Another poll on the Nationals’ 2024 season so far, this one asking what’s been the biggest surprise in the first few months of the campaign…
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Washington Nationals fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Before the start of play on Tuesday, and in 39 games total on the season, Davey Martinez’s Nationals were second in the majors with 68 stolen bases as a team, five behind the MLB-leading Cincinnati Reds (73), and 14 up on the third-place Milwaukee Brewers (54).
Two Reds’ players accounted for 36 of their stolen bases (Elly De La Cruz, 25; and 11 for Spencer Steer), and 10 players total had at least one stolen base.
Jacob Young (13) and Lane Thomas (11) were the current leaders for the Nationals, and 15 players total (including 2 of the 3 catchers they’ve used so far) had stolen at least one base.
Martinez said recently the entire roster is embracing the approach to running as a team, turning singles and walks into two bases, and taking an extra base whenever possible so they can to try to generate opportunities.
“I think it becomes contagious, it really does,” Martinez explained. “Guys get on base, and they’re really starting to want to get that extra base, go first-to-third, so it’s been fun to watch these guys really buy into the whole thing we’re trying to do here. But it’s also good that we have athletes that can do it. That’s the biggest thing is that we have guys that can do it. We have guys that can run, we have guys with speed, we have guys that understand how to run the bases now. So that’s been the beauty of what we’re trying to do and how we’re doing it, so they all bought in. I can tell you.”
GM and President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo joked in a recent visit with The Sports Junkies that it’s the right mix of an athletic, speedy roster, and a manager on the bench who’s willing to push the team to make smart decisions on the basepaths and run when they can.
Martinez is willing. Some past managers?
“It would take an act of Congress for me to ask Davey Johnson to steal some bases,” Rizzo joked of the veteran skipper who managed the club between 2011-14.
The Nats’ success on basepaths gets our vote for the biggest surprise so far in ‘24, and though we may have just tampered with the integrity of the vote by arguing (editorially; which is kind of our preferred mode of communication), for one of the options in the poll below, a case could be made for any of the early-season surprise stories… Which one are you voting for?
Check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.