Washington Nationals: Four players who need to bounce back in 2019

As the Washington Nationals look to get back on top of the NL East next season, they will need bounce-back efforts from these players to get there in 2019.

The Washington Nationals have been one of the busiest teams in baseball so far this offseason. However, if they are to reclaim their crown as National League East champions, they are going to need some of their players to rebound from poor 2018 seasons.

Among a variety of other reasons for their underperformance, some of the Nationals key players weren’t able to live up to their billing. Yes, there were injuries and poor management at times, but there were several players who just didn’t perform. After all, the game is played on the diamond, not off it.

Probably one of the most prominent examples of this was the team’s former MVP, Bryce Harper, who won’t appear in this list seeing as he’s not currently on the Nats’ roster. By his usual standards, the outfielder had a lackluster .214/.365/.468 slash line at the All-Star break with the team flirting around .500. Usually, he was the one to carry the team, but it just wasn’t the case.

Now, should Harper depart the nation’s capital, it’s going to be up to multiple players to step up and account for the missing production. Both the position players and pitchers will need to make up that gap, not just one area in particular.

In this article, we’re going to look at four players who had poor seasons in 2018 but also have the ability to flip the script come Opening Day in a few months. First up, we have easily the most obvious candidate for a bounce-back season on the mound.

Stephen Strasburg

The performance of Stephen Strasburg was one of the biggest reasons the Washington Nationals rotation regressed so significantly last season. If he can return to his old self in 2019, then it could make a huge difference in the team’s quest to win the NL East once again.

After a strong 2017 in which he finished with a 15-4 record and 2.52 ERA while placing third in NL Cy Young voting, there were high expectations in 2018. Contributor Ross Shinberg even predicted Strasburg going one step further and taking home the top pitcher award last year.

However, he suffered an injury-plagued year, but even when he was healthy, he didn’t always have things go his way. He had an underwhelming 10-7 record and 3.74 ERA as he was prone to the home run ball, allowing a career-high 1.2 HR/9.

Perhaps slightly worryingly, Strasburg suffered a dip in velocity towards the end of the year. However, the righty expects to be back at full strength for 2019, which makes him the most obvious candidate for a resurgence next season.

If he can get closer to his 2017 levels, then it will give the Nats one of the most dominant 1-2-3 starter combos in all of baseball, with Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin flanking him. That would not only bode well for the grueling regular season, but also for the postseason where that triplet would give them a huge advantage over any opponent.

Joe Ross

It may be somewhat harsh to include Joe Ross in this list after missing the first half of 2018 due to recovering from Tommy John surgery. But the right-hander wasn’t as sharp as many expected in his brief

He made three big league starts last season to the tune of a 5.06 ERA including a particularly rough outing in Colorado where he gave up three homers. A stark contrast from his 3.95 between 2015 and 2017 when he really flashed a lot of potential at the back of the Nats’ rotation.
Worryingly, he was only able to post a measly 3.9 K/9 when his career before 2018, he had a much better 8.1 K/9. But it’s probably fair to put this down to a small sample size after posting a better looking 6.5 K/9 in his minor league rehab and could improve during a full season.

Right now, Ross is the favorite to open the season as the Nationals’ fifth starter in the rotation, barring a surprising new addition. So the righty is going to have to step up his game again in 2019 to ensure that the team has no weak links in the rotation this year, after a poor year for the starters last campaign.

Though he may not be in the rotation for the whole season as management will likely take a cautious approach in his first full season back, he should be there for the large majority of the year. As long as he can keep his team in most games, then it will be a vast improvement on last year and allow the team’s offense to be its strength once again.

Kyle Barraclough

One of the Washington Nationals most under-the-radar additions this offseason was Kyle Barraclough. Coming off of a down year with the Miami Marlins before he was dealt, he could be a huge part of the bullpen next season if he can right the wrongs of 2018.

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During the first three years of his career, Barraclough has been an extremely reliable setup man, posting 57 holds to go with a 2.87 ERA and striking more than 12 batters per nine innings. It was getting to the point where several people thought he was destined to be the closer of the future for the Fish.

But in 2018 as their closer for a fair portion of the season, he struggled in comparison to the impressive numbers he had previously posted. He recorded a 4.20 ERA with just 10 holds and 10 saves while blowing seven saves as he struggled to miss bats at the lofty rate in his previous three seasons.

It’s entirely possible that Barraclough thrives as a setup man rather than as a closer, as he has career 2.76 ERA in innings before the ninth inning and a 5.11 ERA in the ninth. Thankfully, that’s exactly what will be expected of him with the Nationals.

Currently, the right-hander is slated to open the season as the seventh inning man behind Sean Doolittle and Trevor Rosenthal. That should take a lot of the pressure off of him in his first year in D.C. and once again allow him to thrive while becoming a key cog in the revamped Nationals bullpen.

The Washington Nationals certainly have a lot that they need to correct if they hope to be contenders once again in 2019. But it feels like the performance of these four players, in particular, could be enough to swing the balance back in their favor.