So, the Nationals' decade of competitiveness, including division titles and the 2019 World Series Championship, is over. We waived the white flag, closed the window, and traded away 8 players at the deadline, including Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. Obviously I am sad. I don’t like the idea of my team giving up on a season so quickly, nor do I like to see so many guys get traded away. Some of them were understandable. Brad Hand wasn’t the best closer in the world, and his failures the last few weeks were the main reason why we had to sell. Getting a young catcher in Riley Adams for him was a good pickup. He immediately became our #13 overall prospect, which goes to show you how barren our minor league system had gotten. In fact, all of the prospects we received, except for Lane Thomans, an OF we got from St. Louis for Jon Lester, and Seth Shuman, a pitcher we got in our trade with Oakland, made our Top 30. The rebuild needed to happen soon. It is just jarring that it is now here. And seeing so many guys go is a big kick in the gut for a fanbase who really likes a lot of them, especially the guys from the 2019 team.
Easily the hardest thing to see was Max and Trea leaving. Max will go into the Hall of Fame as a National, which is nice, and maybe we bring him back at the end of the year. But he obviously wanted a chance to win this year, so trading him away is understandable, albeit heartbreaking. Trea, on the other hand, is the kind of piece you want to build around. He and Soto should have been the faces of the organization going forward. I guess they just didn’t want to commit to him long-term, which is rather annoying. The organization has yet to really commit to a position player with the exception of Ryan Zimmerman, or bringing in a guy like Jayson Werth in free agency. But they let Harper go. They let Rendon go. They traded Trea. It doesn’t give me a lot of hope that they will do the right thing and sign Soto to a MASSIVE extension as soon as possible (my guess would be that it would take 12 years, $432 million, which would be the biggest contract ever in total money, and the same average annual value as Mike Trout. Probably throw in an opt-out after year 8 so that he can renegotiate at 30. But they need to get this done now/before next season).
In terms of what the Nats got back, pitcher Josiah Gray and catcher Keibert Ruiz are now our top 2 prospects. Gray started on Monday and pitched well. He is going to be a rotation piece from now on, and hopefully can develop into a dominant starter over time. Ruiz hit a HR in his first game in AAA last night. His bat will not be a problem. He can hit really well and I am looking forward to having him up, probably next year. He isn’t the best defensive catcher yet, so I think Davey said they will keep him in AAA to have him catch every day. Riley Adams, one of the other catchers we got, is much better on defense, but doesn’t have the same hitting ability. He will be a good backup. We got another catcher from Oakland as well, Drew Millas, but he has a ways to go before he is MLB ready. I wish we had gotten a 3B prospect in one of these deals, because I am not sold on Carter Kieboom as our every day 3B. He doesn’t hit enough, and his defense is not on the level we need it to be. Unfortunately, we are stuck with him right now, though I would like to see us call up Jake Noll to give him a shot at some point.
The pitchers we got besides Gray seem to be a mixed bag. Gerardo Carrillo was another pitcher we got from LA for Max and Trea. He is a starter in AA right now, and only 22. He may stick as a starter, but could make it to the majors faster as a reliever. Mason Thompson, who we got from the Padres for Daniel Hudson along with a very young shortstop named Jordy Barley, is already in our bullpen, so he will probably stay there long term. Aldo Ramirez, who we got form Boston for Kyle Schwarber, is only 20, but apparently was the best young arm in their system. He is now our #11 prospect, ahead of some of our past 1st round picks, and has a very good chance of being a middle-of-the-rotation starter in a few years. Finally, Richard Guasch was one of the pieces we got from Oakland for Yan Gomes and Josh Harrison. He could be a starter or reliever, they aren’t sure yet.
So, it will be a tough couple of years now. The Nats won’t be competitive the rest of this year and likely next year at the very least. I hope that they sign Soto long term just so we know that we have that foundation to build around. I hope they do other things to help keep the fans happy and also get back to winning quickly. But hopefully Gray and Ruiz develop into stars, some of the other guys develop into solid pieces, and we can be back within a few years. I’d really like to trade Corbin in the offseason to free up extra money, but I don’t see that happening. I’d love it if Strasburg got healthy and stayed healthy, even if he isn’t in his World Series MVP form. Regardless, I have hope that we will be sooner rather than later. I hope to look back on this fire sale and see it as the end of the Nats' first great run, but the beginning of their second. I hope I see Soto here long-term, Gray and Ruiz as All Stars, 1st round pick Brady House as the new star in the infield, next to Yasel Antuna, Luis Garcia, and Drew Mendoza, all solid-to-great players on a playoff team. If that happens, then the pain of this past week and these next couple of season will all be worth it.
