Washington Nationals: Five must-watch players in 2018

The baseball calendar is a long one; here are five thrilling Washington Nationals players to watch to help you get through the dog days of summer.

The Washington Nationals enter 2018 as massive favorites in the NL East. And after another disappointing NLDS exit last fall, there isn’t a whole lot the team can do to totally appease the fan base until October.

But, until the playoffs start, there is still plenty of baseball to be played! The Nationals’ roster is brimming with star talent, but that doesn’t mean everyone is a must-watch player.

Anthony Rendon is a whiz in the field and a master at the dish, but his all-around skills don’t really trigger as many “wows” from the crowd. Nats fans should be excited to have Adam Eaton back in the fold; he does everything well, deepens a lineup, and is a steady presence over a 162-game season. But baseball fans likely aren’t flipping the channel for an Eaton at-bat. Tanner Roark is a very similar player on the mound.

These are guys who are crucial to a team, and very talented players in their own right. They just don’t have the same ‘watchability’ factor that some other Nationals might possess.

Here are five players – some obvious, some not – who will be appointment television for Washington fans this year, and will also play big roles in the success of the franchise.

We’ve rarely seen Turner completely unencumbered while with the Nationals, but when he is fully healthy and playing well, there are few in the game that combine high-end speed with quality power quite like Turner.

In the last two seasons, Turner has swiped 79 bases and popped 24 home runs in just 171 total games. Since 2016, only three players – Billy Hamilton, Dee Gordon, and Jonathan Villar – have stolen that many bags, though they all did it in at least 66 more games than Turner.

And, while they received many more opportunities at the plate, they do not possess anywhere near the same power abilities. Hamilton and Gordon have combined for just 10 home runs over the past two seasons; Villar has smacked 30 long balls since the start of the 2016 campaign, but he has appeared in 107 more games than Turner over that same span.

If anything, Turner has a little Rickey Henderson in his game. He isn’t quite peak Rickey, when he was routinely nabbing triple-digit steal totals, but prime Rickey (ages 25-34) and today’s Turner have some similarities. During that 10-year stretch, Henderson averaged 18 home runs and 67 steals per season. Don’t expect Turner to keep pace with Henderson through his mid-30’s, but over the next few years, joining the rare 20-60 club seems possible. Only three players have ever hit 20 home runs and stolen 60 bases in a season: Henderson (three times), Joe Morgan (twice), and Eric Davis (Villar fell one home run short in 2016).

Of course, Henderson also posted a career 16.4 percent walk rate, which dwarfs Turner’s 6.7 percent. Getting on base is crucial for a guy with Turner’s blistering speed, so that is the one major area where he still needs to improve.

Still, steals and bombs are two of the most exciting plays in the game, and Turner brings those in spades. If he plays at least 140 games, the dynamic 24-year-old should garner plenty of MVP votes by the end of the season.

Since his call-up in 2012, Harper has had a reasonable claim has the most exciting player in the entire sport, so of course he deserves a spot on this list. And now that Harper is finally in his contract year, the spotlight is sure to shine even brighter on the 25-year-old outfielder.

It’s no coincidence that Harper’s presence in Washington has coincided with the franchise’s most successful run ever. Harper has piled plenty of division titles, All-Star nods, Silver Sluggers, and an MVP award onto his resume in just six seasons. He has provided some of the team’s highest highs, and been on the receiving end of some the team’s lowest lows.

Harper has been injured too often in a Nationals uniform, but he has been electrifying even more. He hits violent rockets deep into bleachers, hoses runners with heat-seeking missiles, and caroms around the field as his wild hair bounces free. At anytime, he could hit a ball harder than you’ve ever seen or ignite a bench-clearing brawl. He can’t help but fly close to the sun and, while sometimes he gets burned, you’re going to want watch every second.

There’s a real chance Harper leaves Washington this upcoming winter, particularly if he can get through an injury-free season in 2018. But, until that point, embrace Harper’s heroics and recklessness, because D.C. will probably never see another player like him.

(Unless he stays).

SP Max Scherzer

If it feels like Scherzer is on no-hitter watch nearly once a month, it’s because he is.

Scherzer has carried a no-no into the sixth inning on 12 different occasions in 101 starts with the Nationals. He has finished off two no-hitters with Washington and tied the record with another 20-strikeout game. He also paced the NL in strikeouts in each of the last two seasons, and won two straight NL Cy Young awards to bookend his AL version.

So what’s left to accomplish?

Well, besides finally leading the Nationals to a postseason series win, Scherzer is on a chase for history his season. No one has captured three straight Cy Young awards since Randy Johnson won four in a row from 1999-2002 with Arizona and another Cy for Scherzer would make him just the fifth pitcher in history with at least four.

Scherzer is now a Hall of Fame lock, but the rest of his career will determine how we refer to him two decades from now.

Barring a catastrophic injury, Scherzer should cross 2,000 career innings, 300 career starts, 150 career victories, and potentially even 2,400 strikeouts this season.

It’s incredibly rare to watch a future Hall of Famer while that player is still in his prime, but Scherzer’s run of dominance since 2013 has put us in that exceptional position. He is appointment viewing every night as he chases career benchmarks and posts sparkling individual performances.

This could have been Stephen Strasburg, but listing four of the team’s best players as ‘must-watch’ seems a little boring. So here is Enny Romero as the outside-the-box pick.

The law firm of Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson, and Brandon Kintzler deservedly gets most of the attention in the Nationals bullpen. They are the three best pitchers who will be required to get the bulk of the big outs late in games this season.

But, Romero stands out as the one guy who could unlock the bullpen and unleash its full wrath on opposing hitters. Romero did not pitch well this spring, and yes, he may have only made the final roster because he is out of options. In a world where bullpen depth is key, he stands as the most intriguing arm in the back of the bullpen.

Romero threw his fastball, which averages 98 mph, nearly 80 percent of the time in 2017 after throwing it just 60 percent of the time in 2016 with Tampa Bay.

He dropped his cutter rate from 29 percent to 11 percent, and used his curveball less than seven percent of the time too. Romero basically became a one-trick pony, but it worked, as his K-rate jumped, his walk rate fell, and he stabilized his numbers with a 3.56 ERA across 55.2 innings. Opponents struck out 52 times and hit .254 against his heater.

Doolittle, Madson, and Kintzler are all very reliable, steady presences at the back of a bullpen, but they don’t have that extra “oomph” that necessarily makes hitters uncomfortable in the box. When Romero enters the game, he can wipe out anyone with a triple-digit fastball.

Romero could learn a thing or two about reliability from the three main relievers, but he does add a dash of unpredictability that, when harnessed properly, can move the team forward.

Keep an eye on Romero, because if he doesn’t strike out the hitter with his fastball, the home run will at least go a long, long way.