The Washington Nationals dropped the series opener against the Kansas City Royals on Monday evening, but there were still some positives to take away for the club overall. Righty Cade Cavalli made his second start of the season, and pitched 5.0 strong innings until the wheels fell off in the 6th inning, but he was not the reason for the loss.
James Wood reached base 3 times with a walk and a pair of singles, as he continues to look to put his slump behind him on this road trip. He has looked a lot better since moving into the leadoff spot, but perhaps the lineup put out against Royals lefty Bailey Falter signaled that the team prefers to give Daylen Lile more reps in the outfield as opposed to fellow rookie Robert Hassell III. Lile continued to make his case, going 2/4 with a double, and rasied his OPS to .699 on the season.
Jacob Young went 0/4 at the bottom of the order, and his .555 OPS continues not to offer any sort of confidence at the bottom of the order. We finally received another update on Dylan Crews before the game today, as he will continue his rehab assignment down in Rochester for at least the next few days, and the plan is for him to play a full 9 innings in right field for both of the next couple games.
He should be able to rejoin the Nationals for the upcoming weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies, and his growth and development as a big leaguer needs him to get as much playing time as possible to avoid making 2025 a totally lost season. His impending return is set to create a roster move in some capacity, so it will be interesting to see what the corresponding move is once he returns for the weekend, as expected.
Elsewhere across the organization, righty Josiah Gray, the team's 2024 Opening Day starter, threw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Saturday, and is scheduled for another session at some point today, according to Andrew Golden of the Washington Post. The hope for Gray is that he can return to a big league mound at some point before the end of this season, and the team could really use some starting pitching depth before the end of this season.
Finally, catcher Keibert Ruiz is continuing to work through rehab protocol, and is also progressing through baseball activities. Ruiz has been out for a little bit now, and the team's catching situation has not exactly been ideal this season. Even still, the hope is that Ruiz can come back before too long, but he likely need a rehab assignment as well before rejoining the big league club.
Which injured National are you most looking forward to seeing return? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.