The season has not turned out the way the Washington Nationals hoped for. They have not had a month with a winning record since May, and the bullpen has been one of the worst all season. However, they have taken a massive step forward in the long rebuild and have plenty of positives to look at as we head into the final month of the season.
James Wood and CJ Abrams have established themselves as superstars and Cade Cavalli has emerged as the ace for the foreseeable future. The offense as a whole has massively overperformed what people thought it would. With all that there are still a couple of players that need to put in a big final month to really close out an overall good season.
Daylen Lile
It’s been a bit of a disappointing first full season in the majors for Daylen Lile. He finished last season hitting .391 with a 1.212 OPS in the month of September, and he was named the NL Player of the month. We were all hoping he would build upon last season and establish himself as the third guy alongside CJ Abrams and James Wood.
That just hasn’t happened this year. There have been moments where he has shown he can be an All-Star caliber player but overall, it has just been an underwhelming year. He just hasn't put it all together as he it is hitting .252 AVG with an .733 OPS so far this season.
Early signs are pointing towards Lile recreating his 2026 September as over his last nine games he is hitting .412 and has a 1.324 OPS with seven extra base hits. For the 2027 Nationals to make a playoff push they will need Lile to take that next step next season and he can begin that with another great month of September.
Dylan Crews
The former number two overall pick needs a good end to a season that has been full of inconsistencies. After starting the year in Triple-A he is slashing .223/.292/.368 (all career highs) with 10 home runs in 86 games this season. The bat has just not come around the way everyone was hoping for when he was drafted out of LSU. Crews has shown some promising returns over his last nine games as he is hitting .333 with an OPS of .857 and has been on base in all nine games.
While I don’t think he is playing for his job just yet as the Nats traded outfielder Christian Franklin to the Orioles at the deadline, there is a bit of a log jam in the outfield. Jacob Young has been serviceable with the bat this season to go along with his elite glove in centerfield and Andrew Pinckney will be someone to watch in Spring Training next year as he will be pushing for an Opening Day roster spot.
The clock will begin to tick louder and louder if he doesn't show this new Nationals leadership something considering he isn’t their draft pick and there isn’t a need for them to be attached to him the way the old regime would be.
Brady House
The former first round pick came into this season hoping to establish himself as the everyday third baseman for the Nationals however he struggled through the first 44 games of the season hitting .244 with seven home runs. The Nats decided to send him down to Triple-A and give his swing a full reset.
Since returning to the big-league ball club House has shown some more promise with the bat as he has an OPS of .739 with eight extra base hits including a 445-foot three-run bomb against the Marlins. Age is on House's side as he is only 23 and will be given more opportunities to show that he can be the man for the job, but a good final month would do his confidence wonders heading into the offseason and help the Nationals not consider any other alternatives at third in the offseason like Trey Lipscomb.
Will Dion & Yovanny Cruz out of the Bullpen
Everyone knows that the Nationals bullpen has been the biggest disappointment of the season for the team. The bullpen's collective ERA ranks 28th this season with a 4.88. At the trade deadline Nationals President of Baseball Operations Paul Toboni went all in on acquiring current and future assets to help the pen for the remainder of this season and going into next season. Two of those players are flamethrower Yovanny Cruz and left-handed pitcher Will Dion.
With Mitchell Parker out until the 2028 season and PJ Poulin not eligible to return until September 16, there is a three-man competition going on in the bullpen between Tom Cosgrove, Erik Tolman, and Will Dion for who can be the main left-handed pitcher for the Nationals. Dion was one of the players acquired at the deadline in the Foster Griffin deal from the Guardians. In my opinion he should get an extended look over the final month of the season to try and become manager Blake Butera's first lefty option out of the pen entering next season. Dion shown the ability to go multiple innings kind of like a left-handed version of Brad Lord. In five games with the Nats, Dion has impressed outside of one outing against the Rockies. He has a 2.45 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 14.2 innings pitched.
Another interesting battle in the bullpen will be who can become the closer of the Nationals. Currently, Clayton Beeter leads the team with 12 saves on the year but as a team they have blown 33 saves which is most in the MLB. The closer of the future could be Yovanny Cruz, who they acquired from the Yankees in the Luis Garcia Jr. deal is currently down in Rochester after struggling in his first go around with the big-league club. However, he recently got his first save down in Triple-A, striking out two in the process. If he can pitch well down in Triple-A to end his season or even get a September call-up then the Nationals would have no other options other than to maybe try him out late in games.
Ultimately, With Beeter, Brad Lord, and Orlando Ribalta being the only guys who more than likely have a spot locked down at the moment for Opening Day 2027, that leaves a ton of jobs up in the air that can be won over the final month of season.
James Wood
Last but certainly not least we have ... James Wood?? You might be thinking, "why is James Wood on this list?" He has been one of the best players in the National League this season, made the All-Star Game in which he should have been a starter, and is tied for ninth in the MLB with 30 home runs.
All of those things are correct, but with it being announced that Wood will begin a rehab assignment and return in the next couple of days, he makes this list due to the fact that he needs to end this season in the exact opposite way he finished off last season.
Everyone remembers the much-maligned slump that Wood experienced following the All-Star break last season courtesy of what I call the Home Run Derby yips. It was so bad that it even carried over into this season with people calling for the Nats to send him down over the first month of the season. Mainly, I am looking for this to not become a yearly problem with him.
Don't get me wrong, we all know what James Wood can do, but a good last month would allow him to go into the offseason with a clear mind. He would be able to spend the winter month working on small kinks in his swing and getting ready for a monster 2027 season instead of making wholesale changes to his approach in the box and having to listen to the media spend all offseason questioning what is wrong with him.
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