Washington Nationals Preview: Is this Bryce Harper's Year

Courtesy of Standing Sports

            The Nationals come in as the division champions and are expected to repeat that feat in 2015. The Nationals come into the off-season with minimal needs and they addressed one of their questions early by declining Adam Laroche’s team option. That move was a clear indication that they are going to rely on Bryce Harper a lot this year, they will look for him to have a breakout season and carry the off-season. Another that was made clear when the declined Laroche’s option is that Ryan Zimmerman will move to First Base and Anthony Rendon will play Third Base this year.

Needs:

·      Second Basemen

·      Bullpen Help

·      Look at extending or trading players with expanding contracts

Targets:

At Second Base there isn’t a lot of good talent so the Nationals might look to trade for one like Howie Kendrick of the Angels. Another option they have is to re sign Asdrubal Cabrera who did a good job with the team or to give Danny Espinosa another chance but that is not likely to happen. They could go after some international players like Korean star Jung-ho Kang who is expected to be posted by his Korean team.

In terms of the bullpen the Nationals don’t have a big hole but they could bring in some veteran presence and there is also the possibility that they could go after David Robertson.

The Nationals have some top stars that are in their last contract year like Jordan Zimmermann and Ian Desmond. News has already been coming out that they might trade Zimmermann and look to extend Desmond.

Projection:

            The Nationals will finish first in the NL East again this year and they will be looking for Harper and Stephen Strasburg to have big years. This year could be the year they don’t falter in the playoffs and learn from their previous mistakes, but overall this year will be a good year and this is the year where we see if Bryce Harper can carry this team.