Since the calendar has turned to September, the Washington Nationals have been red hot. They are 7-1 already this month. Those seven wins are the same number they won in all of June. It is also just two fewer than their win totals in July and August. That tells you a lot about how hot the Nationals are and how bad they were for the last three months.
So what has changed for the team lately? Well just about everything. It is hard to find guys that are struggling at the moment. This run has been a team effort
where the hitting, pitching and defense have all been good. However, there are three players that have been standouts. They would be Daylen Lile, Jose A. Ferrer and Josh Bell.
Daylen Hits Lile Has Arrived:
The whole second half has been a coming out party for Daylen Lile. Since the All-Star break, Lile is hitting .318 with an .883 OPS in 41 games. Those are elite numbers in a meaningful sample size. However, Lile has kicked things into hyperdrive since the start of September.
Not even a fire extinguisher could cool off Lile right now. He is 14/33 with two homers, a double and an insane four triples. We talked about how he has always had an elite ability to hit triples dating back to his early minor league days.
For the season Lile has an impressive 114 wRC+, which means he has been 14% better than the average hitter. That is quite the feat for a 22 year old who took some time to adjust to the MLB level in his rookie year. He has played his way into a starting role for 2026, there is no doubt about it.
Fangraphs wrote a very good article today about Lile and his natural ability to hit. In the piece, James Wood compared him to Michael Brantley, a comparison I have also made. You can tell how smart and naturally gifted Lile is as a hitter. It just comes easy to him.
In a season with a lot of low points, finding Lile has been one of the highlights. The Nationals have needed some of their second tier prospects to take a leap for quite some time. Lile has done just that and is playing his way into the young core.
The Grizzled Vet:
Josh Bell is the definition of a consistently inconsistent player. He has insane peaks and valleys throughout a season, but when you look up at the end of the year, Bell’s numbers are fairly predictable.
This year, Josh Bell had a disastrous start to the season. In March and April, Bell looked like he was on his last legs. He was hitting .137 with a .503 OPS. A lot of Nationals fans, including myself, gave up on the big slugger. On May 28th, I wrote that the Nationals should pull the plug on the Bell experiment.
Since writing that article, Bell is hitting .277 with an .838 OPS in 80 games across 271 at bats. He has hit 14 home runs and has just 37 strikeouts to 35 walks in that time as well. Bell has been a force at the plate for a while now.
However, he has gone on an insane heater since a pinch hit homer against the Cubs. Bell has four home runs and 12 RBI’s in his last three games. There are not many players in baseball that can go on the kinds of insane heaters that Bell does.
Despite the awful start, the Nats basically got what they signed up for with Bell. He has given the team above average offensive production with good but not great power numbers. If the Nats can’t get a big fish for the first base position, Bell should be considered next year as a stop gap option.
The Flame Throwing Closer:
The last key performer is actually a bullpen arm. Of course, I am referring to Nationals closer Jose A. Ferrer. Ferrer has not allowed a run in any of his five appearances in September. He is also 4/4 in save chances this month. When the game gets to the 9th inning, Ferrer has been closing the door with ease.
Like Bell and to a lesser extent Lile, Ferrer got off to a bad start. He was too hittable and his sinker heavy approach was becoming predictable. After a blowup outing on May 6th, Ferrer had an ERA over 8. He was fitting right into an historically bad bullpen.
However, he has turned a corner since then. In the 47 outings since that blow up, Ferrer has a 2.32 ERA. The talent has always been there, but the switch has really flipped lately. That power sinker just gets so many ground balls and he has a pair of whiff generating secondary pitches that play well off the heater.
While his turnaround started in May, he has been especially dominant since July 3rd. In that time, Ferrer has an ERA of just 1.13. He has looked like one of the best relievers in baseball the past couple months.
Despite his big velocity, Ferrer is not a huge strikeout guy which makes him unique among MLB closers. However, his turbo sinker gets so many ground balls which makes up for the lower strikeout numbers. He also has excellent control, having walked under 5% of hitters this season. It looks like the Nats have found their closer of the future.
The Nationals have been such a pleasant surprise so far in September. With football season arriving, not as many people are watching. However, the people who are still locked into the Nats are taking notice of these three key performers.
