How are the 'Scrappy' Washington Nationals finding their recent success?

It's pretty clear that the 2025 Washington Nationals are not a good baseball team. In what was supposed to be a a season in which they took a step forward, the Nationals have seemingly taken two steps backwards instead.

Most of their starting rotation on paper is sidelined, they traded away their closer, and their most prolific hitter isn't really hitting. And yet, the month of September has been very kind to Washington. They've won seven of their first nine games this month.

How are they doing this?

Unexpected Bullpen Standouts

When Kyle Finnegan was traded to the Detroit Tigers, it seemed to be an acknowledgement that holding onto an experienced late-inning reliever who is relatively reliable isn't really important. Once Finnegan left, it seemed very possible that the bullpen could be destined to enter a tailspin. Instead, they've been surprisingly productive.

Chief among the relievers to emerge has been Jose A. Ferrer. The team had been hoping for him to step up and become a potential closer ever since they called him up from Rochester midway through 2023. He's been a solid performer for the last two seasons, but he'd often struggled in clutch situations, and the southpaw was also much more effective against left-handed hitters.

Lately, Ferrer has been outstanding. He hasn't surrendered a run in his last 14 outings, dating back to more than a month ago, and those appearances have been in the highest-leverage situations much more often.

Jackson Rutledge in particular has taken a dip in the wrong direction, and Cole Henry hasn't been much better, but virtually everyone else has been impressive. Recent acquisitions Clayton Beeter and PJ Poulin have been among the leaders of the charge, and Orlando Ribalta has also been a very strong performer lately. Mason Thompson and Konnor Pilkington have been reliable for the most part, as well.

Whether this can be sustained for a longer period of time is up for debate, but it's nice to see the bullpen not lose the Nationals games, and also appear to have some surprising depth.

New Starting Pitchers

Part of what makes the bullpen so surprising right now is that Brad Lord is no longer part of it. Obviously, Josiah Gray has been sidelined all season. To a lesser extent, DJ Herz has been out all season as well. Then Trevor Williams landed on the injured list, Michael Soroka was traded to the Cubs, and even ace MacKenzie Gore landed on the IL. Essentially by default, this has led to Lord back to the starting rotation, where he had been during his time in the minor leagues.

Although he hasn't been exceptional as a starting pitcher at the major league level, he has provided a degree of stability, which is something that more established options like Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker haven't necessarily been.

Even more surprisingly, Andrew Alvarez has provided a major spark. The franchise's 2023 Minor League Pitcher of the Year earned his first promotion to the big leagues on September 1 and started in that day's game. By throwing five shutout innings, Alvarez became just the second Nationals starter to win his big league debut (the other was Stephen Strasburg). After another solid start, he seems likely to stick on the roster for the rest of the season at a minimum.

The best news of all is that MackKenzie Gore is returning to the active roster to make a start on Thursday. He will have spent the bare minimum amount of time on the injured list, which is very surprising, considering how this tends to go for starting pitchers in this organization.

Everyone is Hitting

As mentioned before, James Wood has been decently productive at the plate lately, but he's been pretty far from the All-Star performer he was in the first half of the season. To an extent, the same is true for CJ Abrams.

What's more important, however, is the depth of productive hitters over the last few weeks. Right behind Abrams and Wood in the lineup, Josh Bell has been on a major hot streak. It's arguably lasted since the Trade Deadline, but he's most notably mashed four home runs this week. In the cleanup spot, Daylen Lile has been similarly productive.

Down the rest of the lineup, the Nationals have gotten more steady production from Luis Garcia Jr, Brady House and Robert Hassell III as well. Even Dylan Crews and Jorge Alfaro have been moderately effective hitters, and more encouraging than their counterparts Jacob Young and Keibert Ruiz.

Will it Continue?

Honestly, who knows. The betting odds would favor some regression in the near future. We shouldn't worry about that right now, though. Frankly, it's just nice to end this season on a positive note, after this season has been such a disapointment.

What are your thoughts on the recent improvements for the Nationals? Let me know your thoughts @stephen_newman1 on X.

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