It is that most wonderful time of year. Spring Training is just coming to an end, and baseball fans everywhere are gearing up for another glorious Opening Day. Today is the 10-day countdown to the Washington Nationals start to their regular season. The 2026 Major League Baseball season is just about to begin, and anything can happen. Another long offseason is over, and hopefully you have some optimism about the Nats.

Can Nationals fans really have legitimate cause to dream of doing better this year? Last year saw the sixth consecutive year of a losing record. That 2019 World Series win is moving further and further into the distance. If you want to know about which sportsbooks cover baseball well, then VegasBetting.net is the place to go. But don’t expect to see too much support for the Nats at any of the sports betting sites it profiles.

There can be hope for this Nationals team, but can anything but the rebuild of the former rebuild change the outlook for a team expected to lose? In this article, we will take a look at the realistic hopes for the team in 2026 and whether the Nationals can compete at all this year.

New Beginnings

Welcome to the start of the 22nd season of Nationals baseball in D.C. It’s a lot of change at Nationals Park after a thorough overhaul of the ball club, from top to bottom, over the offseason. Just about every aspect of the organization has been changed from the Front Office, coaching staff, and player development system.

Blake Butera is the new manager, and at 33, he will be younger than some of the players on his roster. We say “some”, as the Nationals team, as a whole, has rapidly become much younger and expected to be the youngest in baseball. Although pre-season predictions have not been kind to the Nationals, this is an exciting time for the club. Anything good comes from a new beginning, after all.

You hope that the offensive stats of Spring Training for the Nationals have no comparison to the regular season since the team is second to last in the Majors at a .601 OPS. The good news would be the Nats pitching is the best in all of baseball in Spring Training with a 3.11 ERA.

A Young Core

Much has been said about the new ways of doing things at the Nationals. There is no doubt that the new reliance on youth will be roundly criticized if it doesn’t show progress immediately. But it should be seen as something good. Nothing has worked in Washington since that 2019 World Series triumph, so why not rip it all up and start again?

Players like James Wood and Dylan Crews are supposed to be the foundation of an exciting young core on the Nationals roster. Then you have Daylen Lile who has a real shot at making an impact. Cade Cavalli is your Opening Day starter. Brady House and Robert Hassell III could step up this year and make 2026 the definite start of the rebuild. Paul Toboni has dismissed all talk of “five-year plans”, but all the young players on the team have the chance to do something very special.

Battling in the NL East

It is all very fun in getting a little carried away with the potential of this young Washington team. But the reality is that it will be going up against some of the wealthiest and star-studded rosters in baseball. The Mets continue to spend big money to bring a championship back to Queens, while the other teams in the NL East are no slouches either.

Philly has been a top playoff team for a while now, while Atlanta is expected to come back from what was, for the Braves, a disappointing 2025. Even the Marlins are predicted to do better than the Nats this year, after a season in which they almost managed a winning record for what would have been only the second time in 16 years. With a division like that, it might be considered an achievement just not finishing at the bottom of the standings.

Winning Record?

How about a winning record for the Nationals, then? Last year saw a dip from previous years, with just 66 games won, and that is around the mark that most experts see the team managing in 2026. That is obviously a long way off a winning record, so hopes of a complete turnaround can probably be disregarded.

Since arriving in D.C., this team has enjoyed a fairly successful time posting winning records. The build-up years to that World Series win were probably the best, but there has been little in the way of success since. Fans, players, and coaches should probably forget about setting a winning record target this year and just look to improve anyway they can.

Small Steps

That “small steps” mindset might not be one that (relatively) long-suffering Nats fans want to hear. But the potential of the young core will probably not transform this team into one challenging for a pennant immediately. Everyone wants to see improvement, but it is more likely to come at a slower pace.

There have been a lot of people shown the door at the Nationals in the offseason, and such a complete overhaul cannot be expected to deliver overnight. There are some good hitters, but there is a lack of depth in the lineup. It is going to take time for this latest rebuild to bear fruit.

Even just a slight improvement will be welcomed here – Photo: Andrew Lang/TalkNats

Don’t Expect Any Miracles

We can all dream, but there are probably not many Nats fans seriously thinking about the team doing well this year. They don’t expect miracles, but they will expect to see a team trying their best to earn their support. There is definitely no way that anything but an improvement will be accepted over the dismal 66-win season last year. Anything above that is improvement.

The best the Nationals can expect this year is progress towards the future. That will be judged in many ways, subjectively and by statistics. How will the minor league system advance? We want a team that is a little more competitive in the NL East, and for one or more of the exciting young players to step up and become a star(s). If any of that happens, Paul Toboni and Blake Butera can take heart in the decisions they have made to rebuild this team into one that might be able to surprise its way to a championship – or at least the playoffs again – in the next few years.

Related