Washington Nationals: Offense Has Hit Lull In Spring Training

Over the past week, the Washington Nationals have had problems scoring runs. Is there a cause for concern?

In spring training, results aren’t the end all, be all for any team. With that being said, the Washington Nationals have not won a game since one of their split squads beat the Miami Marlins last Friday. Plus, in the last six games, the team has scored a total of 12 runs.

Now, not everyone on this offense is struggling at the moment. Right fielder Bryce Harper has home runs in back-to-back games. He is currently tied with two others, including Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets, for the National League lead in that category.

Another player who has found success is Michael Taylor. The outfielder has had another good spring as he is 9-for-23 with two home runs and six RBI’s. He was one of the few players who had a good offensive day Wednesday in Jupiter against the St. Louis Cardinals.

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Before everyone starts panicking on the offense, remember that Daniel Murphy is currently away from the team for the World Baseball Classic and he was 3-for-17 before leaving for the WBC. Also, Jayson Werth just recently came back from bronchitis and Matt Wieters has yet to even play in a game for the Nats behind the plate.

With that being said, the Washington Nationals have scored the fourth fewest runs of any team in the National League this spring (61) and they are in the bottom five in the NL in on-base percentage (.327). The power has been there though when you consider their 18 home runs are tied for third.

One player to keep an eye on is Adam Eaton. Dusty Baker has been using the center fielder in the sixth spot a lot this spring as he experiments with different lineups. In the last four games, he is 2-for-9 and just stole his first base of the spring on Thursday.

This spring, one of the storylines was going to be if Ryan Zimmerman would stay healthy. So far, the first baseman has been on the field and making the pitcher work. However, that hasn’t led to much success as he is 0-for-13 with three strikeouts in seven games.

With spring training being long this year because of the WBC, there shouldn’t be much concern just yet. If this were happening closer to the regular season, then there would be some reason to worry. The good thing right now is that outside of Max Scherzer, the Washington Nationals are relatively healthy.

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Once everyone is in the lineup, there is no reason not to expect this lineup to be one of the best in the National League. Sure, they may not be scoring runs lately, but no one should sound the panic alarm right now.

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