Washington Nationals Receive Shockingly Poor Final Offseason Grade

As the Washington Nationals reach the final few weeks of the offseason, one insider gave them a rather low grade for their work.

Mar 2, 2025; West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Washington Nationals first baseman Nathaniel Lowe (33) hits a single against the Houston Astros during the first inning at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

With spring training underway, the offseason has basically come to a close for the Washington Nationals. 

This winter, the Nationals came in with a bit of a buzz surrounding the organization. With a lot of great young talent and some contracts coming off the books, the team was predicted to make a significant splash or two in free agency. 

However, with the core of the team being so young and inexperienced, Washington has seemingly decided to wait one more year to evaluate how things are going to work out. 

This decision is certainly an understandable one for the franchise. Making a move too quickly in free agency to help try to expedite the rebuild can backfire, and the organization likely wants to see how some of the young prospects that have been coming up develop. 

However, despite the payroll going down from last year, the team did add numerous veterans and are better on paper than they were talent-wise compared to last season.

Even though the team was active in building around the core, not everyone thought it was a good winter. 

David Schoenfield of ESPN.com+ (subscription required) recently released his final offseason grade for the Nationals. Despite numerous additions, he gave the awful grade of a ‘D+’ for their efforts. 

The grade of a ‘D+’ is rather shocking to see and Washington definitely deserved better. 

This winter, they were able to bring in Nathaniel Lowe, Josh Bell, Paul DeJong, and Amed Rosario to help lengthen their lineup, while also providing some slugging. 

Hitting the ball out of the ballpark has been an issue for the Nationals in recent years, but players like DeJong, Lowe, and Bell will help in that area. 

For the pitching staff, the moves might have been a little bit less exciting. In the starting rotation, they re-signed Trevor Williams, and brought in Michael Soroka and Shinnosuke Ogasawara. 

Despite some uncertainty in the bullpen up until the recent re-signing of Kyle Finnegan, the unit is looking fairly strong with Lucas Sims and Jorge Lopez coming in. 

Since the Nationals added a bunch of players who are going to be able to perform and make the Opening Day roster without losing anyone of significance, the grade simply doesn’t make sense. 

Even though they aren’t going to be battling for a playoff spot this year, the team that has been assembled is a better one. 

Letting the young players develop for another year to see if they need to make adjustments to their plans is a smart move.