Washington Nationals: A theoretical week as GM this offseason

With the Washington Nationals huge offseason coming up this winter, we thought it’d be fun to put together a step-by-step plan to get the team back on top.

The Washington Nationals offseason is just over three weeks old now after failing to make the playoffs in 2018. The front office is going to have a huge offseason ahead, with many key free agents and big roster decisions to make as they look to get back on top in 2019.

Mike Rizzo has been the main architect in turning this team from a perennial sub-.500 team to playoff contenders more often than not. And while he didn’t have his finest season at the helm in 2018, you would back him to do all he can get this ballclub back on track.

However, most baseball fans dream of taking the reins themselves and making the major decisions. It’s why games such as Out of the Park Baseball are so popular, and one that I’m a huge fan of.

So, with no baseball to watch, I let my mind wander, pulled out Google Sheets and my calculator to put together my ideal roster. It took some sweat, tears and plenty of coffee to figure out, but it finally got there.

With plenty of holes to address on this Nats roster, it seemed appropriate to sort it into seven day’s worth of moves. While in reality this will be dragged out over several weeks, for simplicities sake, it’s narrowed down to make the seven steps clear.

I’m also far from a contract whizz, so some of the free agent contracts will be somewhat simplified to get the relevant annual average. Some of these may have deferred money or salary being different in each year, but the annual average is roughly what you’d expect, as that’s what counts against the luxury tax.

So let’s get this started with by far and away the biggest move of the Nats offseason.