shut up, only about 20% of what he says adds anything at all, and he is so insecure that he will invariably centralize his own, rather marginal, playing experience instead of letting guests be the temporary centers of attention. Basically every time anyone else sits in for him, I like the broadcast better. Alex Avila was great, for example.
For reasons you stated, I really liked Ron Darling as a color guy. He was pretty chill, and when he spoke up, it was only because he had something useful to add.
I’m with you! Seems like Dan and Franny have a man crush on each other. It’s hard to listen to them.
The broadcasting sure reminds me of the old Don
Henley song lyric
They all sound like game show hosts to me .
The real interesting hire out of all the new names is
Tom at Wilmington .
Everson as a new hitting coach truly needed after the much needed change .
Only the young can say .. sing it , Steve Perry …
Is this the first step in a CJ Abrams trade?
The Nationals claimed shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng off waivers from the New York Mets and designated left-handed pitcher Konnor Pilkington for assignment.
I don’t see how. Cheng is somehow a worse Nasim Nunez. Nunez is a very good defender, while Cheng is merely average/slightly above average, while their bats are basically identical. Over the past 2 seasons, this is Cheng’s slash .217/.319/.312, good for a 81 wRC+. That’s awful, unless you’re the second coming of Ozzie Smith. While Nunez’s (in the minors) is .254/.339/.313, good for a 80 wRC+. Same story, but trade a couple points of AVG for OBP. Neither are good enough, except Nunez can give you some good defensive cover. I don’t really know what to make of this except that they really didn’t believe in Pilkington’s mini-break out… Is this actually a contingency plan for Garcia? Both Nunez and Cheng are competent at 2B as well.
What I find most interesting is that they’d much rather churn through the rest of the roster, DFA’ing Lara, Pilkington, Adams and (releasing) Lao, rather than drop Joey Wiemer. I still don’t get how Wiemer fits into this team unless they trade Jacob Young and one of our other OFs. But we’ll see how this all shapes up soon enough.
There’s been a few other interesting additions via minor league contracts: Bryce Montes de Oca might be a familiar name. The Nats drafted him in the 15th round in 2017, but he didn’t sign. Well, we finally got our man! We also brought back Tres Barrera. With Gasper too, our catching depth is looking actually really deep at the moment (though the quality beyond Ford isn’t there), with Ruiz, Millas, Ford, Adams (who passed thru waivers), Gasper and Barrera all at the AAA/MLB level. Not sure how they’ll all fit. Some will have to get sent down to AA (but have Lomavita, Romero and Lindsly to contend with) or released.
I’m eager to see how much, or little, of a mirage Nunez’ September performance was. Defensively, he’s great, so if he can manage to be just OK with the bat, I think he can start for a while.
Riley Adams cleared waivers and will be on the Rochester roster to start the season. The Nats did guarantee Adams $500K, and that get bumped to $1 million if he gets the call to DC.
Nationals have claimed LHP Richard Lovelady off waivers from Mets and DFA’d UTIL Mickey Gasper (who was only recently claimed himself). The 40-man roster merry-go-round continues.
2026 focus for us player development owls sitting on the
Tree branches high above seeing the full scope of this rebuild
Will be spent following the A ball talent moving upward
Petry and Peterson making their way to AA and Delino Sr outfield .
.
But here is to Crews truly flowering in 2026 and Hassell 3 not being traded .
And to Liam Sullivan the Georgia Bulldog being a true dawg in the chain coming up .