The Nationals led baseball in stolen bases in 2024, but it came at a heavy cost
The Washington Nationals were the most aggressive team in baseball on the base paths in 2024. They led the league in stolen bases with 223, but were also caught 20 more times than any other team. In 2025, the Nationals need to find a happy medium, where they use their athleticism, but are smarter.
Towards the end of the 2023 season, Davey Martinez decided to let his team run wild on the base paths. You saw this with CJ Abrams in particular, who stole 33 bases in the second half of 2023. In 2024, the Nats made a conscious effort to run wild. Even slower guys like Jesse Winker were swiping bags whenever they could.
For the first couple months of the season, this was highly effective. The Nats stole 46 bases in April, while only being caught 10 times. However, when June came around, teams were not fooled anymore. In that month they were caught 19 times while only stealing 18 bases. The aggressiveness was costing the team games. They were also getting picked off at an alarming rate.
In 2025, with a bit more talent in the lineup, the Nationals could stand to be more conservative on the bases. They should still play to their strengths and run more than most teams, but they need to be more smart.
By midsummer, the base running blunders were getting old. Even the MASN crew was getting exasperated by all the mistakes. It was not even getting caught stealing anymore, it was a lack of awareness and bone headed mistakes.
In a late August game against the Yankees, the Nats ran into one of the most absurd double plays I have ever seen. There was so much bad in that play from so many different people. Multiple baserunners had no clue what they were doing. Even more frustratingly, third base coach Ricky Gutierrez had his back turned and seemingly abandoned his post on the play. That play made my blood boil and summed up a lot of what was wrong with the Nats on the bases.
Davey Martinez always talks about ‘doing the little things’, but the team did not do that on the bases last year. Running into outs became an every day occurrence last season. There is a line between aggressive and reckless which the Nationals crosses last season.
In 2025, the Nats need to adjust what they are doing on the bases. Even if it means less steals, they need to make less outs on the bases. These are the kinds of things that the Nats will look to clean up in the spring. It will be interesting to see if the Nationals have altered their approach on the bases in the spring training games.
Players like Jacob Young and CJ Abrams should continue to have the green light, but less athletic base runners shouldn’t be biting off more than they can chew. If the Nats can find a way to be aggressive but not reckless, they have the ability to be an elite base running team.