Game #162: “THANK YOU FANS”

The Washington Nationals have really created a new sense of what could be great in the future of Nats baseball. With ownership creating two new positions, one for the baseball operations side and another on the business side, they hired Paul Toboni and Jason Sinnarajah respectively as division presidents.

Those hires of Toboni and Sinnarajah set the organization on a new course. The message waiting for arriving fans is a message of thanks. “THANK YOU FANS” is emblazoned on the scoreboard. Later, selected fans will receive game worn jerseys from today’s game in the team’s annual tradition for charity.

Yes, it is inclement weather as this nor’easter has been wreaking havoc on the east coast for days. Today’s game was supposed to start at 3:05 pm as all final games of the season were set for the exact same time to give no team in the playoff hunt an advantage. Well, the Mets and Nats are not playoff bound — and based on the weather forecasts, MLB moved the game time up just like they did yesterday.

For those paying attention, the Mets had playoff aspirations to start the season and clinched last place in the NL East on Friday when the Nats beat them.

The NL East standings are set:

Atlanta Braves
Philadelphia Phillies
Miami Marlins
Washington Nationals
New York Mets

What those standings show in part, that spending on player payroll isn’t a guarantee of making the postseason. Spending has shown to help of course. The Mets have the second largest payroll in baseball and nearly 3X the amount the Nats spent. What the Nats did was spend on Toboni and Sinnarajah, and building a baseball infrastructure of innovation and technology with more staffing and specialized coaching. That led to two of their minor league teams to the postseason in Single-A and Triple-A this year. In fact, Rochester was 6-outs last night from being the champions of Triple-A.

What Toboni has done in a little under a year seems miraculous. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Yes, he admitted on Wednesday that if his bullpen was able to half those blown-saves (43 in total that turned into 24 losses), they could have been a playoff team. That would have been miraculous.

On the business side of the aisle, what Sinnarajah has done can’t be judged as easily on a scoreboard. But trust me, this president will get it figured out. He is hyper-focused on the fan experience and his imprint will be felt more tangibly as time moves forward. Let’s face it, what Toboni does in wins/losses has more of an impact on Sinnarajah’s job than vice versa. This all takes time and hard work behind the scenes.

Winning carries so much weight in the overall fan experience. The bigger crowds, the enthusiasm, and that electricity you feel from a win is why Phillies fans had been showing up. Their own player, Jimmy Rollins, once accused his own fans of being front-runner fans. When they weren’t winning like in 2017, Philly was 24th in baseball in attendance. The pendulum will turn.

Nats fans have been showing up for these losing years come rain or shine. Just not like they were in 2013. And no Nats players are accusing fans of being front-runners. While the stadium might only be a little over half full these days, at a 22,500+ average per game, that’s still more than show up for a Capitals or Wizards game who draw from a larger regional base due to less geographic competition. There are dedicated Nats fans who have always been there like all of you here.

Yesterday, Nats fans were treated to another glimpse of the future as Connelly Early was their opener, and he pitched 3.0 nearly perfect innings if not for one single that found a seam. Today, the pitching plan is that DJ Herz will start the season finale.

There will also be some Nats going for personal bests, and the progress is there for most of the team, sans the bullpen. Just think of today’s starting rotation of Cade Cavalli (3.02 ERA), Connelly Early (3.33 ERA), Andrew Alvarez (3.43 ERA), and DJ Herz.

Across the board, the seven full-year position players from 2025 have all improved this season in OPS and that includes Dylan Crews (+4.9%), James Wood (+8.5%), CJ Abrams (+11.4%), Jacob Young (+21.6%), Brady House (+23.3%) Luis Garcia Jr. (+24.5%), and Keibert Ruiz (+27.6). Take those numbers, and that is an increase of 17.5 percent in an unweighted average.

Of course we will recalculate these numbers after the game with other tallies of accomplishments. These numbers are tangible. Analyzing them can be subjective. With the Nats win total, all of those players plus Daylen Lile, and along with Garcia, Foster Griffin, and Curtis Mead who were all traded, are why this team exceeded expectations in wins.

For the downer portion of this, just imagine if there was more early depth in the back of the rotation and the bullpen was at league average or better. Right, coulda, shoulda, woulda.

None of this has anything to do with the money that was spent in the offseason. Because money is what the Mets have and they spent more on their three top players than the Nats spent on their entire roster. What is the Mets’ excuse? They have superstars all over their roster with Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, and Francisco Lindor who have combined salaries of approximately $127.2 million and commitments of $1.232 billion over their full contracts.

All of this just goes to show you that there is more to winning baseball. The Dodgers are one side, Tampa Bay on the other, and Milwaukee just around the middle.

The Nats enter this game with 76 wins on the books, and have already improved 15.2 percent in year-over-year for wins above the 66 total wins from the 2025 season. A win today would represent even more progress and also what they could do to improve going into next season.

❝It’s a lot to look forward to, it’s a lot to be excited about, and I think it sets the tone for the rest of this group in terms of what we’re capable of achieving.❞
— said Blake Butera

On offense, the Nats have the third most runs scored in MLB this season at 815 runs, and that is an impressive 5.05 runs per game. With the Nats pitching giving up 4.67 earned runs per game, the difference is really those pesky unearned runs due to the errors. Overall, the Nats have a +4 run differential on the season.

Here is manager Blake Butera‘s bullpen chart:

The FanGraphs WAR chart is now large in its sample size. You can certainly start to extrapolate the numbers for the full-season. The OAA defense stat is now giving us a picture of what the Nats have — and don’t have.

New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals

Stadium: Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.
1st Pitch: 1:05 PM EDT
TV: Nationals.TV
Radio: 106.7 The Fan radio and via the MLB app. On Sirius/XM, tune to Channel 205 for the home broadcast and the road team is online only.