In June 2018, Potomac Nationals owner Art Silber announced that he had signed a letter of intent to build a new stadiuminFredericksburg, Virginia, that would open in April 2020.[4] The 5,000-seat multi-purpose stadium, as then planned, would include a 300-seat club facility and 13 suites.[5] In November 2018 the Fredericksburg city council unanimously gave final approval for the Silber family to finance, build and maintain the $35 million stadium with the city as an "anchor tenant" making an annual payment to the club of $1.05 million for 30 years.[6]
Agroundbreaking ceremony was held on February 24, 2019,[7] but construction work did not begin until July[8] or August 2019.[9] On September 25, 2019, general manager Nick Hall said, "We're 100 percent planning on opening April 23."[10] MASN reported on January 13, 2020, that Hall had said that construction was on schedule and that he was confident the venue will be ready for the 2020 season.[11] With the 2020 season start postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nationals held a virtual opening day on April 23, 2020. Hall said that the stadium was baseball-ready though construction was not yet complete, even though, with construction deemed as essential business, "The construction progress has gone off without a hitch."[12][13] Construction was continuing at the start of June 2020.[14] Since its inaugural 2021 season the team has used the stadium, which in 2022 was renamed the Virginia Credit Union Stadium, under a 10-year naming rights deal.[15][16][17]
As part of a process to give the team a new name that included Fredericksburg,[6] a "Name the Team" contest that began in April 2019 received more than 2,400 responses on the team name, colors, mascots, and ways to incorporate local history and culture.[8] On October 5, 2019, the team announced that it had changed its name to the Fredericksburg Nationals for the 2020 season and that its marketing nickname for the team – "P-Nats" when the team was the Potomac Nationals – would change to "FredNats."[18][19][20]
The teams uniforms were revealed on November 16, 2019, along with a Mary Washington logo at an event on Mary Washington's 311th birthday.[21]
In March 2020, the team unveiled their new mascot, Gus, described as "fat and fluffy" with purple fur and bright green eyebrows.[1]
The 2020 minor league baseball season was initially postponed, and ultimately cancelled altogether, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[22][23] With no minor league season to play, Fredericksburg became the alternate training site for the Washington Nationals, hosting players who were not on the active roster, as well as a number of minor league players and instructors, during the 2020 season.[24]
Before the Fredericksburg Nationals could play a game at the Class A-Advanced level, the team was notified in December 2020 that it would need to accept relegation to the Low-A level to continue play as an affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Silber confirmed the Fredericksburg Nationals would continue their affiliation with Washington at the new level for 2021 and beyond.[25] They were organized into a newly named league, the Low-A East.[26]
The team finished its inaugural 2021 season with a 44-76 win-loss record, ending in fourth (last) place in the North Division of the Low-A East League. However, the team's total attendance of 199,071 was the highest in its division.[30]
In 2022, the Low-A East renamed itself as the Carolina League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization. The League also changed its structure, from three four-team divisions to two six-team divisions.[31]
The team finished the 2022 regular season with a 75-55 overall win-loss record, first in the Carolina League's North Division. More specifically, Fredericksburg finished fifth in its division in the season's first half, with a 33-33 record, and first in the second half with a 42-22 record. In the first round of Carolina League playoffs, the FredNats fell in 3 games to Lynchburg in the best-of-three game series, as the North Division's first-place teams in the two halves of the season.[32][33][34]
