How the Washington Nationals can get back to .500

Whenever the Nationals approach .500, they seem to come up short. Here is how that can change

Getting to .500 is a big deal for the Nationals team. Back in 2011, the year before they made the playoffs for the first time, they went 80-81, nearly .500. That was a sign that the organization was headed in the right direction. 2025 should be a 2011 type season, but the Nationals need to do some things to make that a reality.

Build off of momentum:

One thing that has really frustrated me is that Nationals inability to build off of positive momentum. They had a lot of positive momentum when they beat the D-Backs and Dodgers. However, that all went away when they lost winnable series to the Marlins and Pirates. It was the perfect opportunity to get to .500 and the Nats blew it.

This series against the Mets was a perfect microcosm of that inability to string together results. The Nationals had two thrilling walk off wins that should have given them huge momentum. However, they came out flat the next day both times, getting shutout on Saturday and losing 19-5 on Monday.

A split with a team as good as the Mets is a good result, it is just a bummer they couldn’t build off of dramatic wins. The Nats have not been able to really put together many win streaks. They have yet to sweep a series yet, despite having multiple opportunities. To get to where they want to be, they need to go on a run at some point and get on a real win streak.

Make the bullpen mediocre again:

All the Nationals really need out of their bullpen is mediocrity, but they can’t even get that. This bullpen becoming the 20th best unit in the league would go a long way. I saw a graph the other day that compared starter ERA’s to bullpen ERA’s and it just showed how comically bad the Nats unit is. Keep in mind, this is before yesterday’s meltdown.

At this point, it is probably too ambitious to expect the Nats bullpen to even be an average unit. However, if they could be a regular type of bad instead of historically bad that would go a long way.

The Nats rotation has been very good, so the bullpen does not have to be elite. All we want is mediocrity. Hopefully they can be able to manage that as the season goes along.

Consistency from the offense:

A key point in all of this is consistency. As is the case for many young teams, the Nationals are very inconsistent. However, as the team grows and develops, they will need to find that consistency to get to the next level. Right now, the offense is very feast or famine. They rely heavily on the big inning right now.

We saw the Nationals have some chances early in the game yesterday, but failed to come through. Jacob Young came up with two on and two outs on two occasions. Each time he put together uncompetitive at bats. Moments like that are why I think the Nationals will need to upgrade on Young once they truly want to compete.

You need competitive bats up and down the lineup. Having guys like Young and Josh Bell, who have been black holes really limits the offense. It kills rallies and stops the team in its tracks. When Young or Bell are up in big spots, I really start to wonder what this team could have been if they picked up an Alex Bregman or another big time free agent.

Putting it together:

The big theme of all of this is that the Nationals have talent, but they are young and struggling to put it all together. We see moments of magic, like the games on Friday and Sunday. However, we also see plenty of games like yesterday, where the team just didn’t have it.

To get to that next level, the Nationals need to find a level of consistency they have not found to start the season. That along with the bullpen not being the worst in the league would go a long way. You can see the vision, but the team is not there yet.