The Washington Nationals starting lineup and a guess for Opening Day!

Photo by Andrew Lang for TalkNats

The rumors were swirling a month ago that the Washington Nationals were eagerly trying to trade CJ Abrams. Then the team’s President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, set the record straight that the Nats were not the aggressor in Abrams trade rumors, and in fact were not “shopping” him. Could Abrams be traded? Sure. But at this point on the baseball calendar, it looks more likely that Abrams will be your shortstop and lead-off batter on Opening Day on March 26 for the Nats.

We compared the Nats’ lineup to the Abbott and Costello comedy skit when it comes to naming the lineup. And Toboni, said in mid-January during an interview that “In NO WAY are we set going into West Palm.” Well, that might have proven true for the pitching staff after he signed Miles Mikolas five days ago to a free agent contract. But there wasn’t an acquisition for a position player above the player minimum salary ($780,000) during the entire offseason.

Who’s on first as Abbott and Costello would say. Some think that versus right-handed pitching that Luis Garcia Jr. will be the first baseman. Again, who knows.

“… we have a number of different options [at first base]. Even off-roster options that are going to compete for a job at first base as well. Who knows if we’re done? I frame it that way intentionally. But we’re going to continue to be active in trade conversations, active on waivers, in minors and major league free agency from a first base perspective and roster perspective as well.”
— Toboni said in an interview on 106.7 Radio

Toboni mentioned Garcia Jr. for first base as well as Andres Chaparro, and new acquisition, Abimelec Ortiz, who the team got from Texas in the Gore trade. Toboni had also signed Matt Mervis to a minor league deal. Additional non-roster invitees, Yohandy Morales and Warming Bernabel will also be in camp as potential first basemen. In MLB time at first base, Garcia (2 games), Bernabel (37 games), Chaparro (42 games), and Mervis (57 games) are your players with MLB experience actually playing the position. Ortiz and Morales have no MLB time.

As the obvious question goes, could Toboni acquire a new first baseman at this point? Sure, there are still a couple of first baseman on the market, and prices have to be plummeting on Rhys Hoskins. He put up a decent .748 OPS last year, but he was injured for a good chunk of the season and turned in an fWAR of +0.9 for his 90 games. Rumors from a rando Twitter account, DCSource, stated that Hoskins was signing with the Nats back on Jan. 17. That didn’t happen. But Hoskins is still out there. Garcia Jr. would probably put up better numbers, but would Hoskins be a good bench bat to complement Garcia in more of a shared space?

If Garcia Jr. is the primary first baseman with Abrams at shortstop and Brady House at third base, that would most likely put Nasim Nunez at second base. Imagine that. Well, MLB.com did exactly that in their projection for the Nats lineup for Opening Day:

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The outfield has five players vying for three spots, and manager Blake Butera, was effusive in his praise of Robert Hassell III in how hard he has worked this offseason. With the DH spot, the Nats could start four outfielders with rotating James Wood and Daylen Lile between left field and DH like they did often towards the end of the 2025 season. On the Nats posted depth chart, that’s how they have it. Expect Dylan Crews to start, and Jacob Young should be in the mix too. Don’t get too caught up on if Wood or Lile starts at DH or left field. Wood and Lile both publicly said they have to improve on defense.

“Preparation. Being ready every pitch, having a plan every pitch, a lot of pre-step stuff, and once you make a read, trusting your read and going after the ball.”

“[I focused on] a lot of defense. … I just think defensively I could’ve helped the pitchers out a little bit more. I think that’s one way as a team we can take a big leap. I know the pitchers will appreciate that a lot. Not only just swinging the bat better as a team, but overall defensively as a team trying to help our guys out.”

“I’m not going Spiderman or anything (talking about Jacob Young).”
— Wood said about his defense

One thing for sure, defense matters, and players have been talking about it as that was a focus in their offseason preparation. The Nats were one from the bottom in team defense in the 2025 season. To hear Wood discuss his defense, and also working on his stamina for his legs, is also welcomed to hear.

While some players seem to focus on building up their arms and chest, Wood worked on strengthening his lower body this offseason to be more durable for the 2026 season.

“When you play as long of a season as baseball is, I think people say the first thing to go is your lower half, that your legs just feel heavier, which slows everything else down just a touch.”

“If you’re just a tick slower, it changes everything with your timing at home plate. So I think in his mind, strengthening that lower half a little bit will only help him maintain the strength throughout the whole season.”
— Butera said about Wood

There were many theories on what killed Wood’s season with a disappointing second half slide. Some think the preparation for the Home Run Derby zapped Wood of his timing and power. They say that the first thing to go when you overuse a catcher is his legs. You see that too often unfortunately. You hope the use of biomechanics plays a big part in the work and rest cycle of players. This team has to use the DH spot more strategically to rest players legs.

For the catcher position, the Nats have six in camp, with only three on the 40-man roster. Is this going to be a competition for the two best catchers, or will Keibert Ruiz be the starter based on his guaranteed long-term contract status? Toboni traded for Harry Ford early in the offseason, and Ford and Drew Millas are considered the two best defensive catchers on this staff. With new catching coach Bobby Wilson, the hope is that he can improve all of them defensively.

During this offseason, Ford was working on framing. Even with a robo-ump limited ABS challenge system, the Nats still need to be framing better. Based on Baseball Savant data, Washington Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz was rated among the worst pitch framers in Major League Baseball during the 2025 season, ranking 56th out of 57 qualified catchers in framing per pitches thrown. And Riley Adams was nearly as bad. FanGraphs called the Nats a catching catastrophe. Since Wilson Ramos blew out his knee on that rainy September night before the playoffs in 2016, the Nats have been a disaster in handling their pitching staff.

Could Ford be the answer? Ruiz is probably a Chevy man, but who cares what he thinks. He has had years to improve and hasn’t shown any improvement. Obviously Toboni still cares and said, “Defensively, we’re using some different techniques with [Ruiz] this year that hopefully adds to better defensive production for him … I think he will benefit from Bobby Wilson being on staff … .”

My lineup would look like this:

Bench: Drew Millas C, Robert Hassell III OF, Yohandy Morales 1B/DH, Jose Tena IF

Of course we want to see Spring Training games and make this a competition to see who deserves to be there. It will also be interesting to see how analytics will influence lineups with this new staff. Will they play more matchup baseball?

With 38 days to Opening Day, none of this is etched in stone. Expect that I will change this as we get closer. Show me.

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