After an unideal opening series against the Rangers, the Phillies will get their first look at a National League East opponent this season. And in what is hopefully good news, it’s the NL East opponent that most pundits expect will finish last in the division.
Washington Nationals
Record: 2-1 (Second place in National League East)
The last time they met
The Phillies hosted the Nats in late August 2025 and took two out of three games. It would have been a sweep if not for a blown save by Jhoan Duran in the opening game.
What’s the deal with the Nationals?
After winning the World
Series in 2019, things quickly fell apart for the Nationals. Star players like Trea Turner, Max Scherzer, and Anthony Rendon left the team, and Stephen Strasburg’s arm fell apart seemingly seconds after signing a lucrative extension.
Of course, we all know what really sparked the downfall of the Nats:
The Nats began to rebuild, but it generally isn’t a good sign when the team decides to fire the general manager a few years into the rebuilding process, as the Nats did with Mike Rizzo last summer. The Nats’ ownership group seemed to think that Rizzo was behind the times in terms of analytics and player development methodology. Rizzo seemed to think the Nats’ owners were cheap and should have done more to retain their stars. Because failure usually has multiple authors, they’re probably both correct.
Where does that leave the Nats now? They’re very young, without a regular player in the lineup over 30, and most are under 27. While that gives the Nats some hope for the future, it doesn’t do all that much for their chances in 2026. Most projections have them being one of the worst teams in baseball.
I have a friend who is a Nats fan, and he says he can barely identify anyone in the lineup.
Featured player: James Wood
In 2022, the Nationals realized they weren’t going to be able to sign outfielder Juan Soto to an extension and traded him to the Padres for what looked like an impressive haul of prospects.
However, they’ve already jettisoned one of the key pieces from that trade in MacKenzie Gore (based on yesterday, that might have been a mistake), and they’ve made it known that shortstop C.J. Abrams is also available for the right price. (Buckle up, Nats fans: If a 25-year-old isn’t deemed to be in your “contention window,” you’re probably not going to be seeing the playoffs any time soon.)
At last year’s All-Star break, the Nats probably thought that outfielder James Wood would be part of that window. The 23-year-old hit 24 home runs in the first half and looked like a burgeoning star. But his star fell considerably in the second half, with a .690 OPS and just seven post-break home runs.
That performance has carried over to 2026. After a poor showing in Spring Training, he’s off to an awful start to the season. He’s 1-13 (with the one hit being a home run) with seven strikeouts.
Obviously, this is a miniscule sample size, and player development is often non-linear. But, considering he’s their best hope to get a long-term building block out of the Soto trade, this has to be dismaying for the Nationals.
Remembering a guy who used to play for the Nationals
The Nationals first made the playoffs in 2012. In game five of that season’s NLDS, they were three outs away from beating the Cardinals and advancing to the next round. Closer Drew Storen was brought in to protect a two-run lead. But with two outs, Storen walked two straight batters and then allowed consecutive singles in a four-run inning that allowed the Cardinals to emerge victorious.
What about the Phillies?
I don’t know why I get surprised every year by baseball fans overreacting to any given regular season series. The Phillies didn’t look great for most of the weekend, but after three (of 162!) games, they are 1-2 with one loss coming in extra innings. I don’t know how any sweeping conclusions could possibly be made from that sample size.
And for the “Why would you expect different results when they just ran it back?” crowd, can I remind you that the team won 96 games last year? And as for the biggest potential move that they could have made this winter:
Pennant year song battle
In somewhat of an upset, Here We Are Again beat out Ghost. Either people really enjoy early 1900’s British music, or you couldn’t bring yourself to vote for Justin Bieber. (I suspect it’s the latter.)
Per suggestion, the next contender is Everybody Wants You – Billy Squier, 1983
Vote for the winner and leave any suggestions for the next contender in the comments!
Closing thought
If people are already panicking after three games, I hate to think what would happen if the Phillies lost a series at home to the Nats. And if Andrew Painter – scheduled to make his major league debut on Tuesday – should happen to struggle, then we could see a real “sky is falling” situation around these parts.
