The Washington Nationals sit third in the NL East as ESPN dishes out a high grade through the first month of the 2026 regular season.
The Washington Nationals enjoyed the rare off the day on Monday, a brief break before resuming the six game home stand when the Minnesota Twins head to Nationals Park for the one and only meeting between the two teams this season. Yet big picture, the Nationals may have impressed more than some have expected after surpassing preseason expectations through the first month of the 2026 regular season - and that's a sentiment that ESPN agreed with.
ESPN dished a 'B+' grade for the Nationals through the month of April with the Nationals standing 16-19 overall, good for third in the NL East with both the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets spiraling.
"I had the Nationals as a pretty solid No. 29 in my preseason predictions, ahead of only the Rockies," ESPN wrote.
"The pitching has been as problematic as expected, but the offense scored more runs in April than every team except the Braves -- even though James Wood and CJ Abrams are the only regulars with an above-average OPS+. That suggests the lineup probably won't keep this up, even if Wood is a force of nature. Similar to Murakami, Wood is also on pace for 250-plus strikeouts -- and is still hitting .238/.393/.523. What an era of baseball."
The pitching, as ESPN noted, has been the biggest question mark for the Nationals to start the season with many pointing to a potential playoff sleeper through the first six weeks had president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and the front office properly invested in the pitching staff. It hasn't all been bad, though, with Foster Griffin proving to be maybe the most productive free agent signing so far while Cade Cavalli has lived up to expectations. Still, the full rotation along with bullpen have been sore spots.
Washington exited the weekend ranked in the bottom five in baseball in team ERA, hits allowed, earned runs allowed, hit by pitches, home runs allowed and strikeouts thrown. Teams are also hitting .258 against the Nationals in 2026, which ranks 23rd across the MLB, despite the offense largely proving to be one of the most efficient in baseball.
The good news is Washington's offense has been red hot.
Washington ranks inside the top third across MLB in runs scored and top ten in both hits and runs batted in. The success has been spearheaded by a pair of stars as James Wood remains one of 13 players to post double figure home runs in 2026 while the 27 RBIs from CJ Abrams is tied for the eighth-most by any player in baseball.