2022-2023 Off-season Discussion Thread

[RobDibblesGhost]

This should be fun…

[Count Walewski]

Two kinds of moves I would like to see in the offseason:

(1) once-great players who struggled in 2022. sign them with the hopes that they revive their careers in Washington and can be traded to a contender at the deadline.

(2) relief pitchers. everyone's desperate for relief pitching at the deadline. sign a bunch of guys, offer them ample pitching opportunities and a trade to a contender at midseason.

[DPMOmaha]

Just to complete the exercise, who are the free agents this year?

[imref]

Conforto would be a good fit. Coming off a down year. Can play any OF position

Manaea would be a good pitching piece, giving us a rotation of Gray, Corbin, Gore, Cavalli, and Manaea.

[welch]

Conforto would be a good fit. Coming off a down year. Can play any OF position

Manaea would be a good pitching piece, giving us a rotation of Gray, Corbin, Gore, Cavalli, and Manaea.

Sign Conforto to a one-year plus mutual option deal. He used to hit and was a respectable fielder. Boras needs to find him a place. The Metsies made a QO, and then he was injured this year as he became available to anybody.

Then find a respectable starting pitcher.

Then roll with the kids.

[zimm_da_kid]

Profar wouldn’t be a bad get either.  Could line up in left, 2b, 3b, or 1b.  Once young guys establish themselves he’ll still get regular playing time bouncing around the diamond

[Smithian]

What a sad, long road this will be.

[raleighnat]

What a sad, long road this will be.

I don’t think this has to be long and miserable.  Job one is to field a .500 club.  Seems to me you could cobble that together with some older, short term vets.  Maybe offer 2 year deals.  Need a couple of average starting pitchers that can eat league average innings, maybe try again on a low cost power type bat to dh.  Finally consider making one 3-4 year commitment to a corner outfield bat. 

Gray, McKenzie, Corbin, average vet 1 and average vet 2.  Cavelli in the wings.  Go with something like:

- abrams, ss
- Garcia, 2b
- maneses, 1b
- keiboom / alu / utility type for 3rd
- ruiz
- Robles
- new dh
- an above average right fielder

Probably not 500 but more competitive. 

[Natsinpwc]

I don’t think this has to be long and miserable.  Job one is to field a .500 club.  Seems to me you could cobble that together with some older, short term vets.  Maybe offer 2 year deals.  Need a couple of average starting pitchers that can eat league average innings, maybe try again on a low cost power type bat to dh.  Finally consider making one 3-4 year commitment to a corner outfield bat. 

Gray, McKenzie, Corbin, average vet 1 and average vet 2.  Cavelli in the wings.  Go with something like:

- abrams, ss
- Garcia, 2b
- maneses, 1b
- keiboom / alu / utility type for 3rd
- ruiz
- Robles
- new dh
- an above average right fielder

Probably not 500 but more competitive.

That is 4 additions:  2 starters and 2 regulars.  Not considering any bullpen additions.  I would think these 4 would be at least $50 million.  They have the money and I hope new owners will spend. 

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I still hate this.  Maybe even more than the extra inning zombie baserunners.   

- new dh

[Slateman]

Voit will be the DH next season

[Slateman]

Gonna be honest, unless they sign a megastar like Correra or Bogaerts, the only deals should be 1 year deals on potential bounce back players. There are too many question marks on this team, and theres no reason to saddle the team with big contracts until we know we have good MLBers that are ready to play competitive baseball.

[Elvir Ovcina]

Profar wouldn’t be a bad get either.  Could line up in left, 2b, 3b, or 1b.  Once young guys establish themselves he’ll still get regular playing time bouncing around the diamond

Profar is a mediocre player having a career year who can't actually play any position except 1B or LF and is barely adequate at the latter.  He'd make Garcia look like prime Brandon Phillips at 2B.  If he had been a free agent last winter he wouldn't have gotten a major league contract. 

Don't sign guys who are turning 30 over the winter, coming off a career year that wasn't that good, and can't play anywhere useful in the field.

For what it's worth, he's also an awful person.

[rileyn]

Ownership.  Until that is settled, nothing else matters.  We are like the Expos before they moved to DC right now. 

[Elvir Ovcina]

Ownership.  Until that is settled, nothing else matters.  We are like the Expos before they moved to DC right now.

At least we don't have Omar Minaya to fire as step #1.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I think you can pencil in Voit at DH, so I think you have 4 or 5 regulars lined up.  Meneses will be in right or first, Abrams, Garcia, and Ruiz as the primary guys up the middle, and probably Thomas as one of the outfielders, position TBD. 

3rd they probably do not go outside the organization with Kieboom and Alu competing with Vargas.  Vargas is arb eligible for the first time and will be given a contract primarily as a backup IF but also the emergency 3rd baseman if neither of the home grown guys run with the job from the start of spring training.

I can signing a guy who can be the 3rd man in the 1B/DH/RF combo.  A first baseman pushes Meneses to right, which leaves Thomas possibly in CF or LF.  In that case, I could see something a little weird, with essentially Yadi and Robles platooning, with Yadi in left, Thomas in CF against RHP and Robles in CF, Thomas in left against LHP.  Defensive subbing late with a lead. This way, we only look for one outside the organization position player, probably for 1-3 years.  Figure things go right, Hassell maybe by August takes over CF or RF.

I don't see a huge need for bullpen upgrades.  I think that a bottom tier team can get by with Finnegan / Edwards / Harvey at the start of the year, perhaps bring back Doo for minimal cost if the repair works on the elbow, hope to give a shot to Cronin and Brzycky as well as Ferrer and figure that at least one can help, bring back Arano and Thompson for middle innings and lower leverage, and keep Espino as a long guy along with perhaps Fedde. I don't know if Rainey will be back next year, but he is also an asset assuming a normal recovery, and if he's back in time to replace Edwards if he's dealt, great.  Some of the dreck they started like Abbott might be depth, too.

Starter, I/M/O, would be another place to look for help outside the organization.  Knowing full well they will give as much of an opportunity to Cavalli, Gore, and Gray as they can, and that Corbin is a starter by default. I think there's still room for two starters so as to not concede any of the young guys a slot in the rotation, or Corbin if he needs to be moved to the pen.  None of this assumes anything out of Strasburg, and assumes nothing out of Joe Ross.  I think the latter is non-tendered.

So, one Corner OF/ 1B type position player and 1-2 starters.  As for length of contract, 1-3 years.   

[Smithian]

I agree with a lot of what JCA posted.

I am legitimately nervous about this upcoming season . In my mind, I can think of a few changes and limited additions that could give this club a chance to compete for .500 if things break right. And at the least, set it up for aggressively attacking next offseason.

I also see ownership taking longer because of MASN issue. And the Lerners washing their hands of this situation and just tearing it down and selling it for scraps. I'm not talking sitting out free agency, I'm talking trading arbitration eligible players like Lane Thomas, Finnegan, and Voit, or even non-tendering if no trade is available. And they'll make excuse that they're clearing the deck for new ownership.

They half assed last offseason. There is a scenario where we look back at that approach fondly.

[imref]

via MLBTR - estimated arb numbers:

[zimm_da_kid]

Fedde has got to go

[UMDNats]

Fedde should go but Rizzo will make sure he's our first deal because he's "just a young pitcher and still growing"

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

His ERA did grow quite a bit on the last day of the season

Fedde should go but Rizzo will make sure he's our first deal because he's "just a young pitcher and still growing"

[Mattionals]

We should move on from Fedde and Robles. It shouldn't be too hard to find a 5th starter on the market, it's not like we would need to hugely overpay, oh wait.

[Elvir Ovcina]

We should move on from Fedde and Robles. It shouldn't be too hard to find a 5th starter on the market, it's not like we would need to hugely overpay, oh wait.

Fedde yes.  Robles, I don't know.  $2.5 million isn't that much, and he was above replacement level and is their only competent defensive CF anywhere near the majors.   

But if they wanted to cut him and watch him get tagged out twice while making several wrong turns just to get from the clubhouse to the street, that would also be fine. 

[Slateman]

Just dont see them moving on from Fedde. Not without at least trying him in a relief role. Too cheap to say no to. Same for Robles.

Just think the offseason is going to be a nothingburger for the Nats. Not with ownership in flux

[Elvir Ovcina]

Just dont see them moving on from Fedde. Not without at least trying him in a relief role. Too cheap to say no to. Same for Robles.

Just think the offseason is going to be a nothingburger for the Nats. Not with ownership in flux

I don't see them doing it either, regardless of what they should do.

Also, watch them non-tender Voit or something.