As the Nationals tread water a few games below the .500 line for the third year in a row, it's only fair to think about what could have been. The offseason was a time of cautious optimism for Nationals fans, as a busy free agent market had many abuzz about what kind of additions the team could make to bring serious talent to a roster seemingly unable to hit another gear.
Alas, the reality most feared deep down would come to pass, as the team added no new players on deals more than two years long, re-signing Trevor Williams after a season he was unlikely to replicate while making tenuous additions in Paul DeJong, Amed Rosario, and Josh Bell for the offense, and adding three new relievers, two of which have already been released as of writing.
It's another round of "what could have been"s, then, for a Nationals fanbase going through the motions of a team mired in mediocrity without any true drive to climb out of the muck, seemingly content to remain chest-deep, not sinking any lower, but certainly no closer to freedom than they were when they last declined help from passersby. It wouldn't hurt, though, to check in on some names the team was rumored to be in on in the offseason, and see if maybe, on some kind of off-chance, sitting on their hands could actually have been the right move for the front office.
We'll look at hitters this week, and cover some pitchers next week. Lord knows there's enough hitters in this category for a whole piece.
Juan Soto
It's a little bit of a cop-out to put Juan Soto on this list, let alone in the lead off spot, but there was always a low, droning tone of hope that Mike Rizzo and Mark Lerner might reveal themselves as some kinds of crazy bastards and bring Soto home. It became pretty clear as the night went on, though, that Soto was going to be bringing home way, way more money than the $440 million over 15 years that Mark Lerner had offered him in 2022. It came down to a bidding war between the Steinbrenner and Cohen contingents, a battle which "Uncle Steve" eventually won, inking Soto to a 15-year contract worth $765 million and no deferred money (it's unclear if the Nationals' final offer to Soto in '22 would have included any deferred money, though it's likely it would have given the team's tendency to defer money in contract negotiations in years prior).
Soto's current performance ultimately doesn't say much about the state of affairs. He's started slow (by his standards), running a 124 wRC+ through Saturday, but the Mets are still winning plenty of ballgames and Soto is still on an easy hall of fame trajectory with his characteristic obscene walk rate, which remains above his strikeout rate. His wOBA is also 80 points below his expected mark, if that's worth anything.
Alex Bregman
Alex Bregman seemed like he might have been a sneaky good call for the Nationals at points in the offseason. After posting a picture from a Commanders game in D.C. in November, the fanbase started to work itself up over the idea of Washington being a potential suitor for the third baseman. When he ultimately signed with Boston, a Ben Verlander social media post revealed that the former Astro was not being seriously pursued at the end.
Bregman thrived in Houston with its left field profiling as extremely friendly to his contact archetype, and Boston ended up being a viable suitor for similar reasons. Indeed, that has proven to be a good bet for Bregman, who makes $20 million this year and has opt outs between each of the next two seasons worth $20 million apiece both years (as well as up to $60 million deferred over a 10-year period starting in 2035). A white-hot start for Bregman, posting 2.5 FanGraphs WAR across 51 games, came to an abrupt halt following a quadriceps injury that will sideline him for potentially multiple months.
With Brady House on the verge of the majors, a Bregman signing would either have necessitated a positional move for some party or a trade of the top 100 prospect. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially when House is far from a sure bet, having yet to get his first taste of major league action, it seems we'll never know what that organizational plan could have looked like. As of now, Jos Tena and Amed Rosario continue to split time at third base, joined by Paul DeJong when healthy. It's not the most inspiring tandem or trio, but it's what the team is left with while it bides its time.
Anthony Santander
It's very possible that Santander's market, which was touted as being worth as much as six years and $130 million or more, might have been the most overestimated of all major free agents last offseason. Santander didn't sign with the Blue Jays until late January, as the team desperate to give their money to anyone finally got someone to take it off their hands. They did so to the sum of $92.5 million over 5 years, though about two thirds of that being deferred takes the contract's present-day value to about $68.6 million.
The prospect of adding a slugging outfielder to a team sorely lacking true power was mouth-watering for many Nationals fans. The team placed 29th out of 30 in fly ball rate last year, and Santander had just posted his first season with a fly ball rate above 50% by a significant margin. Five months later, the Nationals are now dead last in fly ball rate, but it's questionable whether the theoretical addition of Santander would have helped that much. Tony Taters is off to a dreadful start in 2025, putting up numbers even worse than his miserable 2021 campaign, slashing .188/.270/.327 with just six home runs and the highest strikeout rate of his career across a full season if it holds. This one looks like a bullet dodged for the Nationals, even if he turns it around to some capacity.
Christian Walker
As a dual Nationals and Astros fan, I should have seen this one coming. After releasing José Abreu less than halfway into a three-year, $58.5 million contract, and seeking a new first baseman to get production out of, the Houston Astros signed Christian Walker to a three-year, $60 million deal in the offseason, taking a pick off the board many Nationals fans were hopeful for if the team couldn't find a suitor in Pete Alonso. Of course, that ended up taking the form of Nathaniel Lowe, who's another story in itself, but that's neither here nor there.
After being one of the most consistently reliable hitters in baseball from 2022 to 2024, averaging 30 home runs in the caverns of Chase Field in Phoenix, it figured that Walker would immediately revert to struggling in a way he hasn't done since he was a Quad-A player shuttling back and forth between Reno and Phoenix when he signed with a new team. That ends up being another bullet dodged on a short-term deal for the Nationals, who aren't exactly in a position to be saddling themselves with immediate albatrosses if they intend to start being competitive on the market... though that's still a big "if."
Walker is slashing .196/.263/.328 in 50 games with Houston so far, and his strikeout rate through April was the second-highest for a single calendar month it had even been in his career, minimum 80 plate appearances. He's also running the worst wRC+ this month (50) of any month in his career. The Nationals, having traded for who is hardly a franchise first baseman (Nathaniel Lowe came with just two years of control), are still searching for a true cornerstone at the slightly cooler corner, but it seems that Christian Walker would not have been it.