![]() Trading Meneses this winter can’t be ruled out if another team is enamored enough by those 240 PA and Washington gets a good enough offer. ![]() If Meneses keeps hitting, he could even be a late-blooming addition to the Nationals’ rebuild plans, or perhaps a sneaky-valuable trade chip at the deadline if the Nats wanted to sell high. His unexpected breakout is already a great story, and from the Nationals’ perspective, there isn’t really any reason not to go with Meneses as the projected Opening Day first baseman. ![]() That said, Meneses’ numbers are hard to ignore, and his 47.1 percent hard-hit rate is a sign that his inflated BABIP wasn’t sheer luck. 371 BABIP, and 240 plate appearances isn’t a big enough sample size to suddenly tag the 30-year-old as a surefire superstar. Even with the arrow directly pointed in the rebuild direction last offseason, the Nats still spent $15M on a one-year guarantee for Nelson Cruz, as the club was hopeful that Cruz could at least be a trade chip come deadline time. That strategy is likely to continue this offseason, though it can’t be assumed that the Nationals will only pursue stopgap-esque players. Keibert Ruiz, CJ Abrams, James Wood, Lane Thomas, Josiah Gray, MacKenzie Gore, and Robert Hassell III are all viewed as potential long-term contributors, and the progress of this group (plus other homegrown products like Luis Garcia and Cade Cavalli, among others) in 2023 may help president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo determine the rebuild’s timeline.ĭuring the last two offseasons, Rizzo’s front office targeted veterans on short-term contracts, first in an attempt to return to contention in 2021, and then mostly about filling roster holes last winter. Those two blockbusters and a collection of other deals brought a wealth of young talent into the District, to the point that the Nationals hope a good chunk of their next winning core is already in place.
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