NL East: A mid-term front office assessment of the 5 teams

Washington Nationals front office, -1.9

For a team in a rebuilding mode, Mike Rizzo’s front office was surprisingly conservative over the winter and spring. The Nationals have made only 21 personnel decisions involving a player who saw major league time during the first half of 2022. Only two of those moves involved players who have generated as little as one-half game of WAA. It has not helped the Nats that only five of those 19 moves have yielded positive value.

Part of the reason for the lack of activity is probably that Rizzo’s front office did so much at the 2021 trade deadline, including sending Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to Los Angeles. The Nats were left with not much of value on their roster, at least beyond Juan Soto. In fact, only one player who finished 2021 with Washington has seen any 2022 playing time with any other team. That sole exception is pitcher Austin Voth, who was claimed on waivers by Baltimore in June.

Here are the sparse details on the only two moves of short-term substance made by the division’s last place team.

Dec. 12: The Nationals signed infielder Maikel Franco, late of the Braves, to a one-year, $700,000 contract. For that kind of money, the Nats didn’t expect much of Franco and he hasn’t provided it. Holding down third base, Franco is hitting .268, which doesn’t sound all that awful. But it’s one of those hollow .268s; he has just 10 walks, 59 strikeouts and a .640 OPS. It all works out to -1.5 WAA.

Nov. 30: Lucius Fox was a 24-year-old minor leaguer when the Nationals plucked him away from the Orioles on a waiver claim. Starting the season with the big club, Fox lasted one month before being optioned. He was called back in early June for a few days, but is now once again honing his craft at Triple-A Rochester. For the moment, Fox’s big league line shows 25 plate appearances during which he has hit .080 with no extra base hits, nine strikeouts, a .195 OPS and a -0.7 WAA.