Nationals Predictions: Best Hitter, Best Pitcher, Best Reliever
By Nick Meyers
With Opening Day on Thursday, it is time to officially plant our flag. Predictions are one of the best parts of every offseason leading into the start of the regular season. That is mainly because for a team like the Nationals, it can be an opportunity to be bold and predict the bright spots for a team that many are predicting to struggle this season. We can be realistic about the team, but if we're going to make seaon predictions, we may as well go all out.
On the other hand, there is not a very high bar. Considering Lane Thomas was voted Hitter of the Year last season for the Nationals and Erasmo Ramirez was voted Pitcher of the Year, really any player on the 40 man roster or even someone off the roster entirely could win these team awards.
End-of-season Nationals awards, voted on by local/team media (Washington Post writers do not vote):
— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) October 2, 2022
Player of the year — Lane Thomas
Pitcher of the year — Erasmo Ramírez
Media Good Guy — Nelson Cruz
The Nationals have a lot of new faces and even some familiar faces that will be getting their first real chance to start the year as starters or key contributors for the team. When predicting these awards, we're going to think about potential breakouts for the Nats but also think about health and longevity as well. Without further ado, our predictions for the Nats' team awards.