After yesterday’s loss to the Braves, the Washington Nationals officially cannot improve on the 71-91 record the team posted each of the last two seasons. The team’s record sits at a disappointing 62-91 with 9 games left in the season. This has been a long time coming, but it is still mind blowing to think that the team regressed in what was supposed to be a step forward season.
Before the season, Martinez talked a big game. He talked about how this young team was ready to win and that winning games
was at the top of the agenda this year. That was a very different tone than previous years where he spoke more about the team’s rebuild. In fact, Martinez even declared the rebuild as over during Spring Training.
However, this has been far from the reality of the 2025 Nationals. Instead of seeing progress, the team has regressed. Most people saw the 71-91 record of the last two seasons as the team’s floor. Now the Nats would have to win all of their last 9 games to even get to that mark.
Yesterday, the Marlins officially secured a better record than the Nats. Last season, the Nats were 9 games better than the Fish, but they have been leapfrogged. The Marlins did not close the gap by spending heavily or making splashy trades. Rather, they just outperformed the Nats on the margins. The Marlins just have more depth than the Nationals. This is something the next GM will have to improve.
This season, the pitching was the team’s achilles heel. The offense wasn’t amazing either, but the unit actually improved from last season. They have already hit more home runs than they did all of last season while having similar batting average numbers. The offense will need to improve, but that is not why the team regressed.
The 2025 Nationals pitching staff has been a dumpster fire. Their bullpen has the worst ERA in all of baseball and they let the two worst qualified starting pitchers in baseball take the ball every fifth day. In the first half, the bullpen was an all time disaster and cost the Nats so many games, even when the rest of the team was performing at a decent level the first two months.
In the last couple months, the wheels have really come off for the rotation. MacKenzie Gore has struggled since the All-Star break. Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker are walking disasters. While Brad Lord and Cade Cavalli have been solid, they have had their ups and downs as well.
It is no surprise then that the Nationals have the second worst team ERA in all of baseball at 5.33. Only the historically bad Rockies who play at high altitude have a worse ERA than the Nats. The team’s ERA is over a full run higher than it was last season.
In 2024, the Nats pitching was a pleasant surprise. As a team they posted a respectable 4.30 ERA. Guys like Jake Irvin, Mitchell Parker and DJ Herz looked like the real deal. However, Herz went down in Spring Training and the other two were awful. This pitching staff just doomed the Nats.
It also doomed Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez, who were fired in July. Frustration was building as the Nats had a miserable June that tanked the season. It all boiled over when Davey Martinez threw his players under the bus when he talked about how the team’s struggles were never about coaching.
Even today, it is clear that the players are frustrated. MacKenzie Gore gave a surprisingly honest commentary on the radio where he talked about how the new front office will have to find a way to get the most out of the players. Hearing a player say this publicly shows the level of frustration in the locker room.
Everyone in this town is sick of losing. However, with how this season has gone, a quick fix does not seem to be right around the corner. How much closer are the Nats to being a winner than they were when they had their 2021 fire sale? Probably a bit closer, but they are not that much closer. These last four years have largely been wasted.
With a new GM and manager coming to town, it will be on them to right this ship. It will also be on the Lerner family to show they actually care about this team. The first thing they need to do is nail the GM hire and then they need to spend some money to make this team something the city can be proud of again.
