Another year, another lackluster offense for Darnell Coles. It is time for a new voice in the room
Ever since Darnell Coles became the Nationals hitting coach in 2022, the Nats offense has been a bottom 10 unit year in and year out. Yes, some of this has to do with a lack of talent, but the Nats still have a .683 OPS with an offense that was supposed to be much improved.
The Darnell Coles experience has been a maddening one for fans, and this year has been no different. A staple of the Nats offense under Coles has been too many ground balls. This season the Nats lead all of baseball in ground ball percentage at 50.5%. They are the only team hitting the ball on the ground over half the time. Last season they were second in ground ball rate at 46.4%.
The Nationals pounding the ball into the ground is not a one year anomaly, it is a feature of Darnell Coles’ offensive philosophy. Many Nats fans long for the days of Kevin Long. One thing that turned me off about Coles in the early years was how he didn’t mesh with Juan Soto, which seems hard to do. Soto had the worst stretch of his Nats career under Coles, seeing his hard hit rate plummet in 2022.
A lot of hitters have seemed to drown or take a long time to make adjustments under Coles. The Nats also have gotten no hit twice in the past two years, something they had never done before prior to Coles’ tenure.
Coles getting to come back for this year probably should not have happened, given the Nats lackluster offensive production in 2024. However, he should definitely be gone after this slow start.
Mike Rizzo mentioned that Dylan Crews was making adjustments mechanically and that led to his good stretch. Do we trust Coles to keep up those adjustments? Crews already seems to be going back to bad habits, going 0 for his last 14. Is Darnell Coles the guy to fix Dylan Crews, history says he is probably not that guy.
When Darnell Coles was introduced, he talked about dominating the strike zone through game planning, good decision making and situational awareness. Have the Nationals done any of this in his tenure? I have not seen that, but I have seen a lot of first pitch ground outs.
I do not like calling for people’s jobs, especially when they haven’t had a chance to implement their philosophies. However, Coles has had plenty of time and the results remain the same, even now with the Nats having more talent in their lineup.
Only once in his four seasons has a Darnell Coles offense had an OPS above .700. That was in 2023. After the offense stagnated in 2024 with what was supposed to be a more talented lineup, Coles should be thankful to still have his job.
The pressure should be ratcheted up on the Nationals hitting coach, with the offense still struggling to produce despite a lot of highly touted young talent being in the lineup. At the end of the day, you have to ask the question, is Darnell Coles the guy to elevate the young hitters in the Nationals lineup. I think most Nats fans would say no to that question. For that reason, the team needs a new voice to guide their young hitters.