I meant to do this last year, but then the Nationals won the Wild Card game and just kept winning, and it didn’t feel right to grade each individual on a championship team. Surely, they all had a moment here and there in the 162-game season.
This year is obviously different, and there were a lot of things that went wrong. But while injuries derailed quite a few players, some players passed their 2020 tests – and a select few aced the oddities of a 60-game season. (We will spare the obvious caveat of the challenges of playing in a pandemic. Every other team was faced with the same challenges and the Nats had one of the easiest travel schedules in baseball.)
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This is a simple baseball evaluation, as pure as you can get in a season people have equated to extended spring training. It is hard to make too much one way or the other about a guy’s season, but isn’t overreacting exactly what the media is for? Keep in mind this is 1) based on 2020 only and 2) my opinion. Sure, I used stats to evaluate and hand out grades, but there was some wiggle room in many cases. There were wildly different sample sizes as some guys only played in a game or two while others were around the whole season.
Let’s dig in, beginning with the 23 pitchers the Nationals used this season.
Note: an *asterisk denotes a player on the injured list
PITCHERS (minimum 8 games for a grade)
Max Scherzer B-: Scherzer deserved a better fate this season, truthfully. Perhaps no start encapsulated that more than Game 1 of a doubleheader against Miami, in which the righty took the loss despite allowing no earned runs and throwing 119 pitches. He wasn’t always typical Scherzer, but he was very good.
Wil Crowe N/A: Sure, he got hit hard in quite a few outings, but he’s young and was probably promoted a little too early.
Patrick Corbin C-: Corbin was a disappointment this season, one of many guys who could not follow up on a great 2019.
Sean Doolittle* D: What saved Doolittle from an “F” is his last couple of outings, which were encouraging. It was also tough to watch; following his return from the IL, Doolittle suffered an oblique injury just as he was coming back.
Kyle Finnegan B: Finnegan maximized his chances and became a solid relief option, for the most part, making the most appearances on the team.
Tanner Rainey A-: Before forearm tightness ended his season in September, Rainey was among the few bright spots. He led the staff in ERA over 20 appearances.
Ryne Harper C-: To be fair, Harper was supposed to go to Fredericksburg and rest his arm some. He never did, and he became the guy who wore it often, especially in blowouts like Wednesday.
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Wander Suero C+: Suero actually had some really good outings for the Nats, but the life of a short-season reliever is tough. You could make a case for a B- and I did go back and forth with it.
Daniel Hudson C-: Hudson was “anything but a sure thing this season” said one opposing broadcast in late September. The guy who closed out the World Series struggled with location most of the year.
Will Harris C: Harris started on the IL and had some struggles in the later innings. In the end, he was passable and got a middling grade for it.
Javy Guerra* C: The beauty of Guerra was he was always available, so hitting the IL after 14 appearances really hurt him.
Dakota Bacus* C-: Bacus had four scoreless outings to start his career, but it went downhill from there. I thought about giving the 29-year-old a lower grade, but he was never a guy the Nats planned to rely on this season.
James Bourque* N/A: Bourque was a guy who had been on the team’s radar who struggled and then hit the IL. It, unfortunately, was a familiar story for D.C.
Ben Braymer N/A: His first career start was a rare feel good-story for the Nats.
Austin Voth D: Voth’s final few outings saved him a total fail (like Doolittle), and he did stay healthy. But if the Nats had options, he would have been out of the rotation a while ago.
Sam Freeman* N/A: Freeman underwent Tommy John surgery recently and will miss all of 2021. This won’t be a year he looks back on fondly.
Erick Fedde B-: Fedde was asked to do many different things this year and –except for one big clunker in Philadelphia– he performed well.
Anibal Sanchez D: Sanchez, like Corbin, couldn’t regain his 2019 form, and it showed.
Kyle McGowin B+: McGowin maximized his small opportunity this season and was another feel-good story in a season lacking a lot of them.
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Seth Romero* N/A: Romero, we hardly knew you. Romero was one of several big league debuts who took his lumps before getting hurt.
Stephen Strasburg* N/A: Nothing about Strasburg’s season was good.
Aaron Barrett* N/A: Barrett toiled away at Fredericksburg all season, was the last 40-man roster guy to get promoted, and then appeared in just two games before hitting the IL. Tough break for a guy who has had a lot of them over the past few years.
Paolo Espino N/A: How to judge one start? As something to smile about, at least. Espino hadn’t been in the Majors since 2017.
POSITION PLAYERS (minimum 15 games for a grade)
Trea Turner A: Extend Trea Turner Twitter accounts weren’t popping up for just any reason. A terrific year that largely went unnoticed outside of D.C.
Asdrubal Cabrera C-: Cabrera had many big hits for the Nats last year. In 2020, not so much. Still, he was third in homers and OPS, which bumped him up from my initial thought of a lower grade.
Victor Robles D: Robles gained weight, got slower, and struggled defensively. He looked poised to have a huge year after ’19, too.
Adam Eaton* C-: Before he hit the IL, Eaton joked his bat would finally come around in late September.
Juan Soto A: Soto didn’t play enough to warrant MVP consideration, but he’s already an early candidate for 2021.
Eric Thames F: It’s hard to see a free-agent signing going worse for the Nats and Thames, who posted a -0.6 WAR.
Luis Garcia B-: Garcia held his own as the youngest player in baseball after injury forced his promotion. A solid start to what could be an impressive career.
Carter Kieboom C-: As impressive as Garcia was, Kieboom didn’t make the same strides. Defensively he made progress, but there will be many questions as to if he’s the Nats’ third baseman of the future.
Michael A. Taylor C+: This was one of the hardest grades to give. Taylor does seem to have big hits in clutch moments, and his defense has always been a plus for the Nats. It seems like the conversation about Taylor’s future with Washington happens every year, and it will again this winter.
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Kurt Suzuki C-: Suzuki’s power went missing and he continued to struggle to throw out runners.
Josh Harrison C+: For a utility guy, Harrison did his job and he always played with welcome energy and hustle.
Howie Kendrick D: Kendrick was, like many others, a shell of himself this season. The hamstring bothered him all year and he played in less than half of the Nats’ games.
Yan Gomes C: Gomes had a nice stretch at the plate where he carried the team, but leveled out. His year was passable and so his grade is, too.
Starlin Castro D: This one was tough because it feels like you barely saw Castro before an injury ended his season after 16 games.
Brock Holt B-: For what he was acquired to be, a jack-of-all-trades, Holt performed well. He gets the bump up to a B for pitching a few times. The ultimate team player.
Wilmer Difo N/A: The Difo era ended when the team designated him for assignment. He hit .071 in 12 games before that.
Andrew Stevenson N/A: Stevenson could get a real look at the Nats outfield next year after impressing the final 10 games. This could have been an ‘A’, he just wasn’t in the big leagues long enough.
Yadiel Hernández N/A: A terrific story, sure. Hernández struggled early to hit for power, but one swing against the Phillies saved his season grade from a failing mark.
Jake Noll N/A: Like Stevenson, Noll gets unfairly punished for such a small sample size. Still, every pitcher at the alternate site said he was the toughest guy to face.
Emilio Bonifacio N/A: Remember when he was supposed to be this year’s Gerardo Parra?
(Top photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
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