https://nextyeardc.com A DC sports blog https://nextyeardc.com/post/WhattoWatchForThisNatsSeason.htmlLast week on Opening Day I came out strongly in favor of being optimistic about the direction of these new Nats and was rewarded with a 3-1 start including a joyous 13-2 beatdown of the Philadelphia Phillies, so naturally I have to be thrilled to be proven correct, right? Well, not really, and not because they’re now 3-2 and I might’ve already missed my bragging window. While I remain optimistic these results are not really what I was talking about.Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:00 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/OpeningDayOptimism.htmlWith Opening Day always comes optimism. The feeling you get from a fresh season without the harsh reality of a win-loss record is inescapable. For a franchise that last had a winning season seven years ago, the optimism is still there even if it’s in a different form. I am not delusional enough to say I think this could be a playoff contending team, or even a top 25 team in baseball, but I am optimistic about what I’ve seen from the new front office and coaching staff this spring. Thu, 26 Mar 2026 03:08:16 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/TheNationalsPickaDirection.htmlPaul Toboni and the Nationals front office finally completed their team building exercises, grew comfortable in their roles, and made a move before the offseason ran out, trading MacKenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers. The return was more than Fien, but I’m not here to talk about that today (Andrew Flax has you covered there). What I’m more interested in is the clarity trading Gore gave us on what the Nationals’ plan will be moving forward. Fri, 23 Jan 2026 10:26:58 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/WhatistheNationalsPlan.htmlIt’s been two months since Paul Toboni was hired as the new Nationals President of Baseball Operations, it’s been 3 weeks since Blake Butera has been hired as manager and it’s been two days since the end of the Winter Meetings and we still do not have a good idea of what the Nationals’ plan for next year is.Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:31:11 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/ChooseYourNewNatsManagerDebrief.htmlLast week I dropped the Choose Your New Nats Manager quiz and I appreciate the enthusiastic response. I did not formally take statistics of the quiz results however I followed along as people shared their answers on social media and noticed three candidates that came up the most frequently. What’s interesting is that they come from three distinct branches of potential managers and I thought it was worth assessing the wisdom of the crowd. Wed, 08 Oct 2025 12:02:57 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/SecondOpinionsonthe2026Nats.htmlAs the season draws to a close I figured it was time to take one last look at the young Nationals and make any updates to the status I assigned them in July (hitters and pitchers). Not everyone will appear here as I stand by most of what I said, here I will pause for a brief victory lap on Jose Ferrer, but a handful of players have either helped or hurt themselves enough to warrant a second opinion.Fri, 19 Sep 2025 11:15:55 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/TheNatsBullpenGivestheOppositeofShame.htmlThe talk of the town for the last week has been the Washington Nationals bullpen and for once, it’s not because they’ve done something wrong. Like Bart Simpson when his dad became an astronaut, fans are feeling less shame when a reliever comes trotting out onto the mound. How did we get here?Fri, 12 Sep 2025 12:11:27 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/WhatIWanttoSeeFromtheHokies.htmlIt was another disappointing start to a Virginia Tech football season as Brent Pry fell to 1-3 in season openers with a 24-11 loss to #13 South Carolina. Despite the new coordinators and massive turnover on the field, it was a familiar feeling of the Hokies doing enough to hang around with a tough opponent but never really threatening to win. It’s always unfair to judge a team off of one game, especially if South Carolina proves they are actually a top 15 team, so here are some areas I’m focusing on in tomorrow’s game against Vanderbilt. Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:05:04 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/RegularRileyAdams.htmlOn June 27th Keibert Ruiz went on the 7-day IL with a concussion suffered from an unfortunate accident in the dugout, since then Riley Adams has started 34 of 50 games and put up a 114 wRC+. Naturally, this has a lot of people wondering whether Adams has been unleashed by the power of regular playing time. Tue, 26 Aug 2025 12:58:36 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/MitchellParkerNeedsHelp.htmlOn the back of James Wood and MacKenzie Gore having a great weekend after their recent slumps Bluesky user kelseylobster requested that I do a similar post about Mitchell Parker. And since I am a strong subscriber to the principals of service journalism, I must obey. Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:02:58 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/WhatDaveyMartinezTeachesUsAboutBrentPry.htmlWe’re on the precipice of football season and I figured I would ease into it by writing something that is as much about baseball as it is about football. I know some of you are done with Davey Martinez content now that he’s fired, but I’m not ready to let go of it quite yet. I also think he’s a very illustrative example of the path Virginia Tech football head coach Brent Pry has followed through the end of last season and provides a hopeful contrast going forward.Fri, 15 Aug 2025 12:22:02 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/SlumpsRUs.htmlWho would have thought that of the Nats Big Three core players CJ Abrams would be the only one not having a second half slump? If you’ve been tuned in to the Nats at all through the post-Davey/Rizzo era, and I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t been, you’ve definitely noticed the troubles MacKenzie Gore and James Wood have had. If the Nats are going to have any hope for building a contender any time soon they’re going to need these two to figure things out fast.Fri, 08 Aug 2025 03:16:30 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/TheMysticsMakeaDeadlineDecision.htmlTwo weeks ago I was wondering how much we should be adjusting expectations for this year’s Washington Mystics squad based on their surprisingly good performance that put them on the edge of the playoffs instead of in the driver’s seat for a top draft pick. My conclusion is that despite the exciting youth-infusion, the Mystics did not have the firepower to truly compete. It seems like the front office agreed with me, because on Tuesday they traded All-Star guard Brittney Sykes to Seattle for veteran guard Alysha Clark and a first-round pick in the 2026 draft.Thu, 07 Aug 2025 11:36:49 EDThttps://nextyeardc.com/post/TradeDeadlineRoundup.htmlThe trade deadline came and went yesterday and with MLB no longer allowing any sort of post-deadline waiver trade shenanigans that’s it for major changes to the Nats roster until the offseason. While the Nationals did not trade MacKenzie Gore they did make plenty of other trades that are worth at least a little exploration. Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:50:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/DoNotTradeMacKenzieGore.htmlThe idea of a Gore trade seems to be more of a product of bored writers looking for patterns based off of three observations. First, that the Nationals are bad this season. Second, that Gore has the same amount of time until free agency as Juan Soto had when the Nats traded him. And third, that Gore has Scott Boras for an agent. Bingo bango, you have a situation that demands a trade.Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:03:26 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/ExpectationsfortheMysticsSecondHalf.html The Washington Mystics, in a season that looked destined to be historically terrible, are holding onto the final playoff spot at 11-12, with just 2.5 games separating them from 4th place. As we enter the second half of the season how much should we be adjusting our expectations? Fri, 25 Jul 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/Checkinginonthe2026NatsPitchers.html Last Friday I did a run down of the young Nationals on the offensive side of the ball, breaking things down by their 2026 status based on their results so far. Now it’s the pitchers’ turn. Tue, 22 Jul 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/CheckingInonthe2026Nats.html With the second half of the season about to get underway I thought it was a good time to check in on how the young Nationals are doing and where they might fit in on the 2026 Nationals and beyond. Fri, 18 Jul 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/TheRizzolessDraft.html The Washington Nationals just had their first draft without Mike Rizzo’s involvement since 2006 which had everyone looking for clues about the direction of the front office. Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/FireDaveyMartinez.html I've mentioned it on Twitter before that Davey Martinez has gotten a lot of undeserved cover from the popular memory of the Nats rebuild. This is his eighth season as manager and almost assuredly his sixth with a losing record. Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/ASpinThroughtheRotation.html If you are like me, you also have probably found that when it comes to the Nats’ starting rotation there are some narratives in your head due to which games you happened to have caught, that are not entirely based in reality. So I decided to dive into the numbers to catch up on what’s really going on with the Nats starters. Fri, 6 Jun 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/What'sNextforCJAbrams.html If you’ve watched any Nats game this year you’ve probably noticed CJ Abrams. We’re 50 games into the season and he has 8 home runs, 9 steals, is batting .311 with a 160 wRC+. Fri, 23 May 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/OptimismforaStrugglingCore.html Just yesterday Baseball Prospectus announced new additions of their plate discipline metric SEAGER and their batted ball metrics including 90th percentile exit velocity were added to their leaderboards and player cards. To celebrate let’s take a look at two young players that are supposed to be establishing the Nats’ new core and instead find themselves mired in mediocrity: Dylan Crews and Luis García Jr. Fri, 25 Apr 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/ClownsintheBullpen.html I admit this one got away from me. I started doing the research for this post last week in anticipation of posting it last Friday and then I dug deeper and dug deeper and next thing I know it’s another week later and I finally have a post. Luckily (?) the Nationals bullpen did not take advantage of my delay by suddenly being good. Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/ShouldWeBeConcernedAboutDylanCrews.html I had started working on this post to hopefully find some small positives around Dylan Crews’ 0-18 with 10 strikeouts start to the season and instead what I found was a fractal of bad news. Fri, 4 Apr 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/TheNatsPlayedAGameLet'sOverreact.html With Mark Lerner still failing to scam Mayor Bowser into building a dome over Nats Park, the Nationals are taking their traditional day off after Opening Day which gives us plenty of time to let our imaginations run wild after one game. Here are four big thoughts after game 1 of 162. Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/AnalyzingMyBracketHunches.html As we are in the grips of March Madness and filling out brackets I figured it would be a fun time to breakdown the “rules”, in some cases more like advanced hunches, I’ve developed over the last 20 years of making picks and see if they’re actually useful or actively harmful. Wed, 19 Mar 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/Ovechkin'sLeadershipShouldBeRecognizedMore.html As Alexander Ovechkin closes in on the all-time goal scoring record a common refrain is that while he is undoubtedly the greatest goal scorer of all time, that’s pretty much all he is bringing to the table. Of course, that’s been a fairly common criticism ever since he donned a Washington Capitals uniform. Wed, 12 Mar 2025 12:00:00 EDT https://nextyeardc.com/post/AreTheNatsSupposedtoBeGood.html I know the easy thing to do is say no and click away, but I implore you not to, because I am not asking the question from the perspective of cold hard facts. Thu, 06 Mar 2025 12:00:00 EST