Major League Baseball is a fickle mistress, both to the fans of its teams and for the players/coaches/executives who assemble in hopes of bucking the odds and bringing home a World Series championship each year. A team with title designs in one year can face the cruel nature of both the business and regression the next year -- slamming the championship window shut before the going gets truly good.
The Washington Nationals appear to have all the stars aligned to make such magic happen in 2015, combining a six-deep starting rotation with one of the deepest starting lineups in the game. However, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that this is a now-or-never proposition for this Nats team. Here's 3 Reasons The Washington Nationals MUST Win The World Series In 2015.
1. The Max Scherzer squeeze
After the Nats signed right-handed ace Max Scherzer away from the Detroit Tigers with a lucrative (and blockbuster) multi-year deal, the team all but assured themselves of losing most or all of these next four key players set to hit the casino jackpot in free agency next winter -- pitchers Doug Fister and Jordan Zimmermann, outfielder Denard Span, and shortstop Ian Desmond.
While that may not be make-or-break for the team from a playoff-contention standpoint, a self-fulfilling financial squeeze has the Nats on the potential brink of losing two guys that provided 13.3 defensive runs saved above average (Zimmermann, Fister) on the mound and two guys who totaled nearly 30 offensive runs created above average (Span, Desmond) at the plate in 2014.
2. NL East rivals on the come-up
The New York Mets have a starting rotation which may just be one year of health, luck, and experience from rivaling the Nats' five. The Miami Marlins are finally investing in the present and future, locking up core foundation pieces Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich on long-term contracts.
While the Braves and Phillies are off in the wilderness picking their noses for the time being, the Marlins and Mets present formidable opposition if/when the Nats are forced to retool and reload.
3. Lofty expectations vs. parity: 2015 edition
The trouble with the lofty expectations saddled on the Nats this season is how quickly baseball's parity can turn expectations into a weighty albatross necklace of sadness.
No MLB team won 100 regular-season games for the third-straight season in 2014, and only three teams finished with less than 70 wins (Arizona, Colorado, Texas). Furthermore, 14 teams finished with anywhere between 76-89 wins -- including the year's two World Series participants, San Francisco (88) and Kansas City (89).
This all points to a race to the top of the middle in Major League Baseball, especially with the second Wild Card providing an outlet for a 86-89 win team to sneak into the playoffs with some good luck and a couple breakout seasons. With so many teams constantly loading and reloading on the fringes of the playoff race, the Nats' competitive advantage over the rest of the National League and Major League Baseball will likely never be bigger than it is right now -- especially if they lose a gaggle of key players come 2016.
96-102 wins won't exactly guarantee the Nats a title (we saw that in 2014), but home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs is at least a nice start for a team looking to fend off the scrappy middlemen of the National League who inevitably sneak into the playoffs thannks to the wild cards and/or watered-down divisional races.
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