Washington Nationals

Washington Nationals

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.

Not often does a 32-year-old designated hitter become one of the most sought-after players in free agency, but Kyle Schwarber isn't your typical 32-year-old. Coming off a career year with the Phillies, he hit 56 home runs, drove in 132 runs and started all 162 games. He also posted a personal best 4.9 fWAR while serving as Philadelphia's full-time DH. A three-time All-Star, World Series champion and Silver Slugger, Schwarber has built one of the most impressive résumés in the league.

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.

The Nationals are set to hire Justin Horowitz as an assistant general manager, as first reported by Joe Doyle of Over-Slot Baseball. Previously the Pirates' director of amateur scouting, Horowitz will now work under Washington's new president of baseball operations, Paul Toboni. Toboni, like Horowitz, has a background in amateur scouting. In fact, Horowitz worked under Toboni in the Red Sox's amateur scouting department for several years. That's surely no coincidence.

The Washington Nationals are at an interesting point in the franchise's timeline. Six years removed from a World Series victory, the Nats find themselves in the basement of the Major Leagues. From 2012-2019, Washington competed for an NL East title each season. Nowadays, the Nationals are consistently battling for last place in the division. The 2025 season was a letdown due to unrealistic expectations set by former President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo,

Arguably the biggest obstacle the new front office will need to tackle and address moving forward is player development, which was called out as being subpar by ace lefty MacKenzie Gore before the end of the season. Anyone who watched or paid attention to the Nationals this past season at any level could tell that the team had talent, but lacked proper infrastructure to be able to adequately support high-end development.

The Washington Nationals are in the very early stages of establishing an entirely new front office. With their most pivotal offseason in a very long time just getting underway now, the Nationals and their fans know that there is a lot of work to be done in order to return the organization to its former glory as one of the most consistent competitors of the 2010s.

The Washington Nationals are set to undergo a lot of changes from the way they entered the 2025 season. After the previous regime, lead by General Manager Mike Rizzo and Manager Dave Martinez declared the rebuild over, the Nationals failed to even reach as many wins as they did in the last couple seasons. In fact, there is a very legitimate argument to be made that the 2025 season was the worst and most disappointing one in Nationals history,

Mitchell Parker emerged in 2024 as a major surprise, debuting in the big leagues after just four appearances at Triple-A Rochester before going seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in just his second start at the MLB level. Things looked good from there--minus a July 13 disaster where he was unable to escape the first inning, Parker managed a 4.01 ERA in just over 150 innings as a 24-year-old.