Washington Nationals' Payroll Estimate Leaves Room for Huge Free Agency
The Washington Nationals are heading into free agency with the opportunity to really improve their team.
It has been a lengthy rebuild for the Nationals since winning the World Series in 2019. However, the organization has done a nice job acquiring and developing young talent, as their lineup is loaded with potential stars.
In addition to their strong young core of players, Washington has also done a nice job of shredding bad contracts and avoiding lengthy deals in free agency to try and put band-aids over problems.
Now, the franchise is once again in a position to spend, which is something they have done in the past. General manager Mike Rizzo is going to have a lot of areas to address this offseason, and it feels like it could be a pivotal winter for the franchise.
Recently, Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports highlighted the current payroll situation for the Nationals. At just around $35 million currently, he highlights the point that Washington could be big spenders this winter.
Zuckerman also did the math, which includes current commitments to players with arbitration-level service time and the paltry amount it will pay to players under team control, assuming the Nationals don't do anything with those players, such as team-friendly extensions.
“So that’s a total of $19.57 million projected to go to seven players with at least three years of big league service time. Everyone else on the current roster has yet to reach that mark, which means each will make at or slightly above the league minimum salary of $760,000. Add those all together and you get about $15.5 million. Which means if the Nationals were to field their entire Opening Day roster without making any more additions this winter, they’d have a payroll of roughly $35 million.”
At a comical $35 million right now, the Nationals are clearly positioning themselves to make some splashes this offseason.
The recent decision to let their closer Kyle Finnegan become a free agent also created even more room to spend, as he would have been the highest paid player on the team based on a near $9 million arbitration estimate. Due to his striggles in the second half of the season, Washington clearly didn’t feel comfortable with that.
The Nats' payroll estimate clearly shows letting him go was more about the player than the money.
While closer and other arms in the bullpen will be a need, the Nationals also have the need for at least one and maybe two power bats in the middle of the lineup.
First base seems to be the main position of need for Washington, since Brady House could find himself as the starting third baseman on Opening Day or soon after.
Since the Nationals had a payroll just over $125 million last season and are currently sitting at $35 right now, that gives them nearly $100 million, or more, to spend to reach last year's mark. If Washington spends that money, it could have a greatly improved roster heading into 2025.
