Scherzer Injury Spotlights The Nationals Achilles Heel

The Washington Nationals need to adjust their deadline plans given the increasing health concerns around uber-ace Max Scherzer.

There’s a growing concern that Max Scherzer‘s injury – originally workshopped as an extra couple extra days of rest – will now keep the Washington Nationals ace out of the rotation for a couple of turns.

Losing Scherzer for any prolonged period of time would be devastating to the Nats renewed playoff charge, even with Stephen Strasburg shouldering a two-way burden. The injury is concerning enough that it could change the constitution of their deadline: they now need a starter, writes The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli. 

At first blush, that seems silly – the Nats rotation is as sacrosanct a unit as exists in baseball. It’s certainly is not the natural place to look for an upgrade. Not on this team.

The Nats starters rank 2nd overall in ERA, 3rd in FIP and 4th in xFIP, and by fWAR, they’re leagues ahead of the trailing Dodgers (13.5 to 12.1) for the top spot in the MLB. Their starters have been not only effective, but durable, admirable, virile, and dare I say it, immaculate:

And yet, here we are: the Nats need another starting pitcher. And maybe two! They’re in pole position for the top wild-card spot – but there are significant advantages to taking the division – even with a healthy Scherzer in a one-game playoff.

In this playoff race, with so many teams vying for the playoffs, there’s just no margin for error. It’s easy to point to the bullpen as the squeaky wheel of the Nats playoff hopes, but the secret of this Nats season is that the bullpen is not the disease, it’s the symptom. The Achilles heel of this Nats team is depth.

Across the board, the Nats have no margin for error. When Trea Turner broke his finger, Wilmer Difo was the only potential backup. Difo – who must of us learned wasn’t capable of standing in as a major-league regular when he stood in as a major-league regular last season to the tune of .230/.298/.350. In 39 games this year (32 starts), Difo was worth -1.2 bWAR, -0.4 fWAR. They don’t currently have a backup shortstop on the roster.

When Trevor Rosenthal imploded, they turned to baseball’s pawn shop rather than trust the in-house options. They pulled Tony Sipp, Dan Jennings, Johnny Venters, Javy Guerra, and Fernando Rodney from the DFA scrapheap.

Michael A. Taylor came into the season as the fourth outfielder.

The rotation, as good as it’s been, is not safe from the termitic shortcomings of Mike Rizzo’s rosters. It’s not that Erick Fedde and Austin Voth are incapable, necessarily. They’ve both proven capable stand-ins. But after those guys, the Nats are absolutely barren.

Not to mention, rotations are notoriously fragile. Strasburg misses time every year, Patrick Corbin’s gone through Tommy John, Anibal Sanchez hasn’t made 30 starts since 2012. I won’t go so far as to say this rotation is injury prone, but pitchers, as a species, are. Organizations that can’t go 8-10 arms deep in their rotation get burned every year. Not only do the Nats not have that many arms, but without Scherzer, they barely have five.