Photo by Andrew Lang/TalkNats

The Washington Nationals appear to be set with their final roster. Appearances can be misleading. Sure, the Nats have time to make a waiver claim, another trade, or a signing of a free agent. But as of today, we think we have the 26-man Opening Day roster figured out. The last remaining player on the roster (the 27th player) who hasn’t been removed is Tres Barrera. At this point, maybe the Nats are trying to trade him. Who knows, but it is odd. We believe that both Keibert Ruiz and Drew Millas have made the Opening Day roster as the catching duo.

So without any further adieu, here is our 26-man roster:

Obviously, this isn’t official. The starting pitchers look like an improved group from last year — even after the trade of MacKenzie Gore. And the bullpen is in a wait-and-see. But some feel that as bad as the bullpen was last year, that they have to improve this season. The real issue appears to be the starting lineup. They finished last by a wide margin in offense in Spring Training.

We have seen hot Nats offenses in Spring Training in past years that cooled off once the season started, but not sure we have seen a bad offense in Spring Training turn it around. Sometimes it is just more about the players themselves, and when you look at the position players for the roster, the team only added Joey Wiemer and Jorbit Vivas. Off the roster is Dylan Crews who was optioned to Triple-A over the weekend. We don’t know what version we will get of James Wood based on his Spring Training.

While Toboni made an early move to improve at the catcher position with the acquisition of Harry Ford via a trade, Ford did not make the team and was shipped to Triple-A. The team acquired a bunch of first base types, but mostly minor league depth. So net-net, the position roster feels weaker.

If we gave grades on last year to this year:

Starting Pitchers — B-

Bullpen — TBD

Defense — C+

Offense — F

The bullpen is just unproven, but they were excellent as a group in Spring Training. As bad as they were last season as the worst in MLB, some feel the only way to go is up. But that’s not a given. The team has no proven closer, although with Cionel Perez making the roster, his career saves totals (6) are more than the rest of the roster combined.

The offense will probably go as James Wood goes. CJ Abrams will probably get going as the season gets going, and we hope Brady House is as close to the numbers he put up in Spring Training — as he was the star of the camp. And if Daylen Lile can repeat his September numbers, that would be good news. Luis Garcia Jr. might be the only other proven bat. The rest are works-in-progress. It has been noted that Jacob Young‘s exit velos have been impressive on contact, but he is driving balls into the dirt and needs to get some launch angle.

The starting pitching has looked good also. Cade Cavalli gave up no earned runs during the Spring, and Jake Irvin‘s reworked repertoire looked promising. We saw a lot of good pitching from Foster Griffin, and Zack Littell in his short sample size. The hope is that Miles Mikolas can step up when the games count.

Again, we will see how things go as the season starts for real in two days.