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Alright, the time has come. We survived a long, cold winter. We endured through six weeks of spring training. We fretted over transactions made and transactions not made. We thought we knew what the roster would look like, then we had to make last-minute adjustments due to injuries and a few surprises.
But there’s no more time to decipher, agonize or evaluate. Opening Day has arrived, and that means it’s time for predictions.
For the 16th consecutive season, we proudly present the Nationals media Opening Day predictions. We’ve got several familiar names here who have been participating through the entire run of this annual tradition. We’ve got several more who have joined us in recent years. And we’ve even got a few new entrants this season who are excited (or is that terrified) to reveal their picks.
The most important thing to remember about this exercise: We will republish all of the predictions at the end of the season and find out who knew what they were talking about and who had no clue. (Spoiler alert: Usually, we’re proven to have had no clue.)
And with that, away we go …
We've been doing these Opening Day media predictions for 15 years now, and I'm always grateful to my colleagues on the Nationals beat for their willingness to participate and subject themselves to the inevitable ridicule that follows.
And there's definitely some ridicule to be doled out as we look back at our 2024 predictions. (Hey, I'm just as guilty as anyone!) A lot of things did not play out this season as any of us thought they would back in late March. But we weren't completely wrong on every category. There actually were several spot-on predictions by several members of the beat, and they deserve credit for being right.
And with that, it's time for some accountability. Here's a look back at all of our Opening Day predictions, what we got right and what we did not get right ...
WHICH NATIONALS WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME?
Bobby Blanco (MASNsports.com) – CJ Abrams
Jessica Camerato (MLB.com) – CJ Abrams
Craig Heist (106.7 The Fan) – Josiah Gray, Keibert Ruiz
Chelsea Janes (Washington Post) – CJ Abrams
Andrew Golden (Washington Post) – MacKenzie Gore
Bill Ladson (MLB.com honorary) – Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin
Spencer Nusbaum (Washington Post) – MacKenzie Gore
Mark Zuckerman (MASNsports.com) – Kyle Finnegan
Correct answer: CJ Abrams was set to be the Nationals’ lone All-Star this year, the first selection of his career, after his outstanding first half. Then on the day before the Midsummer Classic, Kyle Finnegan was added to the National League roster to replace Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley, giving the Nats two All-Stars.
CINCINNATI – The day has come. The 2024 baseball season begins later today, here in Cincinnati where the Nationals face the Reds in the opener of a three-game series. And for the first time in a while, there’s some genuine optimism surrounding the team.
Not enough optimism for anyone to predict this season will extend into October, mind you. But consider this: A year ago, four of us predicted the Nats would lose at least 100 games. This year, nobody is that pessimistic about their chances. Progress!
This is, hard to believe, the 20th season of Nationals baseball. And it’s the 15th season of Opening Day predictions by the beat crew. Most of the names have changed. Some left for a few years and then returned. All are convinced they’re smarter than anyone else in the group. Time will tell.
As always, I’m grateful to every one of them for participating in this exercise. And as always, we’ll revisit every one of these predictions at season’s end and cringe at how little we actually knew …
WHICH NATIONALS WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME?
Bobby Blanco (MASNsports.com) – CJ Abrams
Jessica Camerato (MLB.com) – CJ Abrams
Craig Heist (106.7 The Fan) – Josiah Gray, Keibert Ruiz
Chelsea Janes (Washington Post) – CJ Abrams
Andrew Golden (Washington Post) – MacKenzie Gore
Bill Ladson (MLB.com honorary) – Josiah Gray, Jake Irvin
Spencer Nusbaum (Washington Post) – MacKenzie Gore
Mark Zuckerman (MASNsports.com) – Kyle Finnegan
Never let it be said we don’t hold ourselves accountable around here. For more than a decade, all of us who cover the Nationals have made Opening Day predictions for the coming season. And each year, we revisit those predictions and reveal just how we all did.
Some years, we have a pretty good take on things large and small. Other years, we don’t come close to getting anything right. This year was a mixed bag. While as a group we did pretty well in some categories, we completely whiffed on some others.
As always, a profound thanks to all my colleagues who were willing to subject themselves to this particular form of torture. And with that, here’s how we did in 2023 …
WHICH NATIONALS WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME?
Bobby Blanco (MASNsports.com) – Keibert Ruiz
Jessica Camerato (MLB.com) – Keibert Ruiz
Jesse Dougherty (Washington Post) – Hunter Harvey
Andrew Golden (Washington Post) – Joey Meneses
Craig Heist (106.7 The Fan) – Keibert Ruiz, Dominic Smith
Chelsea Janes (Washington Post) – Keibert Ruiz
Bill Ladson (MLB.com honorary) – Josiah Gray, Keibert Ruiz
Mark Zuckerman (MASNsports.com) – Joey Meneses
Correct answer: Josiah Gray earned the first All-Star selection of his career with a strong first half. The right-hander struggled for a good chunk of the second half but did close strong to finish with a respectable 3.91 ERA.
We always knew the Nationals weren't going to be good this season. We just had no idea how bad it would get, not only in terms of their 55-107 record, but the fact they traded Juan Soto in early August in an attempt to completely revamp their farm system.
Sometimes, it's tougher to predict how a bad season will play out than a good one. That certainly was the case for me and my colleagues on the Nationals beat, who attempted way back on April 7 to guess how things would go this year and in most cases failed miserably.
There were a few spot-on predictions, but plenty more swings and misses, as you'll see below. As has been our tradition since we first made these predictions in 2010, we always come back to revisit them after the season ends, just to show everyone out there how misguided we were all along ...
WHICH NATIONALS WILL BE SELECTED FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME?
Bobby Blanco (MASNsports.com) - Juan Soto
Jessica Camerato (MLB.com) - Juan Soto
Jesse Dougherty (Washington Post) - Juan Soto
Andrew Golden (Washington Post) - Juan Soto
Craig Heist (106.7 The Fan) - Josh Bell, Nelson Cruz
Chelsea Janes (Washington Post) - Keibert Ruiz, Juan Soto
Pete Kerzel (MASNsports.com) - Juan Soto
Bill Ladson (MLB.com honorary) - Juan Soto
Mark Zuckerman (MASNsports.com) - Juan Soto
