Ah yes, the team we all expected to lead the way in hitting nearly 50 games in the 2026 season: New York Yankees (no?), the Los Angeles Dodgers (really?), the Washington Nationals. Wait, what?
For 48 games, the Nationals are there two games under .500 with a run differential (-22) that suggests they are lucky to win as many as they have. Their pitchers and defense have allowed a league-worst 284 runs. However, their struggles in blocking the run mask how well they have done on the other side of the ball.
Through 48 games, the Nationals have scored an MLB-leading 262 runs. That’s 12 more than the second-place Braves, 18 more than the AL-leading Yankees, and 95 more than the last-place San Francisco Giants. If they maintain this pace, their 5.46 runs per game will set a new franchise record, surpassing the 2019 World Series-winning club (5.39) and the 1994 Montreal Expos’ best (5.13).
I don’t mean to say that I expect the Nationals to keep this up for the rest of the year. I doubt anything does. Still, what they’ve done so far is impressive, especially considering the preseason prospects. Coming into the year, you would have predicted that Washington would score very few he is running in the league, and no one was paying attention. FanGraphs still projects the Nationals to rank last in runs per game throughout the season. However, they’ve already piled up so many that even if they score at their last point (4.28 runs per game) in their last 114 contests, they’ll finish the year with 750 runs. That would be the fifth-highest total in franchise history.
Expos/Nationals franchise it is its 58th season, and this is only the ninth year the team has scored at least 262 more runs. anywhere 48 games. Those other years were 1987 (.562 winning percentage), 1994 (.649), 1996 (.543), 2012 (.605), 2017 (.599), 2018 (.506), and 2019 (.574). All eight seasons were winning campaigns. And heck, the The last three World Series champions (2023-25) led the majors in scoring in their 48 games. Again, I’m not trying to say Washington will win the World Series. I’m not trying to say Washington will finish with a winning record. But 48 games is nothing, and through 48 games, the Nationals’ offense has been more effective than you realize.
I will admit that the title of this post is a little tongue in cheek. However, the Nationals have hit really well this year. Their .740 OPS ranks fifth in MLB, and their 108 wRC+ is sixth. There is some luck in their high runs, but it is not just the result of timely batting or balls that find holes. Their .331 expected wOBA ranks seventh in the majors, while their numbers for runners in scoring position are only average. The BaseRuns formula at FanGraphs, which estimates the number of runs a team can be expected to score based on its offensive statistics, suggests that Washington “should” score 5.10 runs per game. That’s less than 5.46, but still pretty good. Only the Cubs, Dodgers, and Braves have higher Expected BaseRuns. Meanwhile, Baseball Prospectus’s DRC+, a metric that considers the quality of contact rather than just results, ranks the Nationals as MLB’s sixth-best offense — and that’s without giving them credit for their best run.
Turning to individual players, the memory of Juan Soto powers the Nationals’ program in 2026. Shortstop CJ Abrams and foreign player James Woodboth who came to Washington on the Soto job, broke the cover on the ball. In fact, both beat Soto himself. Wood, the leadoff hitter, leads the way in runs scored, while Abrams, the cleanup hitter these days, ranks third in RBI. Each is among the top 20 professional hitters in OPS and wRC+.
Wood is looking for more power, and his 17.5% walk rate leads the National League. Abrams is hitting the ball a lot, and has been flirting with a .300 average for most of the year. The question going forward for Abrams is whether he can avoid another joke during the season. He got off to a strong start in 2024 and ’25 before struggling badly in the second half of each season. As for Wood, the only question is how high he can go. The numbers are already impressive, and the way he touches the baseball suggests his ceiling is very high. His .393 wOBA ranks 11th among professional NL hitters, but his .425 xwOBA leads the Major League.
After Wood and Abrams, Daylen Lee he is the team’s only hitter with a wRC+ above league average. That will show how much Washington’s two best hitters have done in this offense, but Lile deserves his fair share of credit. The left-handed hitter isn’t setting the world on fire like he was last year, but he’s continued to be a big threat against right-handed pitching. A deep team may follow him more often, but his overall wRC+ of 112 is solid, even if a 78 wRC+ against southpaws drags that number down.
Speaking of platoons, the Nationals’ best hitter this season — without any minor playing time — has been Joey Wiemer. The hard-hitting outfielder started the season by hitting safely in his first 10 trips to the plate. Overall, he slashed .300/.410/.529 with a team-best 165 wRC+ in 83 plate appearances. Wiemer’s record and base numbers made it clear that none of them were sustainable, and the Nationals saw that, and drafted him. Dylan Crews earlier today. Still, Wiemer is part of this story, and a very important one at that.
So is my right-handed hitting partner Curtis Meadwho is beginning to resemble the promising hitter he once was in the Phillies’ and Rays’ minor league system. A .213 power split and more walks than 114 plate appearances resulted in a 133 wRC+. Washington has protected the infielder against one-handed pitching, but to his credit, his early numbers have been equally solid against lefties and righties alike. Although the sample size is small, Mead is swinging at the right pitches and hitting the ball hard. The Nationals are very grateful that the White Sox selected him for the job at the beginning of the year.
One last player to highlight is Nasim Nunez. With a .187 batting average and 54 wRC+, the sophomore outfielder hurt his team’s offense more than it helped. Still, he moves enough that he gets on base a lot, and when he gets on base, he might be the most dangerous player in the game. His 20 stolen bases are tied for the MLB lead, and his 3.4 baserunning average (per FanGraphs) ranks second-to-last. José Ramírez. That accounts for two-thirds of the Nationals’ league-leading 5.1 earned runs.
I have contacted only six of the 14 players who have advanced to the Nationals this year, and one of them is no longer even on the active roster. This is the main reason why this level of success does not seem to be sustainable. Wood is the closest thing this offense has to a sure bet, and he’s a 23-year-old who hasn’t hit the offense in a long time. The Nationals got their 262 runs, and won the honor I give them. However, this praise should not be confused with self-confidence. The Nationals have had the most successful offense in baseball through the first eight weeks of the season, but there are many weeks left to play.
Figures to go live on Tuesday, May 19. Photos courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Charles LeClaire, and Patrick Gorski – Imagn Images
