Washington Nationals Editorial: 2016 NL East Rankings Recap

By Ricky Keeler | Mar 7, 2016

Mar 3, 2016; Melbourne, FL, USA; Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper (34) hits in the first inning against the New York Mets at Space Coast Stadium. The Washington Nationals won 9-4. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports /

Today, we reveal to all of you the results of our rankings of all the positions and the managers in the NL East

Throughout the month of February, we started a new series idea to give a small preview of the NL East in 2016. For the second straight season, we ranked the players and position groups (rotation and bullpen) in the division, but for this season, we gave a point value to those rankings.

The way the point value worked was that the team gets one point if the player/manager ranks fifth on the list and five points if the player/manager is on the top of the list. After tallying up all the points, here is how the total points came out after ranking all 11 categories:

Mets – 46
Nationals – 39
Marlins – 39
Braves – 23
Phillies – 18

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One thing to keep an eye on when you view the rankings was that they weren’t done by one personal. The three people that took part in this series were staff writer Matt Weyrich and our two co-editors (Pablo Roa and I).

To me, it was no surprise that the Mets are the favorites by a comfortable margin. If you go by our rankings, they had the best catcher (Travis d’Arnaud), best shortstop (Asdrubal Cabrera), best starting rotation, and the best manager (Terry Collins). In fact, the only Met who was outside the top two at a given position was David Wright at third base because of the injury concerns (number four).

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By far, the biggest surprise on the total rankings is how the Nationals and Marlins finished tied for second. I was surprised when I saw Weyrich ranked J.T. Realmuto ahead of Wilson Ramos at catcher, but Realmuto did have a strong rookie season. Miami did have the best left fielder (Christian Yelich) and best second baseman (Dee Gordon) on our lists.

As for the Washington Nationals, Bryce Harper was the number one right fielder and they were ranked by Weyrich as having the best bullpen in the division, but players like Ramos, Jayson Werth, and Danny Espinosa were ranked by our staff outside the top two at their respective positions.

The Braves and Phillies were the bottom two teams on our rankings. While there was no surprises there, the Phillies did have the number two ranked third baseman (Maikel Franco) and the Braves had the top first baseman (Freddie Freeman) as well as the second best center fielder (Ender Inciarte).

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Now, keep in mind, these are not our official predictions for the division and we will have an article on all of our picks before the regular season begins on April 4 for the Nats in Atlanta. That being said, by doing this exercise, it further exemplifies the point that the NL East looks like a three team race in 2016 and Miami could be that surprise team if Don Mattingly has an impact on the squad in his first year as manager.

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