Washington Nationals news & notes: Nats finish 2024 71-91; 6-3 loss to Phillies in season finale…

Notes and quotes from Game 162 of 162 of the Nationals’ 2024 campaign…

“I’ll definitely miss the knuckleheads, seeing them every day, for sure,” Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez told reporters, before Washington’s final game of the 2024 campaign, late Sunday afternoon in the nation’s capital.

“You spend all year with these guys,” Martinez continued, “… starting from almost the end of January to now, and you build these relationships with them, and you get to know them, and go through the ups and downs of a year, and then when it’s over, it doesn’t really hit you until you wake up tomorrow morning when you wake up and be like, ‘Okay, now what?’”

It all comes to an abrupt end for players, coaches, and fans alike. For teams going to the ‘24 postseason, there’s more baseball to play, but for everyone else, it’s on to 2025 now.

Martinez is going to miss him team, many of whom will return, but some of whom will move on.

“Not seeing these guys, not talking to them, not working with them, it’s tough, because like I said, we spent a whole lot of time together,” the seventh-year skipper added.

To end the season with a series win and a 71-91 identical to 2023’s final mark, Martinez said, was a nice way to wrap things up. They dropped the finale with Philadelphia’s Phillies, but a late-game rally loaded the bases, and gave the Nationals a chance for one more comeback in a season full of them, but three straight batters went down without a run scoring and the home team went 4 for 13 with runners in scoring position overall in a 6-3 loss.

“We made it interesting,” Martinez said. “Testament to the guys this year. They fought hard all year long. I’m proud of them. Obviously, nobody wants to go home this time of year. You want to keep playing. But the effort was definitely there this year and they played hard. And our young guys got better, we’re going to continue to get better, and good things to come. Good things to come.”

One last test against a postseason-bound ballclub gave the young Nationals yet another shot to measure themselves and see how they stack up against a competitive team.

“We played really well. To win a series against the Phillies who obviously are going to the playoffs in a few days shows you a lot about our club, you know,” Martinez said, “and what they want. They’re hungry, and they want to be the Philadelphia Phillies and all these other clubs that are in the playoffs. I know they want that and I want it more than anything, So for them to go out there and bump heads with them and not quit and keep battling, and have the winning run at home plate today, it says a lot.”

In a recent interview with MLB.com’s Bill Ladson, GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo talked about what the Nationals will do this winter as they try to take the next step.

Will they spend in free agency once again? Trade for what they need? With all of the talent in the pipeline they could continue to promote from within or trade some prospect capital.

“I think we need to improve ourselves in any avenue we can,” Rizzo said. “Free agency will certainly be one of the avenues that we’ll attack to improve.

“Also we have to look at the trade market and the development market. We have to be hitting on all of those cylinders to get us where we want to go.”

MLB.com: Are you looking for a first baseman?

Rizzo: I wouldn’t keyhole us at first base. We need some offense. We need a couple of bats that can hit in the middle of the lineup and take the onus off some of these good young core players and assist them in the run creation of our offense. We have the core players to be middle-of-the-lineup hitters.

“If we add a bat or two into that group, it takes a little bit of pressure off everybody and everybody can relax a little bit more and develop into the players we think they are going to be.”

Martinez was asked after Game 162 if he thought now was the time to supplement all the talent they’ve assembled with free agent signings or trade additions (or both).

“I say this all the time. We have many, many conversations when the year is over. For me, that’s something for [Rizzo] and ownership to decide,” Martinez said.

“Yeah, I’d love to have a couple veteran guys, but give me 26 players, and we’ll do the best we can. I tell the coaching staff that every day, ‘No matter what, we got to get these guys to play hard every day,’ which we’ve done. But I will tell you this though, I really do believe that we’re close. We really are. And we got some pieces in there that are going to be really good. As I’ve said before, I think a lot of these guys could be future All-Stars, so I’m excited about that.”

Where does the manager’s mind go when he thinks about the future?

“It goes to watching the growth of these guys, one. We talked about where the power is going to come from. I think some of these guys will eventually develop that. Once again, you saw James [Wood] in a big moment [in Saturday’s game] hit the ball to left field, home run. I think you’ll see more of that as he gets a little bit more mature. I think our right fielder [Dylan Crews] is going to drive the ball, catcher [Keibert Ruiz] is going to drive the ball. We get our shortstop [CJ Abrams] back, as you saw, he had a really good [first] half. I think it’s just a matter of time before he puts it all together throughout the whole year.

“So we’re going to be good. Now, if they deem that we need a couple extra bats in our lineup, that would be awesome. So we’ll see.”

Outside of the continued development of their top prospects (Wood, Crews, Ruiz, Abrams, Luis García, Jr. — who had a breakout season), and impressive performances from some of the players who came up a little bit sooner than expected (DJ Herz/Mitchell Parker), it’s hard to consider a 71-win season a success, but Martinez really thinks they’re close.

He really does.

“We didn’t get to where we wanted to be, which is to try to get in the playoffs again, but I think those days are really coming.”