Photo by Marlene Koenig/TalkNats

The Washington Nationals are finally back home after their recent road trip and 16 consecutive games with no days off until yesterday. When we asked a player what he was going to do with his day-off, he said, “A lot of extra sleep.”

An old friend, Lucas Giolito, is on the mound for the Nats tonight. Giolito, a former Nats first rounder way back in 2012, was traded in the Adam Eaton blockbuster deal on Dec. 7, 2016. For the Nats, they are going with an opener in Paxton Schultz and then will bring in Andrew Alvarez as their bulk starter.

The Nats reinstated Cole Henry from the 15-day IL, and he replaced PJ Poulin who was optioned to Triple-A Rochester. That puts the Nats bullpen back at eight relievers with Alvarez moving to a bulk pitcher role.

With the Nats offense leading baseball in runs scored, the Nats Big-5, the L.A.W.Y.R.’s of Lile, Abrams, Wood, Young and Ruiz have a combined +7.9. And recently, Young passed Lile for the third most valuable Nats with Wood back at the top. Curtis Mead is just behind Ruiz at +0.7. While that might not sound like a lot, that’s a 2.0 WAR player who wasn’t a starter until recently.

Here is the usage chart for manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen:

The FanGraphs WAR chart is accumulating data. The numbers are getting very large as the season is headed towards the halfway point on June 24. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.

San Diego Padres vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington D.C.
1st Pitch: 6:45 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 175 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.