The Washington Nationals were the most offensive team in baseball on base pass in 2024. They led the league on a stolen base at 223, but were captured 20 times more than any other team. In 2025, the Nationals need to find Happy Media. Happy Media uses athletic ability, but is smarter.
Towards the end of the 2023 season, Davey Martinez decided to run the team on base pass. I especially saw this at CJ Abrams. He stole 33 bases in late 2023. In 2024, the NAT made a conscious effort to run in the wild. Even slow people like Jesse Turniker were swiping their bags as much as they could.
During the first few months of the season, this was very effective. NATS stole 46 bases in April, but only got caught 10 times. But when June came, the team was no longer fooled. That month, they were caught 19 times for stealing 18 bases. Aggression was the cost of the team game. They were also chosen at an incredible speed.
In 2025, the Nationals were able to become more conservative at the base, as they had a little more talent in the lineup. They still play on their strengths and should run more than most teams, but they need to be smarter.
By midsummer, the base base running was getting older. Even the crew of Masun got I’m angry By all mistakes. It wasn’t stolen anymore, it was a lack of recognition and a bone-headed mistake.
In a late August match with the Yankees, the Nats came across one of the ridiculous double plays I’ve ever seen. That play has had very bad things about plays from so many different people. Multiple baserunners didn’t know what they were doing. Even more frustrating, third-base coach Ricky Gutierrez turned his back and looked at him. I abandoned his post In the play. The play boiled my blood and summed up a lot of what went wrong with the base NAT.
Davey Martinez always talks about “doing little things,” but the team didn’t do that at base last year. The run to the outs became a daily occurrence last season. Last season, there is a line between the offensive and recklessness that the Nationals cross.
In 2025, NAT needs to adjust what it is doing at the base. Even if there is less stealing, you need to make fewer outs at the base. These are the kind of NATs try to clean up in the spring. It will be interesting to see if the Nationals changed their approach at bases in the spring training game.
Players like Jacob Young and CJ Abrams should continue to have a green light, but fewer exercise base runners should not bite more than they can. If NAT can find a way to be offensive but not reckless, they have the ability to become an elite base running team.
