Yesterday, Ryan O’Hearn signed a two-year, $29 million contract with the Pirates. This is relevant to the Nats in a few ways. The most obvious is that the Nats missed a target at first base. I wrote about O’Hearn as a fit and even said a potential two-year deal could cost $28 million. However, I want to talk about something else.
With O’Hearn signing with the Pirates, every baseball team has handed out a $20 million plus free agent contract since the last time the Nats did that. The Nats haven’t issued a free agent contract worth at least $20 million since they signed Will Harris in January 2020.
Those were simpler times when the Nats were defending champions and Corona was just a beer. However, that was almost six years ago and much has been lost since then. This stunning statistic shows just how much the Lerner’s have really closed their wallets in recent years.
Don’t get me wrong, there are understandable reasons. The Nats have been rebuilding for a while, and teams just aren’t spending that much while rebuilding. Free agents usually want to go to winning teams and owners are more likely to spend money if they feel like they are close. This still does not excuse the total lack of spending over the past five years.
We know COVID has hurt the Lerner’s financially, but how much has it hurt? Is there no money to spend, or are they just holding back? Neither answer is right and Nationals fans deserve better. We can accept being outbid by the Yankees and Dodgers, but now we’re being outbid for free agents by teams like the Pirates and Marlins.
The Nats have a solid young core of players, but they need some experienced leaders around them. This probably isn’t the offseason to sign a $100 million-plus contract, but there’s no excuse not to be in the market for mid-range free agents.
When the Nats were rebuilding in the late 2000s and early 2010s, they brought in these veterans to help. They famously brought in Jayson Werth to add a veteran bat and set the culture. Where are the leaders in this locker room with Josh Bell gone?
Not all of these prospects will pan out and not all of these positions will be filled by internal options. Paul Toboni and de Lerner’s need to understand this. DC is a big market and ownership needs to act accordingly.
No $20 million contracts in free agency in over half a decade is just embarrassing. Even the A’s, the Marlins and now the Pirates are making bigger swings than that. I trust that Paul Toboni will help develop the current core group of players and make the team better. However, he will need help.
It may not be the offseason, but the Nats are going to have to make a big change at some point and I don’t trust this ownership group to do that. In the 2010s, Nats fans received new signings like Daniel Murphy as Christmas presents. The best we can hope for is some minor league contracts and cheap one-year deals.
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