“They said they need a guy like me in the lineup,” Nelson Cruz told reporters after signing a 1-year/$15M free agent deal with the Washington Nationals this past March. Cruz, who turned 42 in July, was signed to provide pop in the middle of the Nats’ lineup, and he brought plenty of experience to a relatively young club which was destined to get younger as the season went on, and the expectation was they could flip him to a contender at the trade deadline if the Nationals weren’t in contention in early August.
Cruz struggled, however, putting up a .