Washington Nationals: Where Are They Now?

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The Washington Nationals have been stacked with exceptional players the past six years. Not all of them have stayed with the club. We revisit five Nationals greats and ask, “Where Are They Now?”

As a franchise, the Washington Nationals have come a long way in the last six years. Four division championships, four playoff appearances, 555 regular season wins, 20 players named to the all-star team, a unanimous NL MVP, and two-time Cy Young award winner.

Nobody saw this coming from a team that, from 2005-2011, won 492 games. The way the Nats turned around their organization, and how quickly they did it, has only been seen a few times in all of baseball. It is something the Nationals, and the city of D.C. should not take for granted.

Most recently, the Kansas City Royals made a similar turnaround. From 2009-2012, the club won 275 games. After acquiring Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera, and the late Yordano Ventura, the club went to two straight World Series’ and won the World Series in 2015.

While the Nationals are still looking for their first playoff series win, let alone World Series win, the Royals show that it is possible to go from “worst to first” in a short time.

Just like the Royals, the Nationals acquired some special players along the way. Jayson Werth, Max Scherzer, Daniel Murphy, and Sean Doolittle, just to name a few, are some of those players.

However, some of the players that have made the last few years so great have moved on to other teams and opportunities. This article will serve the purpose of “checking in” on some of the more memorable Nationals and how their careers have been since leaving D.C.

IAN DESMOND

If there were a “Mount Rushmore” of Washington Nationals players, one would think Ian Desmond deserves a spot. “Desi” is a homegrown National who was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 2004. In his time as a National (2009-2015), Desmond amassed three consecutive silver slugger awards (2012-2014) and one all-star appearance.

Desmond showed exceptional durability for the Nats. From 2010-2015, he finished no worse than second in games played among shortstops.

Off the field, Desmond was a major voice for and a board member of the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. He also frequented trips to the Nationals’ minor league clubhouses. He did this on his own time to be with the prospects in the farm system.

In 2016, Desmond signed a one-year deal with the Texas Rangers. That season, Desmond collected the fourth “20-20 season” of his career, slugging 22 home runs and swiping 21 bases. He was named as an American League all-star reserve for his first-half efforts.

The following season, Desmond signed with the Colorado Rockies. Limited by multiple injuries, Desmond only started 88 games and posted a .375 slugging percentage, the second-worst mark of his career (2011).

In Colorado’s lone postseason game in 2017, Desmond singled and scored a run in the Rockies’ loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

DENARD SPAN

After being acquired by the Nats in the 2012 offseason, longtime Nats leadoff man Denard Span made an immediate impact in 2013. He set a career high in triples with 11. He led the league in the category as well.

Defensively, Span was named a Gold Glove finalist for centerfielders.

His best season in D.C. came the following year. He led the NL in hits (184) and batted .302. Even with gray hairs growing on his beard he stole a career-high 31 bases. Due to his efforts, he received a small share of the NL MVP vote.

Span spent the past two years in the Bay Area with the Giants. His batting average dipped below .275 in consecutive seasons, the first time that has happened since 2010/2011 as a Minnesota Twin.

He remains a stout defender, only posting three errors in his two seasons with the team.

Span collected five hits (three of them for extra bases) in the four games he played during the 2016 postseason.

Last season, his Giants tied the White Sox for the worst record in the league.

On December 20, 2017, Span got traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, along with three other teammates in exchange for Evan Longoria. In Tampa, Span will join one of the best outfields in the MLB. He will now play with his former teammate, Steven Souza Jr., Gold Glove winner Kevin Kiermaier, and 2017 All-Star Corey Dickerson.

JORDAN ZIMMERMANN

The Washington Nationals drafted Jordan Zimmermann in 2007. Zimmermann was a consistent source of quality work for the Nats. He never finished a season with an ERA worse than his 2015 season (3.66).

Zimmermann was also quite competent at the plate. He recorded a .169 batting average and a .193 on-base percentage with the team. His only career home run occurred in 2012.

Most Nationals fans will remember Zimmermann’s no-hitter in the last game of the year in 2014. It concluded with Steven Souza Jr. making one of the most incredible catches baseball will ever see.

It was the first no-hitter in Washington Nationals history.

Zimmermann has spent the last two seasons in Detroit, and they have both been forgettable. Zimmermann set career-worst marks in ERA, WHIP, HR/9, SO/9 and W-L% in the two years with the team.

This is especially disappointing after signing a five-year, $110 million-dollar contract with the club.

To put his stint as a Tiger into perspective, Zimmermann’s combined WAR with Detroit is 2.4. In any one full season with the Nats, he never finished with a WAR below 3.0. That is not the player Nats fans remember, and not the one Tigers fans planned on watching.

TYLER CLIPPARD

A fan favorite, Tyler Clippard was phenomenal for the Nats. He made two all-star appearances with the team. He posted a 2.68 ERA while striking out 10.3 batters per nine innings in his tenure in D.C.

His 32 saves in 2012 ranked tied for seventh in the NL.

In the postseason with Washington (2012 and 2014), Clippard allowed one earned run in six innings while striking out seven.

His time away from the Nationals, which began after the team traded him away in 2015, has been filled with ups and downs. The downs have been especially ugly.

He bounced around the league, playing for six different teams in three years. He only chose to play for one of those teams – the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2016 offseason. Each other time, Clippard was sent elsewhere via trade.

Clippard’s best effort came as a New York Met. In 32 appearances in 2016, Clippard posted a 3.06 ERA and a WHIP of 1.05.

After all the turnover and traveling, Clippard finally sat on top of the baseball world in 2017. After the White Sox traded him to the Houston Astros, Clippard “helped” the Astros win the World Series.

Clippard only pitched in 16 games for the club, none in the postseason, and posted a 6.43 ERA in 14 innings.

ADAM LAROCHE

Adam LaRoche signed with the Nationals twice in free agency. First in 2011, then he re-signed in 2013.

He made a name for himself in 2012 by finishing 6^th in the NL MVP voting, winning a silver slugger award and earning a gold glove. LaRoche clubbed 33 home runs and drove in 100 runs.

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As if his résumé wasn’t well-rounded already, LaRoche’s situational hitting was great. He led the league in sacrifice flies with nine.

LaRoche hit two home runs in the Nats’ 2012 postseason series against St. Louis. However, he could only manage one hit in 18 at-bats in the ’14 series against San Francisco.

LaRoche went on to play a season with the Chicago White Sox in 2015 before being swept up in a controversy in 2016.

Surprisingly, LaRoche stepped away from baseball in 2016 because the White Sox placed limits on how much time his son, Drake, could spend in the team clubhouse. His teammates backed up LaRoche and nearly boycotted spring training games.

He received praise from former teammates (such as Bryce Harper) and baseball greats (such as Chipper Jones). They say, in essence, that LaRoche was right for standing up for his beliefs and retiring on his terms.

Next: 3 takeaways from the Winter Meetings

Needless to say, it is nice to know that these former Nats greats are doing well in their post-Nats lives.

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Washington Nationals: Where are they now?