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<\/p>\nWASHINGTON \u2014 About 15 minutes before the first full-squad practice of season began, and about three months before Wednesday\u2019s 8-4 win over the New York Mets got the Washington Nationals back to .500, first-year manager Blake Butera stood toward the front of an ovular clubhouse in West Palm Beach and brought the outside noise in.<\/p>\n
As players sank into their chairs and coaches stood off to the side with their arms across their chests, Butera and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni talked through their priorities and their burgeoning identity. They talked about transparency and attention to detail. They urged aggressive baserunning and smarter swing decisions. They talked about pushing players harder than they had been pushed before, and expecting the same in return.<\/p>\n
Finally, near the end of his speech, Butera addressed the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n
He knew that many of his players had spent the winter online. He could tell that they had read stories and social media posts, ones that said it could be a rough few years for this club. The Nationals had, after all, flipped their ace and closer for prospects. They had not won more than 71 games in a season since 2019. One of their most expensive offseason additions was a fancy pitching machine.<\/p>\n
They did, by definition, what rebuilding teams do.<\/p>\n
Butera, effectively, called the outside noise hogwash. When he found spare time while raising his newborn daughter, he used it by getting on the phone with the 60-something players who now sat before him. Nearly every single one spent the offseason saying they wanted to be pushed harder.<\/p>\n
In January, he arrived in West Palm Beach expecting an empty facility. He was instead greeted by Cade Cavalli, Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker, among others. The next week, Drew Millas, Keibert Ruiz and Nasim Nu\u00f1ez arrived. Brady House and Robert Hassell III were close behind. Every single person, as far as he could recollect, arrived before they were supposed to.<\/p>\n
Outsiders, he said, had underestimated their talent and undercut their buy-in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys were sick of hearing about it,\u201d Butera said last week \u201cA lot of these players, too, are in the same boat. A lot of them \u2026 might have been a DFA pick up, waiver pickup, smaller trade pieces, they also feel like they have a chip on their shoulders to prove (something) to the teams where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following Wednesday\u2019s win over the $370 million Mets, the $96 million Nationals are 25-25. It is the deepest into a season that the Nationals have had a .500 record since 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve lost a lot of games over the last few years, and honestly, we\u2019re tired of it,\u201d outfielder Jacob Young said recently. \u201cWe know how much talent is in this room. If a team does dare to come in and sleep on us during a series, you know, put it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Butera and Toboni took over, they have stressed that it is more important to see progress throughout the season than it is to focus on their record on, say, May 21. The first day of camp was also the last time Butera brought the subject of outside noise up in front of the whole group.<\/p>\n
Since then, he\u2019s picked his spots. And his people.<\/p>\n
Daylen Lile might have read a story like this one last year. To a certain degree, he sought out external influences \u2014 or, at least, didn\u2019t actively block them out. But last September, when he was the best hitter in MLB not named Aaron Judge (as a 22-year-old rookie, mind you), he saw a lot of chatter about how he ended 2025 and what it could bring for 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how this game is,\u201d Lile said. \u201cYou feel like you can be on top of the world at one point, and then at another point you can feel like you\u2019re at the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n
He no longer sees it as a healthy habit to seek that out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI already put enough pressure on myself, because of how I am,\u201d said Lile, whose teammates and coaches back that assertion. \u201cAs I\u2019ve gotten older, I feel like I don\u2019t listen as much to what people are saying. It\u2019s more what we believe in as a group, and what we know what we can accomplish. At the end of the day, it\u2019s us going out there and playing and putting in the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s our job,\u201d Butera said. \u201cTo get through to these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, they get it.<\/p>\n
Almost all of them follow other teams and leagues; they understand the perspective and the narratives. They get it, but they hate it. Generally, Young believes that they\u2019re usually in the mindset to prove people wrong when things are going well, and trying to prove the people who are still behind you right when things are going poorly.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re in the \u201cprove people wrong\u201d portion of the season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Richard Lovelady, who has been cut loose nine times in the last two years, is now closing out games for a Nationals team that has proven competitive through the opening quarter of the season. (Jess Rapfogel \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Richard Lovelady was designated for assignment nine times in the last two years, including once by the Nats, and is now closing games for them. \u201cIt means absolutely everything,\u201d he said. PJ Poulin spent eight years in the minors before his debut, and has been trusted in leverage spots. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a chip on my shoulder,\u201d he said. CJ Abrams struggled in the second half last year and often heard his name in trade rumors. \u201cStay where your feet are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously have to focus on controlling what we can control,\u201d reliever Orlando Ribalta said. \u201cBut obviously, we use it as fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n
History was not on their side.<\/p>\n
Teams that lose 95 games one year are not supposed to start this hot in the next one. The Nationals have not posted a .500 record after 50 games since 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n Formulas were not kind to this bunch, either. Projection models with names of PECOTA<\/a>, FanGraphs<\/a>, BAT<\/a>, ATC<\/a>, ZIPS<\/a> and OOPSY<\/a> all pegged the Nats as a 63- to 68-win team. The projections were so pessimistic that, to reach the rosiest of them all now, they\u2019d need only to play .384 ball (43-69) for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n