Photo by Jake Stephens/TalkNats

On April 13, the frustration with the Washington Nationals bullpen was ripe with disappointment. The relievers were the worst in all of baseball at that point in time with a 6.72 ERA, and they had blown several leads at that point in the season. Since then, the Nats bullpen has proven to be the third best ERA in baseball with a 3.00 ERA in that span.

As we approach the quarter-pole in the season this week, the Nationals have improved their bullpen, the base running, and the offense continues to be one the best in baseball and currently ranked 4th in runs scored per game.

Contrast the good with a Nats defense that has worsened to the point that they lead MLB in errors (32) and unearned runs (27). The Nats have 28 percent more errors than the next closest team. These are just some of the mistakes we wrote about  last week.

The starting pitching has a combined 5.06 ERA, and are the 3rd worst in baseball. But a couple of bad apples shouldn’t spoil the whole bunch. Foster Griffin has been incredible as a finesse pitcher with a 2.27 ERA for the 11th best in baseball of qualified starters. Here’s the problem: The numbers are skewed due to Zack Littell (8.37 starter’s ERA) and Miles Mikolas (11.02) ERA. Both Cade Cavalli and Jake Irvin have put up some good starts, however they have been inconsistent. This is the next area that President of Baseball Operations, Paul Toboni, must fix.

While the offense has been good overall, they are still struggling with a runner at third base as witnessed over the weekend. All told, the Nats rank as the 13th worst in baseball with a .241 batting average in those situations. Why? They are a young offense that has to work on their approach in those situations.

The 3rd place Nationals have areas to improve on as we have shown. Manager Blake Butera has admitted that the defense has not been good enough.

The first part of a problem is admitting you have a problem, and Butera did just that. They played error-free baseball on Sunday and won the game by a final score of 3-2. Giving up .77 unearned runs per game is a model that doesn’t work. And errors generally extend innings and add to pitch counts. But the starting pitchers as mentioned with Littell and Mikolas must improve. How will that happen?

On the minor league side of the Nationals organization, VP of Player Development, Devin Pearson, has almost every player with a Top-30 prospect status exceeding expectations except for catcher Harry Ford and of course the injured players. Even Dylan Crews who was demoted in March to Triple-A Rochester is finally in a groove.

Assessments of the four offseason trades of MacKenzie Gore, Jose A. Ferrer, Jake Bennett, and Sean Paul Linan by Toboni can’t fully and fairly be graded at this time. And the same for players DFA’d from the organization who have gone elsewhere like Jake Eder. At some point, we will give some preliminary grades on each trade and DFA moves of significance.

When you consider the Nationals have faced the 3rd toughest strength of schedule (SOS) this season per ESPN, that should also add to how impressive their record is at this point in time. You always want to be improving. The Nats are on pace for a 74-88 record. That sounds encouraging due to an easier schedule ahead.

Again, there are question marks with this team. How can you improve the weaknesses, and how can the strengths be made stronger?