Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2019 Nationals land in this spot?
It makes sense that the Nationals won the World Series in a year in which Stephen Strasburg threw over 200 innings. The only other time he managed the feat, in 2014, the Nats went 96-66 and won the NL East, but lost to the Giants in the NLDS. A healthy Strasburg was a rarity, but also meant good things — there were reasons the organization was so intent on protecting his arm. The hope was that all the protection would pay off someday, and in 2019, it did. Strasburg paired with co-ace Max Scherzer and was joined by Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez for one of the great rotations in the league. The bullpen was nowhere near as good, but with four starters who could give the Nats length, it didn’t have to be.
The lineup, too, was good, but it was the rotation that made everything work. The Nationals didn’t lack hitters, but the likes of Anthony Rendon (.319/.412/.598 with 34 home runs), Juan Soto (.282/.401/.548 with 34 homers), Trea Turner (.298/.353/.497 at shortstop) and Howie Kendrick (.344/.395/.572 in 121 games) were sometimes canceled out by below-average offensive players at four positions — you’d think they would have been better than sixth in the league in runs scored and just a bit above-average by adjusted OPS given Rendon, Soto, Turner and Kendrick’s performances, but Matt Adams, Brian Dozier and Victor Robles dragged things down, and Yan Gomes, while a quality defensive catcher, was still a bit below-average offensively even for the position.
Still, with that core group and a rotation that, as a unit, posted a 3.53 ERA and averaged over 5.2 innings per start, the Nats were able to weather those issues just fine, to the point that they outscored opponents by 149 runs, anyway. Similarly, while the bullpen was full of holes, it also had Sean Doolittle closing games out — he finished an NL-leading 55 games — a 42-year-old and still productive Fernando Rodney as well as Daniel Hudson, who shined in the second half after the Nats acquired him from the Blue Jays at the trade deadline. Hudson posted a 1.44 ERA across 25 games and 24 innings in his two months in the pen, and then pitched in 10 of the Nats’ 17 postseason games. While he allowed four runs, three of those came in one appearance: seven of his 10 postseason games were scoreless outings.
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The Nationals took down the Brewers in the Wild Card Game, then toppled the 106-win Dodgers in the NLDS, three games to two. A sweep of the Cardinals in the NLCS brought them to the organization’s first-ever World Series, even dating back to their time in Montreal, and then they were able to defeat, in a dramatic seven games, the 107-win Astros. The Nationals might have had some weaknesses and won a wild card, but there is no denying the quality of the competition that led them to their first-ever championship.
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