Lack of Spending This Offseason is Concerning for Washington Nationals

So far, the Washington Nationals have been quiet on the spending front this offseason.

Aug 1, 2023; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo discusses the close of the trade window before the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Nationals Park. | Brad Mills-Imagn Images

With the Winter Meetings coming and going, the Washington Nationals have been quiet so far this offseason. 

Coming into the winter, the Nationals were a team to watch in the free-agent market, as they have a lot of money to potentially spend.

Washington has done a nice job avoiding handing out bad contracts, and that has resulted in a very low payroll. 

However, despite free agency being well underway, the Nationals have yet to really spend to make additions to their roster.

In fact, they let their closer go after non-tendering a contract for him. 

For a Washington team that has had some bad years of late, the hope was they would start to spend to help expedite their rebuild.

So far, that has yet to happen. 

While the young core for the Nationals is very good, they do have some areas of need on the team.

After letting Kyle Finnegan go, finding another close is at the top of their to-do list, while adding a veteran starting pitcher into the mix would also be helpful.

For their lineup, they have positional needs currently at third and first base, and as well as designated hitter. With a lot of good free agents available, the hope for the franchise certainly has to be that none of their targets have come off the board yet. 

When looking at some of the players available, third base is pretty much down to Alex Bregman.

With a potential contract of around $200 million, that seems way too high for a team that likely hopes Brady House will be their future third baseman. 

At first base, options are a bit more plentiful.

Pete Alonso, Christian Walker, and Paul Goldschmidt are all still available, as that position hasn’t seen too much action yet this offseason. 

The starting pitcher market has been very active with a lot of money thrown around.

With players like Blake Snell and Max Fried already off the board, the options for an ace are down to Corbin Burnes. However, for the Nationals, going into the mid-tier of starting pitching always seemed like the more realistic goal. 

In the bullpen, there are still a lot of options out there, and Washington certainly needs to figure out what the back end of the bullpen will look like without Finnegan. 

Overall, it has been a little disappointing to see the Nationals yet to make a splash in free agency.

This is a talented young team that needs some veteran help, but the front office has been very quiet so far. While there are still a lot of good players to fill the needs they have, Washington must act quickly.