The Nats Are Making Baseball Fun Again

Around Memorial Day, I was prepared to give up on the Washington Nationals. The team was 19-31, sitting in fourth place, and appeared to be circling the drain. I was the conductor on the “Fire Davey” train and was ready for a summer without baseball. Then, a funny thing happened. The team signed a guy named Gerardo Parra, some key players came off the injured list, and before you know it, the Nats have the best record in the National League since early June. A team that looked like it had given up now has joyful clubhouse celebrations after every home run (which happen with some frequency), sit comfortably in the top position for a wild card and has an outside chance at winning the division. How did this happen?

Clubhouses are delicate ecosystems. The Nats have always had a reputation as being a bit buttoned up, a bit corporate if you will. Ryan Zimmerman has been the face of the franchise for more than a decade, but his leadership was always more by example, he is not one for rah-rah speeches or getting tossed from a game to motivate his teammates. Parra has brought a looseness the team desperately needed. The home run dance line is social media catnip, his walk up song (Baby Shark) may be hokey, but watching thousands of people do a Nats Park version of the Gator Chomp is endearing, and now, the players measure their hits in shark bites. Is it silly? Sure. But this type of playfulness was sorely needed and the team has embraced it.

Obviously, what has also helped is stellar play in the field. Anthony Rendon is an MVP candidate, Trea Turner is flashing the tools that made him one of the great trade steals of recent times, Big City continues doing Big City things, Juan Soto is putting up numbers at the tender age of 20 that were previously reserved for players with last names like Ott and Williams, and his running partner Victor Robles has slid effortlessly into center field while flashing speed and power at the plate. On the mound, Stephen Strasburg is quietly putting together a year that will garner more than a few Cy Young votes, Max Scherzer was the odds-on favorite for the award until he got injured in July, Patrick Corbin has been the dominant lefty the staff desperately needed, and Anibel Sanchez has been solid.

The team certainly has flaws. The bullpen has upgraded from dumpster fire to smoldering ash heap. Scherzer is just now coming back from several injuries and it is unknown whether he will be at 100 percent down the stretch. Zimmerman will return soon but in doing so, will take at bats away from Adams, who has been solid at first base. And of course, lingering over all of this, is the team’s snake-bitten history in the playoffs. The Nats have lost playoff games and series in one painful way after another to the point you just assume the worst even with all the talent they have.

Will this year be any different? It is hard to say. The Nats are not guaranteed to make the playoffs at all, and even if they do, assuming they do not catch the Braves for the division title, a one-game play-in as a wild card will be a new challenge for them, or perhaps a new way to break their fans’ hearts. Who knows. One thing I do know is that the team has adopted the mantra of their recently-departed right fielder (I have already forgotten his name …) who wanted to make baseball fun again.

Follow me on Twitter - @scarylawyerguy