It is the first time they have completed a 4 game sweep against the current iteration of the franchise. They last had a 4 game sweep against this franchise when they were in Montreal, back in 1991. It is the first time they have swept this franchise in 4 games at home since 1972.
According to Basketball reference, the worst defensive team of all time by rating was the 2018-19 Cavs with a woeful rating of 116.8. Their defensive coach was then hired by the Wizards in the offseason, and the Wizards now currently have the 2nd worst defensive team of all time with a rating of 115.2.
In all fairness to this guy, he was/is not working with good defensive players. But am just wondering how this guy is employed at this point. He does have a NBA ring from his time with the Cavs, but their success had very little to do with their defense.
The Nationals are currently in 4th place in the NL East with a 18-25 record, which is also the 5th worst in all of baseball. A big reason for that has been the bullpen, (-2.79 WPA, worst in MLB) Washington's relievers have a combined 6.20 ERA this season, the worst in MLB.
How bad is that? It's even worse than you might think. If the season ended today, the National's bullpen ERA would rank as the 35th worst of all time (out of 2114 bullpens that have at least 127 IP). But the season doesn't end today, we're about a quarter through, and most teams in history have used their bullpen less often than they're used today. If we filter out every team that has fewer innings pitched in relief than the Nats are currently on pace to pitch (about 480), then they are the worst in history, just slightly above the 2007 Devil Rays (6.16 ERA in 497 IP).
But wait, it's even worse than that. The Washington bullpen is being carried hard by Sean Doolittle. Even after yesterday's poor showing where he allowed 2 ER in 1 IP, Doolittle still has a 1.8 ERA in 20 IP. If we take him away, that team relief ERA jumps to 7.02, the 14th worst of all time (min 127 IP). Those stats include a few pitchers who have been good so far, (Fedde has a 3.38 ERA in 10.2 IP, Barraclough 3.31 ERA in 16.1 IP and Miller 3 ERA in 15 IP).
The only silver lining here is might be the bullpen FIP of 4.65, which suggests that they're underperforming by about 1.5 runs. Unfortunately, that's undermined by their xFIP of 5.09, which is also the worst in MLB this year.
Edit: After giving up 11 ER in 3 IP last night, their collective ERA rises to 6.82
