Yesterday, Ryan O’Hearn signed a 2-year $29 million contract with the Pirates. This is relevant to the Nats in a couple of ways. The most obvious is that the Nats missed out on a first base target. I wrote about O’Hearn as a fit and even said a potential contract could be 2-years $28 million. However, I want to talk about something else.
With O’Hearn signing with the Pirates, every team in baseball has given out a $20 million plus free agent contract since the last time the Nats have done so. The Nats have not given out a free agent contract of at least $20 million since they signed Will Harris back in January of 2020.
Those were simpler times when the Nats were defending champions and Corona was still just a beer. However, that was almost six years ago and there has been a lot of losing since. This stunning stat just shows how much the Lerner’s have really closed up their pocket books over the past few years.
Don’t get me wrong, there are understandable reasons. The Nats have been in a rebuild for a while, and teams just don’t spend as much when they are rebuilding. Free agents usually want to go to winning teams and owners are more inclined to spend when they feel like they are close. This still does not excuse the total lack of spending over the past half decade.
We know that COVID hurt the Lerner’s financially, but how much did it hurt? Is there no money to spend, or are they just holding back? Neither answer is a good one and Nationals fans deserve better. We can accept being outspent by the Yankees and Dodgers, but now we are being outbid for free agents by teams like the Pirates and Marlins.
The Nats have a solid young core of players, but they need some veteran leaders around them. This probably is not the offseason to go out and sign a $100 million plus contract, but there is no excuse for not being in the market for mid tier free agents.
When the Nats were rebuilding in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, they brought in these veterans to help out. They famously brought in Jayson Werth in order to add a veteran bat and set the culture. With Josh Bell gone, where are the leaders in this locker room?
Not all of these prospects are going to pan out and not all of these positions are going to be filled by internal options. Paul Toboni and the Lerner’s need to understand this. DC is a big market, and ownership needs to act accordingly.
No $20 million contracts in free agency in over half a decade is just embarrassing. Even the A’s, the Marlins, and now the Pirates are taking bigger swings than that. I trust Paul Toboni to help develop the current core group of players and make the team better. However, he is going to need help.
It may not be this offseason, but the Nats are going to have to make a big swing at some point and I do not trust this ownership group to do so. Back in the 2010’s Nats fans used to get new signings like Daniel Murphy as Christmas presents. Now, the best we can hope for are some minor league contracts and cheap one year deals.