The Nationals rarely care to admit it when they’ve made a mistake.
For instance: after A.J. Cole made it rather apparent over the past few years that his best-case scenario involved a 4.00 ERA, the Nationals still stuck with him as their fifth starter to begin the season, refusing to make a change until his struggles were hurting the team.
The Nationals—or more specifically, Mike Rizzo—also claimed that they were ecstatic with their catching core as well as their bullpen all of last offseason, despite the fact that better options remained.
Why didn’t the Nationals trade for J.