Washington Nationals Seen as Viable Destination for World Series Winner
With the World Series coming to an end, the offseason has officially begun for the Washington Nationals, who are looking to compete in 2025.
Even though they totaled the same amount of wins the last two years, the 2024 season felt like a significant improvement for the Nationals, as a lot of their young players started to perform in the big leagues.
While the lineup has a lot of promise with young players like CJ Abrams and Luis Garcia Jr. making an impact, there are some questions about the starting rotation moving forward.
This offseason, one of the glaring needs for Washington will be to improve the rotation with a top-end starter.
With starting pitching being a need, Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently spoke about Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, Walker Buehler being a viable fit for the Nationals.
“Do the Nationals view themselves as a team ready to make a postseason push in 2024 after five consecutive years with a sub-.440 winning percentage? If so, adding a top-half-of-the-rotation type of starter is both a must and a move they can finally feel comfortable making now that Patrick Corbin's contract (and 33-70 record with a 5.62 ERA over the past five seasons) is no longer weighing them down. And they've been no stranger to the ol' "minimal risk reclamation project" signing in recent years.”
While the 2024 campaign overall was challenging for the right-hander, he ended the season strong by pitching very well in his final two starts of the postseason against the New York Mets and New York Yankees.
In Game 5 of the World Series, it was Buehler who got the final three outs to shut the door on the Yankees and win the title for the Dodgers.
As an upcoming free agent, Buehler is going to be one of the more interesting pitchers available. Prior to his second Tommy John surgery, he was considered to be one of the best pitchers in the league, and a true top-end of the rotation starter.
Since Buehler didn’t get a chance to really prove himself for an extended period of time this season, he will likely be signing a short-term deal. A contract of one year, with a player option for a second makes a lot of sense for the right-hander, similarly to what Blake Snell signed with the San Francisco Giants last offseason.
For Washington, Buehler would be a low-risk, high-reward type of move that could help improve them in 2025 without a major long-term commitment.
