Insights on the Washington Nationals and MLB as a whole from Washington Post nationals baseball writer Chelsea Janes
Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post is one of the sharpest minds in the baseball writing world, so it was a pleasure to be able to chat with her. She covered the Nationals from 2014-2018 for Post before going on some adventures that eventually led her back to the Post as a National MLB writer.
Janes has always had a special place in her heart for the game of baseball. She told me that she loved baseball growing up and played Softball all the way through college at Yale. Like many other writers, she knew this is what she wanted to do, saying, “I knew I wanted to write because that seemed like the only skill I had”.
That skill, as well as some hard work eventually got her the Nationals beat gig. Janes saw some pretty memorable things in her time on the beat, but said most of the greatest baseball moments came courtesy of Max Scherzer.
While she is a national baseball writer now, she still keeps up with the Nats a lot. Janes wrote a story about the malaise the Rockies and Pirates find themselves in the other day, which interested me.
When I asked her to compare those situations to the Nats, she said, “I think they are a little bit ahead of those guys when it comes to the effort they put into to player development. They are not ahead of the pack by any means but I think over the last few years there was a genuine reckoning that they were behind in the way they used data”.
She also added that, “We will have to see together because James Wood, Dylan Crews and the core we all know about need to keep getting better and be able to carry a team. However, I do think there are parallels in how those teams feel so stuck. You almost feel like almost everything would have to change with ownership for those two teams to get out of the mud. While the Nationals are in a little bit of a better spot, a lot of that is true with them too”.
This kind of blunt analysis is what makes Janes reporting a favorite of mine. She does not sugar coat things, but also is a pro as a journalist. Janes has taken that hard hitting drive and used it to her advantage as a national reporter.
On Davey Martinez and Mike Rizzo, she said a lot of their performance is influenced by ownership. “Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez have had some very important success here, but are always colored by the fact that ownership has not really spent during the last five or so years of their tenure. How much of what we have seen from the Nats in terms of mediocrity and the slow rebuild is up to them and how much is it due to them having their hands tied by ownership?”
She also told me that, “It is not easy for anyone to say there is a single problem, that is why the rebuild can’t get off the ground. The problem is a lot of things”. She mentioned that the two have club options on their contracts in July, adding that, “I know Davey would love to have a longer term deal, I am sure Rizzo would too, but he is used to this. Has the team been disappointing enough to let them go? Maybe somewhere else, but I am not sure that is true here where the Lerner’s are reluctant to put the time and money into this to make major change”.
When I asked her about some of the notable trends she saw in the MLB, she talked about the bottoming out of teams like the Rockies. Janes told me, “The fact the Rockies are so bad the year after the White Sox were so bad is kind of interesting. It contributes to that feeling that there are going to be teams that will not be competitive. The fact that there are teams that are never competitive is going to continue to be a storyline and there are teams that will always be competitive. They need to figure out that situation in the next CBA”.
The MLB CBA expires after the 2026 season, and with teams like the Dodgers spending billions while other teams pinch pennies, there is going to be an inevitable showdown. We could be staring down the barrel of a lockout.
Despite not covering the Nats, Janes has such a sharp eye for baseball, and her opinions on this Nats team really interested me. About the young core, she said, “James Wood is everything we thought he would be, I think that much is clear. He is really, really special. I think Dylan Crews will be fine. He is hurt by the fact he was drafted after Paul Skenes and was super highly touted like Bryce Harper, but he is not that guy. He is Brandon Nimmo, not Juan Soto”.
Based on what we have seen, it is hard to disagree with that assessment of Crews. Janes added that being Brandon Nimmo is not a bad thing, “As soon as people realize that Brandon Nimmo production is also very good for a second overall pick, he is going to look like the player you want him to be”.
Despite only having about a short interview with her, it is hard not to realize that Chelsea Janes is the real deal. There is a reason she has been in this industry for so long and has had the kind of success she has. In a world where a lot of people sugar coat, Chelsea Janes is never afraid of telling the truth in a firm but eloquent manner.