#nationals

#nationals

Ken Waldichuk has been recommended for Tommy John surgery but is seeking a second opinion. Manager Blake Butera stated that Henry got an MRI that didn't find anything too serious.

The Nationals made one of the biggest moves of the offseason on Thursday, trading MacKenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers in a five-for-one deal that sent shockwaves through both organizations. Washington acquired five prospects: Gavin Fien, Alejandro Rosario, Abimelec Ortiz, Devin Fitz-Gerald and Yeremy Cabrera. All five immediately slotted into the Nationals' top 25 prospects on MLB Pipeline. It's the latest bold move from president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, who has wasted no time reshaping the system since taking over.

Gott returns to the District for the second time in his career, as he posted a 7.39 ERA over 28 innings with the Nats from 2016-18. This disappointing performance came on the heels of Gott's strong 2015 rookie season with the Angels, but after the Nationals acquired the righty in a trade for Yunel Escobar during the 2015-16 offseason, Gott battled injuries and ineffectiveness while being shuttled up and down from the majors and Triple-A.

The most up-to-date farm system ranking is listed on Fangraphs. They use a metric that tiers MLB prospects and combines the values into a solid ranking. As per this formula, the Nationals are smack-dad in the middle of the MLB as the 16th ranked Farm System. The highest tier is labeled as "70 FV". To simplify, the higher the numeric value, the better the prospect.

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.

He has now started 11 games since July, and he has been consistently performing above expectation. Lord has only had 3 of those games mark 4+ earned runs, and 5 games of 3+ earned runs. Though recording zero shutouts, Lord did have four starts of 1 earned run, or less. He also went 5+ innings in seven of his eleven starts in that time. These are all great, consistent numbers.