The Nationals go into the All-Star break with a 48-49 record and three teammates headed to Philadelphia for the game Tuesday night (on Fox). The Nats are no longer one of those teams that has one player selected by the league only because there is a policy that every team must be represented, even if the representative isn’t one of the best at his position. The three Nats are entirely qualified.
James Wood is one of the very best players in the National League. He is second in home runs with 28, first in OPS, and first in runs scored with 89, 21 more than the second place scorer, Bryan Reynolds. Wood also leads the league in the advanced hitting stats like wOBA. He is second in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) to Pete Crow-Armstrong who is a better fielder. This is a long way of saying that James Wood is an outstanding 23-year-old, DMV native, 2026 All-Star.
CJ Abrams is the best hitting shortstop in the National League and starting at short in the All-Star Game. He is first among shortstops in homers with 20, first in RBIs with 67, first in wOBA and he is second in OPS and WAR. The two-time All-Star and Georgia native has been with the Nationals for five seasons.
Foster Griffin is living the dream this season since the Nationals gave him a chance to pitch last winter. After being drafted out of high school in the first round in 2014, Griffin finally made his major league debut at 24 but then only pitched eight major league innings in 2020-2022, toiling in the minors the rest of the time.
Griffin played the last three seasons in Japan where he improved his pitch arsenal to a remarkable seven pitches. In one game this year against Miami, for example, he threw 38 cutters, 15 changeups, 14 sweepers, 13 fastballs, 11 curveballs, 10 sinkers, and two splitters. That’s a lot of batters doing a lot of guessing. Griffin’s 10-2 record and 2.77 ERA made him a natural choice to fill out the National League pitching roster.
The Nationals entered the All-Star break the worst way possible, getting swept by the Yankees at home. The got swept in the most Nationals way possible, losing the lead in the 9th inning Friday and in the 8th inning Saturday and Sunday. The Nationals bullpen continues to be horrific. The pen leads the majors with 27 blown saves and 26 losses. While the starters have improved to being adequate to good most days, the relievers just don’t get the job done. (Since May 1 the starters ERA is tenth best in the majors while the relievers ERA is 25th.) The offense, meanwhile, is still leading the majors in runs scored as it has for much of the season.
The Nationals are four games out of a wild card spot. Since Aaron Judge got hurt over a month ago the Yankees offense has been below average. Those were three winnable games and with better relief pitching the Nats would have been one game out. Now they get four days off to forget about the Yankee series and to look forward to three games against the 41-win Athletics and three against the 39-win Rockies. A nearly ideal way to get back in position for a playoff spot. At least the relievers will come in rested.
