Washington Nationals Might Finally Have Enough Pieces to Show Improvement

Do the Washington Nationals have enough things in place to compete in 2025?

Sep 19, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Washington Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams (5) scores against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning at Wrigley Field. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

With pitchers and catchers arriving at camp for the Washington Nationals, the franchise is excited to hopefully start to turn things around.

It has been a somewhat lengthy rebuild for the Nationals, but things might be getting closer to turning around.

For the last two seasons, Washington has won 71 games. However, in 2024, the franchise showed some signs of potentially breaking through.

In 2024, the young core of the Nationals started to shine. Shortstop CJ Abrams was able to have his breakout season with an All-Star appearance. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as well in the second half, but he flashed the potential that the team is hoping to see in the future.

In addition to Abrams breaking out, both James Wood and Dylan Crews were able to make it to the Majors. Wood played a bit more than Crews and was impressive. However, Crews getting his feet wet in the Majors before taking over full-time as a starting outfielder in 2025 was important.

Even though there is a lot to like about the direction the franchise is heading in, the Nationals aren’t perfect.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently spoke about the biggest question for the Nationals heading into the new campaign. He highlighted this potentially being the year that they finally turned things around.

“Hard to see this team contending in this year's NL East but flirting with .500 before getting Josiah Gray back in the mix in 2026 would be a big step in the right direction.”

In what could be a challenging NL East division, hovering around the .500 mark would be a great goal for Washington. The lineup is young with some serious star potential if things go right.

Unfortunately, while the lineup is looking bright in the future, the starting rotation will be trying to prove themselves in 2025. If the Nationals can get a couple of their young arms to step up this coming year, it will help them a lot toward increasing their win total.

Furthermore, adding some help to a bullpen that saw some significant losses this offseason before the new campaign begins would be ideal too.

Overall, there is a lot to like about where the Nationals are heading. They have been patient with their rebuild in terms of letting players develop and not spending much on free agents long-term.

Mike Rizzo was able to help build the championship team from 2019 and following that blueprint seems to be the plan this time around. Even though it won’t be easy in what could be a tough division, Washington should be able to see an increased win total in 2025.