Periodically, I like to peruse the team stats, see who’s doing what. Let’s look at the leaders in runs scored. You’ve got the Braves, the Yankees, the Cubs, the Dodgers — looks like all the usual suspects.
Wait, who’s that tied for second? The Nationals? The Washington Nationals? How the heck did that happen?
Let’s take a look under the hood. As the Museum of Science likes to say, it’s fun to find out.
How did the Nationals become one of the top-scoring teams of 2026?
First, we start with Washington’s aggregated stats. The Nats are 12th in average, 14th in OBP, seventh in slugging, 13th in homers. They’re fourth in steals and the best overall base-running team in baseball, but that doesn’t add as much value as you might think.
They must be superhuman with runners on base, right? Nah, it’s not that either. They’re slashing .255/.334/.422 with runners on, which gives them the eighth-best OPS in that split. It’s good, but it doesn’t equal being the second-best offense in baseball.
It’s not a ballpark thing. Washington is ninth in home scoring, and third in road scoring. Aha, surely they went to Colorado and piled up some runs, something like that. Nope, no Denver trips yet. Nothing unusual with the schedule.
The punchline to all this is that the Nationals, for all their sneaky offense, are still a losing team. Held back by the third-worst ERA in baseball (4.82), Washington is 19-22.
Lacking any great answers, let’s look at the players. Washington has two emerging stars who are both playing like first-round fantasy picks. James Wood is batting just .244, but with 11 homers and seven steals. He’s scored 35 runs, knocked in 28. And in front of Wood is CJ Abrams, with a delightful .287-23-9-36-7 line. Elly De La Cruz is the only shortstop currently outproducing Abrams.
Wood and Abrams were both part of the Juan Soto trade back in August of 2022. As great as Soto is, the Nationals did fine in that trade. They also landed MacKenzie Gore as part of the six-player return. San Diego, of course, couldn’t keep Soto — trading him 16 months later.
The Washington order is surprisingly top-heavy. After Abrams and Wood, the next most valuable fantasy asset is Nasim Nuñez — who’s all legs, no bat. He’s hitting .209 with zero home runs, but he’s stolen 17 bases. The one-trick pony is largely ignored in Yahoo leagues, trading at 12%.
Maybe the sleepers here are players like Daylen Lile, Curtis Mead and Luis García Jr. Lile is hitting for a respectable .253 average, has some category juice (three homers, five steal attempts — but just two bags). Mead has a 123 OPS+ despite a puny .224 average, and has 13 walks against 15 strikeouts. His expected average is a strong .275, and most of his Savant sliders are on the right side, the good side. García was a category juice guy in the past, but it hasn’t shown up yet this year. He’s still just 26.
Is there any post-hype sleeper allure to Brady House? I wish the Nats would commit to playing him every day, but at least he usually slots in the 3-5 range when he’s in the lineup. His .232 average and .384 slugging don’t sound like much, though his batted-ball profile suggests a .251 average and .418 slugging. He’s still figuring out the strike zone, as all of his plate discipline metrics are mediocre. Still, it’s an age-23 season. At least he’s looked improved over last year.
Did we find anything out? Wood and Abrams are great. This team runs the bases well. It’s a young team, and I suppose an exciting team. Even if that runs scored column has a lot of fluke signs flashing. What makes an ocean wave wave?
As for the pitching, Foster Griffin has been outstanding (four wins, 2.12 ERA, 1.03 WHIP). He’s the ace here, and recently pushed past 50% rostered. The bullpen is a fractured committee — six different guys have recorded saves — and Griffin is the only starter with an ERA below 4.00.
Mash it all together and it’s a 19-22 team, nine games behind the front-running Braves in the NL East. The playoff odds are not encouraging — the data gives the National a 0.8% chance at the playoffs and literally no shot to win the World Series.
That 2019 World Series win feels like decades ago. Stephen Strasburg was healthy, Anthony Rendon still liked playing baseball, Max Scherzer was around, Soto was here. That title team also had a bunch of fun role players, guys you forget about but still kinda miss — Adam Eaton and Asdrubal Cabrera and Howie Kendrick and Gerardo Parra. Sean Doolittle was the closer. Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sánchez supported a strong rotation.
Flags fly forever, man.
