Washington Nationals

Washington Nationals

Despite being a near-unwatchable product on the field in recent years, the Washington Nationals have had pretty fantastic luck when it comes to having the odds bounce in their favor. Specifically, the ping pong balls for the MLB Draft Lottery have resulted in their favor more often than not, but the team has been unable to take full advantage. Them not being able to take advantage is actually no fault of their own but is in fact due to an outright stupid rule change that Major League Baseball implemented a few years ago.

Aside front ace southpaw MacKenzie Gore, Washington's pitching staff struggled mightily in 2025. Young starters Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker took major steps back after solid showings in 2024. Trevor Williams pitched more like his 2023 self than 2024. Kyle Finnegan was inconsistent and wound up getting traded, and no young relievers (perhaps with the exception of Brad Lord) stepped up in a meaningful way.

As we as a site have pointed out at length, specifically back at the trade deadline, the case for trading Gore is a very simple one to comprehend. He is a Scott Boras client, who is notorious for not having his players sign extensions before going to free agency, and the Nationals don't seem close to competing with him before he hits free agency after the 2027 season.

As part of their efforts to provide their upper levels of the minor leagues with more depth, the team has brought in righty Tyler Baum, a former touted arm in the Athletics' organization. As for some background on Baum, he was a 2nd-round pick by the then Oakland A's back in 2019 with the 66th pick out of the University of North Carolina.

What was supposed to be a step forward season for the Washington Nationals turned into more of the same. The 2025 Nats limped to a 66-96 finish, extending their losing-season streak to six and falling further off track after a slightly more competitive 2024. Progress never came, and in July, the Nats ownership moved both longtime manager Davey Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo out of the picture.

While variations of these jerseys were worn in the past, before 2011, the main change made to them was on the jersey sleeve, where the interlocking DC logo was replaced with a Nationals emblem in a circle featuring the team's signature "curly w". The Nationals wore these uniforms during the years when they had their core players, including 2018, when the team featured many superstars such as Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, and Anthony Rendon.

This past season though, he quickly declined. One potential explanation was his sharp decrease in velocity. According to Pitch Profiler, his average fastball velocity was 93.9 miles per hour. This year, it dropped to 92.4. Correspondingly, his strikeout rate dropped from 20.3 percent to 15.8 percent. With less velocity on his fastball, Irvin's stuff led to contact and did not get Major League hitters out with success.

Toboni and Butera have been hard at work assembling a young and forward-thinking coaching staff since the hiring of Butera was initially announced a few weeks ago, and earlier this week, the Nationals poached yet another rising name on the coaching side. Perhaps what makes it even sweeter is the fact that this time it came from a National League East rival.

The Arizona Fall League plays in an abbreviated season. King played (18) Games, but his statistics were commendable. He had a stellar batting average of (.359) and an OPS of (1.031). King found 8-of-21 hits to be extra base hits with (2) Home Runs. He added (11) Walks, but did strikeout (15) Times on (79) Plate Appearances, or a 19% K-Rate, including walks.

The primary reason the Nationals should look to sign Rojas is his premium defense. For almost his entire career, Rojas has been a premium defender at shortstop and second base. This past season, Rojas' outs above average ranked in the 91st percentile of all qualified players. While defensive statistics like outs above average can fluctuate from season to season for many players, Rojas has consistently been an elite performer in this metric. He has ranked around the 90th percentile since 2021.

To anyone who had been paying attention, the club was in a bad spot overall. There was a complete lack of resources available to help with player development, and the ideologies that were being taught to youngsters had simply become completely outdated. 2024 1st-rounder Seaver King inadvertently pointed out some issues with minor league coaching, and was a large reason why the new regime is focusing so much on player development.

Gray has two seasons and change under his belt with the Nationals. He last played in 2024, which saw him appear in just two games. We are better off reeling it back to 2023. In 2023, Gray went 8-13 for record with a 3.91 ERA and 1.6 WAR. Back in 2022, his rookie season, Gray recorded himself a 5.02 ERA.

The Nats learned that their internal philosophies must change. Ownership recognized this and fired both Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez in July of 2025. The timing of the firings was unexpected. Most Nats fans expected Darnell Coles and Jim Hickey to be let go before Davey. Almost all fans could've agreed that none of the firings would be in-season. It showed an urgency from ownership that change needed to happen, and fast.

The Nationals announced Thursday that infielder Trey Lipscomb went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Rochester. Washington also reinstated catcher Drew Millas, lefty and righties Trevor Williams and Josiah Gray from the 60-day injured list. The Nats currently have five openings on their 40-man roster. Lipscomb, 25, was the team's third-round pick in 2022. He's seen limited MLB time in each of the past two seasons, struggling to a .206/.272/.237 batting line in 215 turns at the plate.