Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Right here, I preach about issues associated to Main League Baseball on a weekly foundation. Among the matters shall be urgent issues, some may appear insignificant within the grand scheme of issues, and most shall be someplace in between. The benefit of this web site is that it is free, and you’re allowed to click on away. If you happen to keep, you may get smarter, although. That is a money-back assure. Let’s get to it.
Final month, Nationals star James Wood hit a house run off the Padres and the Nationals’ social media individual posted it with “FLEECE EM.”
For anybody confused, “fleece” is mostly utilized in sports activities phrases when a crew vastly wins a commerce towards one other. Wooden was drafted by the Padres, initially, and came to visit to the Nationals within the first Juan Soto commerce.
That commerce in full is most definitely a fleecing proper now, on condition that the Padres traded Soto a few 12 months and a half later and did not attain the World Sequence with him.
As a reminder:
Padres obtained: Soto, Josh Bell
Nationals obtained: Wooden, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III and Luke Voit.
Wooden seems like a celebrity who the Nats will certainly (hopefully?) attempt to lock up long run in some unspecified time in the future. Abrams is an All-Star. Gore will probably be an All-Star this season.
It is the kind of package deal a crew can construct round and that is what brings me to the purpose of at this time’s Soapbox.
How for much longer is that this rebuild gonna take?
If you happen to’re gonna puff out your digital chest and peacock round about successful a commerce, should not the rebuild be about carried out by now? To be clear, I am not essentially saying the social media individual did one thing unsuitable. Mike Rizzo did not ship that tweet. They’re simply doing their job in service of the fan base. I simply do not feel like if I had been a fan I might be in a spot, in 2025, the place I am going nuts about successful a commerce from three years in the past.
The Nationals gained the World Sequence in 2019. They weren’t good in 2020. They traded Trea Turner and Max Scherzer in 2021, adopted by Juan Soto in 2022. They weren’t good in 2023. Or 2024. They don’t seem to be now.
Take a look at the shortage of progress right here.
2021: 65-97
2022: 55-107
2023: 71-91
2024: 71-91
2025: On tempo to go 68-94
And thank goodness the Nats fleeced the Padres on that Soto commerce, as a result of aside from Wooden, Abrams and Gore, who else is a sure-fire, long-term piece right here?
- Catcher Keibert Ruiz is now in his fourth 12 months with the Nats. He is hitting .247/.278/.320 (71 OPS+) with 0.1 WAR in 66 video games. He had a 74 OPS+ and 0.6 WAR in 127 video games final 12 months. He is cheaply beneath crew management via 2032.
- Second baseman Luis García Jr. slashed .282/.318/.444 (115 OPS+) with 18 homers, 22 steals and a couple of.2 WAR final season. He is 25 now and is not having nearly as good a season as he did in 2024. He’ll hit arbitration this coming winter.
- Outfielder Dylan Crews was the second general decide within the 2023 draft. Via 76 MLB video games in his younger profession, he is hit .206/.275/.354 with 74 strikeouts in 277 at-bats. Among the expertise have been flashed and it’s miles too early to surrender on him. He might nicely nonetheless develop into a star. However is he a certain factor?
- Starter Josiah Gray is rehabbing from Tommy John surgical procedure. He is 27 and crew managed solely via 2027. In 2023, he had a 3.91 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 143 strikeouts in 159 innings, good for 3.1 WAR.
All 4 might be key contributors to future Nationals success, nevertheless it’s attainable to argue that fewer than 4 right here shall be a part of the subsequent Nationals contender. Who else might be? Mitchell Parker and Jacob Young? Possibly. Nathaniel Lowe? Eh. Jake Irvin? Alex Call? José Tena? I do not know, man. You’ll be able to’t really matter on prospects or relievers, that means it is slim pickings previous the Soto commerce return.
Additional, do you know Gore is just two arbitration years away from free company (similar as García and Grey)? Abrams is three away. If you win a deal this convincingly, it certain looks like the turnaround season must be … now. Proper? To already be confronted with the priority of locking up Gore and/or Abrams long run, take into consideration buying and selling them or face shedding them to free company inside the subsequent few years when the crew is not even aggressive but isn’t how a rebuild is meant to go.
So, certain, strut round bragging about how your crew fleeced the Padres whereas buying and selling Juan Freaking Soto, however, I ask once more, how for much longer is that this Nationals rebuild alleged to take?