JP and BMitch discuss the Nationals chances at challenging for a playoff spot with this season with Mark Zuckerman.
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00:00the NL East is just crazy. I mean, three of the top 10 spenders are in the division. Um,
00:07the Mets obviously add Soto, which just kind of breaks my heart, but whatever. Um, what
00:14is the path to some sort of, maybe it's a wild card, but even like, uh, August and September
00:21with meaningful baseball.
00:22Speaker 3 Yeah. Um, they're going to have to be better within the division of course.
00:26And that's a, it's a brutally tough division for them to be in right now. I think they
00:30proved last year they are ahead of the Marlins. So they at least have that. And they actually
00:33played the Braves. Well, they had a winning record against the Braves last year, which
00:36was something that I think meant something to a lot of the guys in there. Um, the Mets
00:41and the Phillies, they still were well behind in terms of head to head competition. They're
00:46going to have to close that gap somehow and play them more competitively. Um, the good
00:52news, I guess you want to look at this way with the expanded playoffs. Now you get three
00:56wild cards per league and it would be tough to pull off, but I think it's happened once
01:02so far. You could have three wild cards all come from the same division. So in theory,
01:07say the, uh, Phillies, when the, when the, the Mets and the Braves could be wild cards
01:12and there's still another wild card spot to have. If you can get up there, you're going
01:16to have to beat up on the Marlins. You're going to have to do well against teams from
01:19the other divisions. The West is tough as well with the Dodgers and the Padres and the
01:23Diamondbacks. So it's not an easy path at all. Um, I think they would love to find themselves
01:28in the position come July where they are at or slightly above 500 and kind of lingering
01:34around in that realm. And maybe then you can convince the decision makers at the top of
01:39the organization to, to make some moves. And instead of trading away guys at the deadline,
01:44maybe you're finally acquiring them to make a little bit of a push. Um, they would love
01:48to find themselves in that scenario. It doesn't mean it's going to happen. It doesn't mean
01:51that it's a lost season if they don't get there. Uh, but I think that's the path right
01:56now. If you're trying to, you know, concoct a dream scenario where it all comes together
02:00this year, how far away from being contenders, man? Well, a lot of people hope that it might
02:06be this year. It maybe is another year away from that. Um, we need to see, you know, do
02:14these young stars like we talked about, are they who they're supposed to be to CJ Abrams
02:19come back and play like he did in the first half last year when he was an all-star and
02:22just an incredible all around shortstop. Um, can we Scarcia do what he did last year is
02:28a caber Ruiz able to be the franchise catcher they needed him to be. Uh, and really it is,
02:34I think about the pitching. If Gore pitches like an ACE, if Irvin is like a good solid
02:39workhorse number two, and if somebody else in that group steps up and gives them a chance
02:44to win, um, I think they're going to be in a decent position to win a lot of games. Now,
02:48my biggest concern right now, to be honest, is the bullpen because they non-tendered Kyle
02:54Finnegan decided not to bring him back. They didn't think he was worth eight or 9 million.
02:58They were going to have to pay him in arbitration and they have not really replaced them as
03:02a closer. Um, they find a few guys to lesser deals. They don't really know who their closer
03:07is right now. There's still time. There's a bunch of free agents still available, including
03:11Finnegan. I feel like they're going to find somebody here in the next week or two, and
03:17hopefully that helps shore that up. But to me, there's nothing more demoralizing for
03:21any team than you had. Everybody does everything right for eight innings and you take a lead
03:26into the ninth and somebody blows it. That could be heartbreaking for a young team. That's
03:31trying to learn how to win close games. So I hope they address that because I do think
03:35that's a glaring need right now.