For a city of lawmakers, somebody forgot to check the fine print of the Washington Nationals’ promise of better times this season. Nats officials delivered a great stadium, but somebody forgot about a great product.
The Nats stink.
The team has never been so many games under .500 since arriving in 2005. After a 50-31 start that season for first place, the team went 31-50 to finish .500. And those were the salad days. The Nats slipped to 71-91 in 2006 while 73-89 was considered a moral victory last year.
The Nats probably won’t win 65 games this season. They can’t hit. They can’t field. They can’t hold a lead. If not for the starting pitching — which ironically was once thought the team’s weakness — the Nats would be a Double-A club.
Granted, Major League baseball sold the Lerner family a shell of a team with an old stadium, stripped minor leagues and no real TV deal. This season has been completely undermined by injuries with 19 players on the disabled list, including cornerstones Ryan Zimmerman, Chad Cordero and Nick Johnson.
There are valid reasons why the Nats are once again terrible. But as Donald Trump says, “What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.” That is why this ongoing malaise that threatens to lose 100 games this season shouldn’t be tolerated.
Forget rebuilding — it’s time for drastic changes.
The stadium doubles asthe region’s biggest ATM outside of FedEx Field. The Nats are making more money than K Street lawyers and lobbyists combined. It’s time to spend more of it. The team needs to get into bidding wars. They should have done so during the offseason.
Let general manager Jim Bowden spend the next three weeks before the trade deadline working deals. Bowden has done well overall with the Nats — let him go wild and trade anyone not named Zimmerman or Jesus Flores.
If the minors are truly blossoming as experts project, promote more of them now. Flores is playing pretty well for someone who was supposed to spend the year in Triple-A until two injuries forced his promotion. See who else on the farm is ripe.
At least the Nats have some fire. Pitcher Odalis Perez was ejected for arguing over his second balk in two batters on Tuesday. Manager Manny Acta, who does a terrific job with spare parts, has spread his passion in the locker room.
“I think the fight is in it. From now, on we’re going to see it. Anything else is not going to be tolerated,” Acta said. “There are a lot of games left. You can’t put your head down and think everything is lost because it’s not. We know we had a lot of injuries, but no excuses.”
That’s right, Manny,no excuses. Enough of these shutout losses, stupid defensive plays and flat efforts. Adopt George Allen’s “The Future is Now” approach and bring up the youngsters.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
