Back in March,
I asked an esteemed group of individuals for their predictions for the
2025 Nationals season. Want to see how everyone did? Or would rather bury the
original post and hope that it never sees the light of day again? Well, since I
already created a blog post title, feel free to see how we did. Or don't.
1. There are
high expectations for 2023 #2 overall pick Dylan Crews. What do you expect from
him this season?
Crews, the #2
overall pick after some guy named Paul Skenes in Pittsburgh, only played in 85
games thanks to injuries. His overall stats of 10 home runs and 17 stolen bases
seem encouraging. 27 RBIs, a .208 batting average, and .280 on-base percentage
are not so encouraging. Crews was one of the best college hitters of the last
20 years, so it seems unlikely that he forgot to hit overnight. Still, it's
been a difficult adjustment to the major leagues. Most of the group had high
expectations for Crews, and he didn't live up to them. Frank probably was the
closest in his predictions of putting "some pressure on the defense with
his base stealing ability."
2. Who will
lead the Nationals in home runs in 2025?
This ended up
being an easy one. Nearly everyone (Ryan, Frank, Richard, Chris, Marc, and
Sean) picked James Wood who led the Nats with 31 home runs.
3. Will
the Nationals be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?
Pretty much
everyone through the team would be sellers and they were though not really any
big names. Kyle Finnegan went to Detroit, Amed Rosario to the Yankees, Michael
Soroka to the Cubs, Alex Call to the Dodgers, and Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia to the Angels. You have to be very good at Immaculate Grid or really, really,
really follow the Nationals to know most of these players. (Maybe Josh Bell was frustrated not getting traded?)
4. Will CJ
Abrams go to a casino this season?
Probably a mean
question. I'll just pretend that I didn't ask
this.
5. Who will
be the team's surprise/breakout player this year?
Richard wrote
that this player isn't on the opening day lineup and he was right. Daylen Lile joined the Nats in late May and excelled after the All-Star break. Lile hit
.304 in August with 1 home run and 8 RBIs to go along with a .353 on-base
percentage. In September, Lile hit .391(!!!) with 6 home runs, 19 RBIs, a .440
on-base percentage and .772 slugging percentage. That's a 1.212 OPS! (OPS is
On-Base plus Slugging.) While I understand that this stat is for only one
month, as a comparison, Aaron Judge led the majors with a 1.144 OPS and Ohtani was next with a 1.014.
Partial credit
to Ryan for predicting Jose Ferrer. Ferrer pitched pretty well in the closer
role after the team traded Finnegan.
6. Which
Nats Summer Concert are you looking forward to the most?
OAR and Nelly were the right answers, but there really weren't any wrong answers.
7. Finally,
what's your overall prediction for the Nationals? (ex. record, finish in
the NL East).
Well, the team
was pretty lousy this year finishing 66-96 and last place in the NL East. The
record was only better than the Chicago White Sox and dreadful Colorado
Rockies. The team fired the manager and general manager mid-season. While I'm
not sure anyone would call this rock bottom, I think it's an understatement to
say that the Nationals 2025 season was a disappointment. No one thought the
Nationals would be THIS bad, though Frank was the closest predicting 70 wins.
Josh Bell photo by Benny Sieu - Imagn Images
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