Thirty minutes after Stone Garrett broke into tears Friday night at Nationals Park, three hours after his first at-bat in an MLB game in 401 days — since he broke his fibula and ankle in a game against the New York Yankees in August 2023 — the 28-year-old thought about what he had longed for while he was getting healthy.
“I missed everything about it,” Garrett said. “The bright lights, the grass, the fans, the humid air, the airplanes flying by, the helicopters, I missed it all. The smell of the grass. I go out there every day, just to take it all in. I missed everything about it.”
If there was any rust, it wasn’t apparent on the swing he put on Ranger Suárez’s 3-2 curveball in the first inning, an uppercut that delivered a two-run homer and ignited the Nationals in a 9-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Garrett’s final line: 3 for 4 with a walk, two runs and three RBI. He finished a triple shy of the cycle.
His reaction after his blast — 107.3 mph, over the visiting bullpen — was pure release. He started out of the box slowly, watching with his bat still in hand. Upon realizing the baseball was headed into the seats 431 feet away, the bat dropped. So did his arms, into a downward flex. He let out a scream and began to bounce as he approached first base before pointing into his own dugout as he turned toward second.
“I blacked out,” Garrett said. “A year of rehabbing, trying to get back to where I was before I got injured, being able to compete at the level I knew I could compete at. Just pent-up emotion.”
The night became about Garrett, even as the Nationals snapped a four-game skid. His homer helped light a fire under a cold offense — the Nationals produced 16 hits — and give support to veteran right-hander Trevor Williams, whose final start of the season included five scoreless innings, three hits and five strikeouts. Williams, who also missed extended time with injury, finished 2024 with a sparkling 2.03 ERA over 13 starts and 66⅔ innings.
But it was Garrett’s arrival in the final week of the season that offered some light into what has changed for this team since his gruesome injury. Washington’s record last year was 71-91 — with two games to go, this team sits at 70-90. From a pure production standpoint, it has been a similar group. The Nationals’ outfield, however, is now largely set with young contributors — James Wood and Dylan Crews, 22 and at the corners, and Jacob Young, 25, in center field.
On last year’s club, Garrett was one of the team’s better hitters, posting an .800 OPS. But he admitted, upon his return to Washington, that he probably rushed himself back too quickly. He didn’t really find his swing in Class AAA Rochester until July and had trouble generating power with his left leg. That wasn’t an issue Friday.
“There were times where you questioned, if you wanted to still play next year, just because it’s frustrating not being able to play at the level you knew you could play and you’re a shell of yourself,” Garrett said. “But just being back here, even if I didn’t play, just being around the guys and being here, it’s encouraging to put all your effort back into rehabbing in the offseason and going for it next year.”
The Nationals are still a bit cautious about playing him in the outfield. On Friday, he was the designated hitter. In theory, if the team wants to look internally for a fourth outfielder in 2025, Garrett could fill that role, assuming his defense and health hold up.
Around him, a Nationals offense that has looked almost everywhere for answers amid this most recent slump — the team scored just four runs in its previous 40 innings before Friday — found its footing quickly against the Phillies (94-66), who have already clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Dylan Crews led off with a hustle double, and Juan Yepez (hitting .327 in September) singled him home. Luis García Jr. also scored on Young’s infield single later in the frame for a 4-0 lead. Keibert Ruiz’s two-run single in the second inning gave the Nationals enough of a cushion to coast. They added single runs in the fourth, seventh and eighth.
After pitching to a 5.55 ERA in 2023, Williams spent the offseason working on his slow four-seamer and fully incorporating a sweeper into his arsenal. His fastball became one of the best in baseball. And though he missed nearly four months with a flexor muscle strain, he returned to make his final two starts.
His ERA is the lowest by a Nationals pitcher with at least 10 starts (2005-present), surpassing Doug Fister (2.41) in 2014. Williams’s two-year, $13 million contract is up at season’s end, and it’s quite possible the 32-year-old could be in line for a raise. Whether that’s with the Nationals or another team is a question for the offseason.
“This is a tremendous team; I’ve grown to love the guys in this clubhouse,” Williams said. “I’d love to be a part of this team that wins another World Series here. I’m going to do the best I can to make it happen. But we’ll see what happens.”
The pitcher was just one of many who turned emotional during Garrett’s return.
“We were all crying in the dugout,” Williams said. “I was looking around. I’m glad that camera wasn’t pointing at us. But, my gosh, the guys love him here. I love him here. I’m just, I’m super-pumped that he was able to have that moment and really unleash that like raw energy. It was raw emotion.”
Note: Before Friday’s game, the Nationals optioned left-hander DJ Herz to the team’s Florida Complex League affiliate in West Palm Beach. The move was simply procedural — Herz had already gone through his final turn in the rotation — and allowed the team to recall Jackson Rutledge as another available arm for the big league club.
