Just How Disappointing Have the Nationals Offseason Signings Been Thus Far?

With the Washington Nationals trying to show signs of improvement this season, the results have been mixed early on.

Coming into the year, the Nationals were hoping to take a step forward and win some more games with the rebuilding going on for several campaigns now.

Washington has done a nice job acquiring and developing young talent, but it takes time to build a team from the farm system up.

While some players are starting to finally have a positive impact for the team, the front office attempted to help the team in the short-term by signing some veteran free agents to help win some games and change the culture.

Have Washington Nationals Offseason Signings Worked?

Jim Bowden of The Athletic recently wrote about the start to the season for the Nationals and the ineffectiveness from most of their offseason signings.

“The Nationals have an interesting young core, and they made a bunch of small signings this winter intended to help with their short-term competitiveness. But almost none have worked.”

Unfortunately for Washington, the signings that they have made for the most part this winter haven’t worked out.

In the lineup, they signed Josh Bell, Amed Rosario, and Paul DeJong. Considering the batting order was a massive issue last year, adding players of their caliber made sense, especially with all three being able to bat from the right side of the plate.

However, the results haven’t been good for any of them so far. Currently, DeJong is on the injured list after being hit in the face with a ball. Furthermore, both Bell and Rosario have been poor at the plate.

Luckily, some of the young talent in the lineup like James Wood has helped make up for the veterans struggling, but this lineup would be in much better shape if these three were performing.

In addition to the lineup additions struggling, the pitching staff moves haven’t been much better. Starter Michael Soroka has missed most of the campaign and has just recently made his first start back from the injured list.

Furthermore, additions to the bullpen, Colin Poche and Lucas Sims, have both been awful. In the case of Poche, he was designated for assignment and is no longer on the team.

This past winter, there was a hope that Washington would start to spend in free agency to help improve the team and support the young core. That didn’t quite happen this offseason, with most of their signings being just one-year deals.

If the Nationals want to truly breakout of the rebuild, they are going to need to start taking some risks in free agency and spending some money on potential impact players.