Can Nats be saved?
They have been the majors’ most disappointing team, but Washington hasn’t been at full strength.
❚ Harper’s crowning All-Star moment, Page 7
In their seven seasons of history pre-Bryce Harper, the Washington Nationals never had a winning season. In their first six seasons with him, they averaged 93 wins and went to the postseason four times.
Whatever else you think of Harper, his time in the Nationals spotlight has mostly gone well for him and for his team. Postseason disappointment aside, the Nationals with Harper have been up there with the best in the game nearly every year.
But what now?
What now for Harper, who can be a free agent in a little more than 3 months? What now for the Nationals, who found themselves at 48-48 at the AllStar break?
“We want to compete for the championship,” said first baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the team’s longest-serving player. “Not for the first pick (in the draft).”
They still believe they can, this season and into the future, no matter what happens with Harper. They have a new young star in 19-year-old Juan Soto, they have top starters Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg signed through 2021 and 2023, respectively, and they’re in absolutely no danger of falling back into their pre-Harper abyss.
And yet, whether the Nationals want to talk about it or not — mostly not — the uncertainty with Harper adds a different perspective to a season that can still be saved.
“This could possibly be my last year in D.C,” Harper said of free agency at last week’s AllStar Game festivities in Washington. “There’s no elephant in the room. Everybody knows that’s a possibility.”
With no new contract as of yet and apparently no negotiations during the season, this could be the final go-round for a player who has dominated much of the conversation during his time in Washington. It still could end well.
“As bad as we’ve played and as many injuries as we’ve had, we’re not out of it,” Zimmerman said.
They’re not out of it, and while there are reasons for worry, there are also reasons to believe they can be better than they’ve been so far. Zimmerman (sore back) is due to come off the disabled list, possibly as soon as the second half begins with a key July 20-22 series against the surprising Atlanta Braves.
Strasburg (shoulder inflammation) and closer Sean Doolittle (pinched nerve in foot) are due back very soon, too. Daniel Murphy’s bat showed signs of life late in the first half, after he missed the first 64 games of the season recovering from microfracture knee surgery.
And while Harper’s batting average has remained 100 points or so below what it was last season, he hit three home runs in the first 12 games of July, after hitting just two in 25 games in June.
“We still haven’t played our best baseball,” Doolittle said. “I know we had a good stretch in May (22 wins in 28 games at one point), but we still weren’t firing on all cylinders then.”
A year ago, Doolittle was one of three key relievers the Nationals traded for in July, as general manager Mike Rizzo rebuilt his bullpen. Despite their record, the Nats don’t have the same pressing need to fill on the trade market this month.
“I think a lot of us kind of look at it that our acquisitions can be Zim getting healthy and Stras getting healthy,” Doolittle said. “Look, it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but I know a lot of guys in here are optimistic.”
They don’t talk about what might happen with Harper after the season, mostly because they don’t know. He has held to a preseason vow not to discuss his free agency, and by all accounts there have been no inseason negotiations on a new contract. Even if anyone knows whether Harper will stay or go, no one is saying.
Besides, the Nationals’ poor first half has put the focus on now and the weeks and months in the immediate future. They entered the break 51⁄2 games behind first-place Philadelphia and five games behind secondplace Atlanta in the National League East. This isn’t like last year, when the Nats went into the break with a 9 1⁄2-game lead in the National League East.
They were six games up at the break in 2016 (and 101⁄2 games up by Sept. 2). They were tied with the Braves at the break in 2014, but pulled away during August.
“I honestly think it might be good for us,” Zimmerman said. “The last few times we won the division, we clinched early. You’re thinking about days off. It’s not that you stop playing, but it’s not the same intensity down the stretch.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d take that, but I think this might be good. Maybe if we get in, maybe we’ll go into the playoffs on the upswing.”
But first they have to get into the postseason.
They have to overcome the Braves and the Phillies, who have become serious contenders a little ahead of schedule. They have to find more consistency in an offense that scored 14 and 18 runs in an early-July series with the Miami Marlins, only to total 10 runs in the next four games combined.
They’ll need more from the starting pitchers behind Scherzer, who has been so good he could well win a third consecutive Cy Young Award. The Nationals went 14-6 in his 20 firsthalf starts, but they were below .500 with anyone else on the mound.
And then there’s Harper. His 23 home runs had him among the NL leaders. His 54 RBI were the most of any National. But it’s been six weeks since his batting average was even above .230, let alone anywhere near the .319 he hit last season or the .330 he hit when he was the NL Most Valuable Player in 2015.
The debate over how good he still is and how much money he should get will mostly wait for the winter, though. For now, the focus will be on whether he and his teammates can use the second half to carry the Nationals back to where they were expected to be, on top of the NL East and with another chance to try to win in October.
Knobler reported from New York. Contributing: Jesse Yomtov.
Harper has his All-Star moment, Page 7