Washington Nationals: 5 storylines to watch at Miller Park

Rosters begin to expand

Starting on Friday, every team can expand their rosters to up to 40 players for the final month of the season. Of course, you don’t have to have exactly 40 players up, but the teams do have that option.

For the Washington Nationals, their Triple-A and Double-A affiliates will not be participating in the playoffs, so those players could come up at any point. In fact, you could see Rafael Bautista, Andrew Stevenson, and Adrian Sanchez soon as they were sent down to Triple-A Syracuse this week.

Another reliever to watch could be Enny Romero. He has been on a rehab assignment since August 17 for Syracuse. He recently threw back-to-back outings on August 24-25, so his return can’t be too far off. However, he hasn’t struck out anyone in three of his last four outings, so it is something to monitor.

Since Saturday’s starter has yet to be announced, the pitcher who would be on turn is Erick Fedde, who threw in Sunday’s doubleheader against the Mets. He would be facing yet another tough lineup that can crush the ball out of the ballpark .

Overall, the expanded roster will be a good thing for Dusty Baker and the Washington Nationals. It will allow the coaching staff to rest guys like Anthony Rendon and Daniel Murphy plus you can save some of the key bullpen arms for the postseason.

The Nats won’t likely call up any of their top prospects like a Victor Robles, so the excitement won’t be as high with the expanded roster. With that being said, it only gives the team more depth and adding some of these injured players back like Trea Turner and Jayson Werth are great roster additions in their own right.