What was expected?

Not much. After going 71-91 in 2023, the Nationals finished in the NL East basement for the fourth consecutive year. They also were tied for the second-worst team in the entire National League. Needless to say, expectations for the 2024 Washington Nationals were low. There was no way that they could overtake the NL East powerhouse Braves or Phillies, so a third-place finish would be the best-case outcome. Truthfully, anything other than another last-place finish would be an improvement. The Nats were also expected to look toward the future by calling up prospects while aiming to be more competitive a couple or few years from now.

How did it go?

The Nationals had the exact same record in 2024: 71 wins and 91 losses. That record put them in last place in 2023 but qualified them for fourth place this year as the 100-loss Miami Marlins descended into last place. More than one fan probably exclaimed, “Yay, we’re out of the cellar!” The Nats were 24 games behind the NL East Champion Philadelphia Phillies, which was an improvement over finishing 33 games back in 2023.

Washington indeed looked to the future this season. They made deadline deals that sent veterans Jesse Winker to the Mets and Lane Thomas to the Guardians. They gave much playing time to younger players this year. This included outfielder Jacob Young who appeared in 150 games after playing in just 33 last year. They also called up prospects, with James Wood (mid-season) and Dylan Crews (late-season) being the most anticipated. Two less heralded pitchers made the MLB debuts. Mitchell Parker had an impressive workload of 150 innings while DJ Herz appeared in 19 games and logged over 88 innings.

Fantasy Stud?

This will be a stretch because it is hard to call any Washington National a stud based on 2024 performance. CJ Abrams is a recognizable name and he finished within the Top 100 players, but he performed much worse than most expected. Also, he was sent to the minors in the final days of the season due to reasons other than his on-field performance, so we just cannot label him as a stud.

The Nats have another player who finished around the Top 100. Unlike Abrams, this player had a surprisingly good season and was not disciplined, so we’ll call him the stud: Luis Garcia Jr. He was undraftable in conventional 12-team leagues yet batted .282 with 18 homers and 22 steals. We’ll look at his season in more detail below.

Fantasy Dud?

Just like CJ Abrams was considered for the team’s stud, he could be considered for their dud, too, based on his disappointing year and late-season demotion. But can you really call a young player who finished in the top-100 a dud? Nah.

Instead of Abrams, catcher Keibert Ruiz was the biggest dud on the 2024 Nationals. Ruiz had a preseason ADP of roughly 200 yet finished well outside the top-500 players. Those who drafted Ruiz were hoping to get a little help in the batting average department from a player who batted between .250 and .273 in each of his previous four seasons. Instead, Ruiz produced a poor .229 batting average – and that was only after a late-season surge when he had his best month of 2024 by hitting .277 in September! Ruiz also contributed fewer homers, runs and RBI than he did in 2023.

Fantasy Surprise?

Closer Kyle Finnegan was a surprise on two fronts. First, he saved a career-high 38 games. That’s an incredible return on a guy who had a preseason ADP outside the Top 200! It’s also a lot more saves than you could reasonably expect from a pitcher with high career ratios (3.56 ERA and 1.32 WHIP). The other surprise with Finnegan was that he was not traded at the deadline and played the entire year as a Washington National. Finnegan was widely expected to be traded at the deadline and probably to teams that would not view him as their closer. As July arrived, fantasy managers who rostered Finnegan knew that their team’s saves could be halted at a moment’s notice. Instead, the Nats hung onto Finnegan and he finished the year as a very productive closer.

Honorable Mention: Trevor Williams. He was incredibly good in April and May and was FAR better than anyone could have expected. Unfortunately, he spent more than the next three months on the injured list before returning in late September and again pitching brilliantly in his two late-season starts.

Player Breakdowns:

Hitters

Luis Garcia Jr. – 2B

Luis Garcia Jr. was very good in 2024 as the youngster had the best season of his five-year career. He batted .282/.318/.444, all of which were career highs. His 18 homers, 70 RBI and 22 steals were all career highs, too. He also scored 58 runs in a career high 140 games. His wRC+ of 111 was his first season above 100. He established career-bests in exit velocities (89.1 mph), barrel rate (8.0%) and hard-hit rate (41.2%). While none of those numbers are exceptional among all major leaguers, they are the best of his career. His .282 batting average was backed up by a .280 expected batting average (nearly Top 10% in MLB). Similarly, his .444 slugging percentage was in line with his .460 expected slugging percentage.

It would be good for Garcia Jr. to improve his walk rate. He had a very high chase% (36.0%) to back up the poor 5.1 BB% that was in the 11th percentile.

Garcia Jr. was drafted outside the Top 400 in 2024. He turned out to be a tremendous find for fantasy managers who drafted him because he returned roughly top-100 value. He’ll be more costly in 2025 and rightfully so. He is coming off a year in which showed strong improvement in almost all facets of hitting. He’s still just 24 years old so there’s reason to expect further improvements. Although he finished around the top-100 in 2024, he may be a value candidate again in 2025 because some will view him with suspicion due to his short track record and/or the fact that he plays on a weak team. Assuming an ADP in the range of 150, Garcia Jr. will be a big value if he repeats his 2024 success, let alone if he shows further improvement.

CJ Abrams – SS

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