Last night, the Washington Nationals notched their 71st win of this 2026 season with 10 games to go. Those 71 wins are tied for the most by a Nationals team since the 2019 World Series season. Of course the hope is the Nats can keep winning and finish with many more wins.
The next win would mark the best season since 2019. Every win going forward in the final 10 games will be significant. The 2025 Washington Nationals only had 66 wins in total. A 10 percent improvement over last year would be 73 wins. If the Nats could somehow win five more games to get to 76 wins, that would be a 15.2 percent improvement over last year.
If you think the improvement is irrelevant, you haven’t been paying attention. All progress is significant, especially when you know what you can enhance going into the next season.
Take this year’s win improvement and extrapolate that to next year with the same percentages, and if this team could reach 76 wins by the end of this season, then maybe you could get to nearly 88 wins next year with that same 15.2 percent improvement. That’s Wild Card territory.
“We’re setting our sights to create a sustained winner here, and I think that that starts with what we’re doing right now. … I know that we’re eliminated [from this year’s playoffs], but at the end of the day, these guys aren’t giving away any games. … They’re showing what they’re capable of doing, and I think they’re building some momentum towards 2027 — and beyond that.”
— Butera said last night
Yes, they are showing what they are capable of doing … and building some momentum towards 2027 — and beyond that. The obvious weak links are building out the rest of the starting rotation around Cade Cavalli and Andrew Alvarez. Then building the back of the bullpen on this team that might have found key cogs with Erik Tolman and Orlando Ribalta.
The best way to look at it is Paul Toboni has to identify the weak links. Looking towards free agency for most of those upgrades rather than trading from the minor leagues will keep the farm strong. Of course looking to free agency will take money — and that puts the focus on the ownership group to do their part.
A source tells us that in two weeks, Toboni’s player development group will be holding a hitter’s camp at the West Palm Beach facility as well as a camp for pitchers. Toboni said part of the offseason improvement with some of the pitchers is the example he gave with Alvarez that he wants to see him add 2-to-3 mph to his fastball.
The player development group is looking at increasing bat speed for hitters and fastball velo for pitchers. This is all part of the plan. Getting there takes better mechanics and hard work.
You can see what needs to be improved. But there is no clear lane to acquiring talent without competition from other teams. Acquiring Tarik Skubal and Adrian Morejon will take a lot of cash. Going back and getting players like Foster Griffin and others would still be an improvement. Here are the rankings of the Top-10 pending free agents.
Taking action on players working on their offseason plan will be significant. Adding quality players into the system is the top offseason task. This team could definitely be a postseason competitor next year. The improvement is relevant.
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