We all know it, but games like last nights really show how badly the Washington Nationals need a full scale coaching overhaul. At all levels, this is a poorly coached team. From hitting to pitching to defense to base running, this team does not do the little things. That reared its ugly head last night against the Yankees, who themselves have been criticized for a lack of fundamentals.
However, last night the Bronx Bombers looked like the more fundamentally sound team. They ran the bases well, didn’t
make any mistakes in the field and played an overall clean game. The Nationals did the opposite.
The most inexplicable moment came when Josh Bell tried to steal second base and was thrown out by a mile. With guys on first and third, maybe the runner on third was supposed to take off from home, but they did not. This kind of thing has happened multiple times this year where plodders like Josh Bell or Nathaniel Lowe are inexplicably trying to steal bases.
How has this coaching staff realized that this does not work? We have seen it fail about five times this season now. Is it the base coaches calling for this or is it the manager? Whoever it is, can we please stop doing it.
Speaking of base coaches, the Nationals had a very good one on their hands but decided to let him go. After the 2023 season, first base coach Eric Young Jr. was the only coach let go. He was replaced by 2019 hero and Davey Martinez ally Gerardo Parra. Since then, the base running has clearly suffered. The Nats led the league in caught stealing last season and are third this year.
After 2023, Young moved on to the Mariners, where he has done a very good job. This season, the Mariners have 24 more steals than the Nats while being caught 10 fewer times. It is not like the Mariners have a more athletic team. The Nationals average team sprint speed ranks 12th in baseball while the Mariners rank 23rd.
Obviously, that is not all on the base coaches, but they play a role. There is a reason that the rotund Josh Naylor has now turned into a stolen base threat in Seattle. Mariners fans seem very happy with Young and how the base running has improved under his watch.
However, it is not just the base paths where the Nationals are poorly coached. For years, Nationals fans have been furious with Darnell Coles. Under his leadership, the team is consistently among the league leaders in ground balls. There also just seems to be a lack of a plan at the plate for so many hitters.
One problem that has really emerged is the Nationals star players being unable to sustain first half success. I think a lot of that is down to coaching. This spring, the Washington Post wrote stories about CJ Abrams and James Wood. Both heavily featured their hitting instructors from outside the organization.
Coming into the season, both Abrams and Wood were well prepared and ready to roll. With their offseason training, they were at their best early in the season. Abrams had an .836 OPS in the first half while Wood had an incredible .915 OPS.
However, as pitchers have made adjustments, Wood and Abrams have been unable to keep up in the second half. Both have an OPS below .640 for the second half, with Wood struggling particularly badly with strikeouts. As the instructions from their private coaches are drowned out by the words of the team hitting coaches, it seems like our young stars regress.
It is not just the young players though. Both Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Bell had a big chunk of their seasons derailed by searching for power. They got away from who they were as hitters and it cost them. As Bell went away from that power oriented approach, he became more successful.
It is still very early days for Nathaniel Lowe in Boston, but so far it looks like he has benefitted from a new environment. He has come out red hot in Boston, though the sample size is very small. One thing I have noticed from the clips I have seen is how he looks way more ready for high velocity. In DC, he was constantly late for fastballs, now he looks ready for upper 90’s heat.
It is possible that Lowe had a simple timing issue that a good hitting coach quickly fixed. That is just a theory though. It is also possible that Lowe was simply reinvigorated by getting away from all the losing in DC.
However, with Kyle Finnegan, it is more obvious that specific changes have helped him find a new gear. As is the case for a lot of Nats pitchers, Finnegan was throwing a ton of fastballs in DC. He threw his heater over 65% of the time. We wrote about how Nationals pitchers are throwing too many fastballs earlier this season.
That was certainly the case with Finnegan. Since joining the Tigers, he has yet to allow a run and his strikeout numbers have exploded. Even when Finnegan was doing well with the Nats, the strikeout numbers were not like what they are in Detroit.
Pitch usage is a big part of that. Finnegan is throwing his fastball and splitter about the same amount. He is also mixing in a slider occasionally. This change has really helped him and has made him a weapon in the Tigers bullpen.
It is quite frustrating to have a team mismanaged this badly. Not only is it not fun to watch, but it makes it a lot harder to evaluate players. Are some of these underperforming players actually diamonds in the rough that are being wasted by a bad coaching staff or are they just not good enough. Sometimes it can be hard to tell.
When CJ Abrams, James Wood and MacKenzie Gore all fall off cliffs in the second half, is that just who those guys are as players or are they victims of an incompetent coaching staff? As always, there is room for nuance and the truth is somewhere in the middle.
It is critical that the new GM, whether that is Mike DeBartolo or someone else, brings in a new coaching staff with a new philosophy. The current way of thinking in the Nationals dugout is not working. In many ways, the Nationals methods are antiquated and past their sell by dates.
It is obvious that the Washington Nationals are a team that is being held back by their coaching staff. The only question is how much are the coaches holding our players back?
