The biggest news of the week in baseball was made by a very disappointing Washington Nationals team that let go of longtime GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez.
The pair teamed up to bring the Nationals their first World Series championship in 2019. However, all of the best players from that successful era of baseball in D.C. (except for Stephen Strasburg) left town between 2018 and 2022: Bryce Harper, Anthony Rendon, Max Scherzer, Juan Soto and Trea Turner.
Harper and Rendon left via free agency, while Scherzer, Soto and Turner were traded away. The Nationals dealt Soto to the San Diego Padres in 2022, receiving a staggering return led by CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and James Wood. They dealt Scherzer and Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021, but the return was mostly underwhelming, especially given Turner’s dynamic talents.
The bottom line is since the world championship season of 2019, the Nationals haven’t had a winning season. Rizzo, who has a great reputation as a player development guy, hasn’t developed much of late other than the three significant players in the Soto return.
The timing was fascinating. The Nationals have the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, which takes place from July 13-14. Ownership clearly didn’t want Rizzo to make that pick. Interim GM Mike DeBartolo will be tasked with making the No. 1 pick and overseeing any trades the club makes later this month.
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The fact that Ryan O’Hearn is the only All-Star to come out of Baltimore this season tells you what kind of season it’s been. While O’Hearn may have had the numbers to get in as a reserve, the Red Sox trade of Rafael Devers opened the door for him to be voted in as a starter by the fans.
Much was made of Jackson Holliday’s chances to make the squad as a reserve once he finished second to Gleyber Torres in the fan voting, but he was not selected. His only chance would seem to be to take the place of injured reserve Jeremy Peña of the Astros.
However, Gunnar Henderson is actually more deserving than his younger teammate:
Henderson: .271/.340/.438, 30 extra-base hits, 2.3 bWAR
Holliday: .260/.309/.415, 26 extra-base hits, 1.0 bWAR
Orioles fans should be thrilled with Holliday’s improvements this season. He’ll surely make a few All-Star teams in the future.
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The Orioles’ 40-49 record is deserved based on the lack of production in a number of areas. Some of that is due to injuries, but the body of work is commensurate with a team nine games under .500.
A lot of negativity regarding the 2025 Orioles has ended up being directed at GM Mike Elias. I wrote about my take on this last week, but I think one deal that needs to be looked at through a very different lens is the trade for Trevor Rogers at last year’s deadline.
Rogers was dreadful in four August starts a year ago — a 7.11 ERA and not much reason for hope based on his performance with Triple-A Norfolk in the weeks that followed.
There was a lot written about the work Rogers put in this past offseason in strengthening his legs to regain some velocity, but a knee injury delayed his 2025 debut until May 24 at Fenway Park. All he did that night was toss 6.1 innings of two-hit shutout baseball.
Rogers didn’t get a second start for the Orioles until June 18 against Tampa Bay at Steinbrenner Field. The Orioles gave him an 8-0 lead but saw it quickly slip away after Rogers had to sit and watch the Orioles post that eight spot for 30-plus minutes. The O’s ended up with one of their most bitter losses of a season full of them.
Since that game, all Rogers has done is throw 20 innings across three starts, allowing just two runs. While there is room to be critical of Elias’ total body of work, let’s give some of his moves time to play out.
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