Five Reasons Why The Nationals Won’t Win the NL East

Though projected to win the World Series, the Nationals have to face some heavy hitters in their division first.

At the beginning of the 2018 MLB season, there seems to be some team favorites including the Washington Nationals. Even with their supbar start to the season, many experts say that the Nationals are favored to win the World Series. However, with a new manager and competing with the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, and Philadelphia Phillies, things won’t be as easy as they were last season.

Here are five reasons why the Nationals will not even win their division this year:

1: The New York Mets Improvement.

The New York Mets are off to their best start in franchise history. With the rotation of Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and Jacob DeGrom finally healthy and pitching together, the Mets sure look like the team to win the National League East. Also, the Mets have a new manager in Mickey Callaway, and have added veterans such as Adrian Gonzalez and Todd Frazier to add some more power in the lineup. This is the Mets’ fastest season that they’ve reached 11 wins. The top four seasons where they’ve reached 11 wins the fastest were 1986, 2015, 1972, 2006. Every season except for 1972, the Mets won their division.

2: The young Atlanta Braves could surprise people this year.

Despite not having making the postseason for the past four seasons, the Atlanta Braves have an excellent shot of making it this year, and possibly the division. Along with Freddie Freeman, young phenoms like Ozzie Albies and potential-superstar Ronald Acuna will definitely put the Braves as division contenders for years to come. The only concerns for the Braves is their starting pitching and bullpen, but they have top prospects in Triple-A that will most likely make their debuts next season.

3: The Philadelphia Phillies are becoming relevant again.

Despite already strong backlash from Philly fans and media, manager Gabe Kapler is riding the Phillies back to relevancy. With the offseason additions of Jake Arrieta and Carlos Santana along with a young roster, the Phillies situation is pretty much like the Braves. Also, the Phillies are feeding off the energy in the city where the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl along with Villanova University winning a National Championship.

4: The Nationals didn’t make any big offseason moves.

After firing manager Dusty Baker, the Nationals didn’t make a huge free agent signing this offseason as opposed to the Phillies and Mets. Even their fellow World Series favorites Yankees and Astros have made offseason moves so that they can be better.

5: The Nationals still have a shaky bullpen.

The number one reason why the Nationals have never won a playoff series: their bullpen. In 2012 NL Division Series, former closer Drew Storen blew a 2-run, 2–out lead in the 9th inning lead to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Nationals would go the game and series. In 2015, they tried to get real help with Jonathan Papelbon but his performance along with choking the biggest star of the team doomed him. This bullpen has been the achilles’ heel of this team and will be the main reason why they might not even win the division this year.

Kingsley Iyawe is a senior, Mathematics major attending Morehouse College. He is the campus news editor for The Maroon Tiger.