Nationals Embracing Challenge of Playing Meaningful Baseball

The Washington Nationals are enjoying being in the playoff hunt.

Washington Nationals manager Blake Butera | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Coming into the season, a matchup in late-July between the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies wasn't expected to mean anything when it came to the National League playoff picture. But with the Nationals in the mix for a wild card spot, Wednesday's contest was a big one.

Washington's manager Blake Butera said as much after the game, and his team was up to the task when they put together a dominant 8-0 win on the back of another explosive offensive showing and a gem from their ace Cade Cavalli to take two of three on the road against the Rockies.

That victory put the Nationals 1.5 games out of the final NL wild card spot entering their off day on Thursday, and it keeps his young team right in the mix when it comes to making the playoffs.

Nationals Thinking About Postseason Baseball

Washington Nationals manager Blake Butera | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

"Everyone in the clubhouse knows the standings," Butera said after Wednesday's game, per Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic. "We know the trade deadline is around the corner. It's on TV every day. People are talking about playoffs, trade deadline, buyers, sellers, all those different types of things. And I know this is the first time in a while that a lot of these guys have played meaningful baseball here late in July, hopefully, going into August. So we're having fun with this."

Hearing that is probably music to the ears of Nationals fans everywhere. It's been seven years since this franchise was playing postseason baseball, as the decision to rebuild following their World Series championship has produced one of the worst stretches for a team in Major League Baseball history. But with this offense clicking on all cylinders while getting key pitching performances at times from their staff, they continue to give themselves an opportunity to get into the playoffs.

Of course, the elephant in the room is if the front office feels like this team has a chance to make the postseason. They were hired to get the rebuild back on track, and to do that, president of baseball operations Paul Toboni wants to build a formidable farm system.

He can accomplish that by trading away some of their best assets ahead of the deadline in what is shaping up to be another seller's market. However, he also previously stated that he has started to think about the playoffs, which could result in a change of plans compared to what they were prepared to do coming into this campaign.

Nationals Gaining Valuable Experience by Being in Playoff Hunt

Washington Nationals pitcher Max Kranick celebrates with catcher Keibert Ruiz | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The most likely thing that will happen before the Aug. 3 trade deadline is that Washington will try to thread the needle by selling off some pieces to get back prospects for the future, while they also attempt to bring in some upgrades for an ailing pitching staff that should help them win more games this year. After all, FanGraphs only gives the Nationals a 7% chance of making the playoffs, so continuing to think long-term is the smart move for the front office.

Regardless of what happens, though, the fact that this group is even playing meaningful baseball in the latter stages of the summer is a huge step in the right direction. For this rebuild to become successful, the players have to learn how to win at some point. So getting the experience of playing important games has been an enormous development this year, as things under the watch of Toboni and Butera can now be deemed ahead of schedule.