Washington Nationals: District on Deck Mailbag Post

On Twitter, we asked our readers to submit questions or topics they wanted to discuss.  Here, we talk about a few of our favorite responses.

3rd Baseman of the Future?

Thomas Wilson asks, “Who do you guys think will be the Nats’ third baseman Nats next season?”

Well, isn’t this the hundred million dollar question of the year?  In all seriousness, I don’t think anybody can know for sure whether or not Anthony Rendon will wear a Curly W cap next season.

In a recent interview with 106.7 The Fan, Rendon said that his status is still “up in the air” and he doesn’t even know what he wants to do.  At least publicly, that is the sentiment, and as far as we know, he’s still willing to negotiate with the Lerner family.

After losing Bryce Harper in February, losing another homegrown superstar would be a crushing blow to the franchise.  I would imagine that a deal gets done between the two sides during the offseason.

Experienced Players in the Minors

@punk_lightsaber asks, “What do you think we’ll do with Michael A. Taylor and Wilmer Difo?”

Let’s start with Taylor.  His trade value peaked at the end of 2017 and has gone down ever since.  He’s eligible for arbitration for 2020, so I’d expect the Nats to make him and offer and keep him on the 40-man roster.

For Difo, same thing.  He has even less trade value since he hasn’t shown upside at any point in his career.  There’s no point in getting rid of either unless they’re minor pieces in a major deal.  I think they’ll stay put for now.

Best Rotation in MLB?

Josh Morris commented (sarcastically I hope) “Yasiel Puig and Gerrit Cole to DC make it happen.”

This comment got me thinking: Now that the Houston Astros added Zack Greinke to their rotation, do they have the best starting pitchers in baseball?

For Houston, it’s Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, Wade Miley, and Aaron Sanchez.

The Nationals’ rotation, when healthy, is Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, Anibal Sanchez, and Erick Fedde.

Let’s compare those players’ numbers, group together by team, since the start of 2018:

Astros: 3.32 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 27.3 K%, 3.55 FIP in just over 1,500 innings pitched.

Nationals: 3.29 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 28.5 K%, 3.23 FIP in just over 1,300 innings pitched.

The numbers may be almost identical, but the Nats have a slight edge in the advanced metrics.  Pitching still reigns supreme in the Nation’s Capital.