The Washington Nationals have made a habit of slow starts in the Davey Martinez era
Ever since Davey Martinez took the managerial job before the 2018 season, the Washington Nationals have made a habit of slow starts. In 2019, the Nationals famously started 19-31, before charging all the way back en route to a World Series title. However, that is the only time the slow start has worked out in the Davey era.
2018 looked good in its infancy, with the Nats winning the first four games of the Davey Martinez era. However, they stuttered in April, going 11-16. Little did Nationals fans know that this would become a trend. The 2018 Nats went 20-7 in May, but ran out of steam in June.
Getting off to slow starts means you have to be close to perfect afterwards. You have to win and keep winning. In 2018 and 2021, the Nats had pretty talented rosters. However, they got off to slow starts and had to charge back to make up for them. Those teams were good but flawed, which meant they couldn’t keep up the sustained winning to get them out of the hole they dug themselves by not being ready early in the season.
We all know what happened in 2019. The roster, as well the team finding a special chemistry led the Nats all the way back. They found a way to string together enough wins to overcome their 19-31 start. However, the reason that number is talked about so much is because it is hard to overcome starts like that.
In the 60 game season in 2020 season, the Nats started the season 1-5 just like this year. They also started 19-31 yet again. However, they did not have enough time to rally, finishing the season 26-34.
Yet again, the Washington Nationals started the season 1-5 in 2021. This was unacceptable for me. I actually think that 2021 team had a fair bit of talent and if they started faster they could have gone on a playoff push. They showed in their 19-9 June that the 2021 Nationals had something about them.
However, Kyle Schwarber’s injury killed that season, leading to the full teardown. Maybe if the Nats were ready to play early in the season they could have survived a Schwarber injury. If the Nationals were in the playoff mix, they could have gotten some arms to potentially make one last push because that lineup was dangerous with Soto, Turner, Bell, Schwarber and Josh Harrison.
In 2022, I am willing to give Davey a pass because that team was so terrible. However, they did go 7-16 in April, their second worst month of the season. That team was designed to lose 100 games though.
In 2023 we are back to the bad slow starts. For a third time in four years, they started the season 1-5. While the rest of that season was some of Davey’s best work as Nationals manager, he still didn’t have the team ready to roll in April, going 10-16.
2024 was actually the best April of Davey’s managerial career, with the team going 13-13 that month. However, even that year, the boys weren’t ready to play on Opening Week, going 2-6 to start the campaign.
Now here we are in 2025, with the Nationals sitting 1-5 for the fourth time in six years. With the Diamondbacks and Dodgers coming up, they would be lucky to start season 4-8 or 3-9. I genuinely don’t know why Davey Martinez teams start so slow. It is not just about a lack of talent because this happened even when Davey was given talented rosters. Does he really just not do good enough work in Spring Training to have the players ready to go out of the gates?
This is a big year for Davey in DC. If the team does not take a step in the right direction, he could be gone. Not many managers can put together this many losing seasons in a row and keep their jobs. I will forever appreciate Davey for 2019, but the slow starts are very annoying and he should be coaching for his job this year.