Washington Nationals News & Rumors

The reloaded rebuild officially got underway in D.C., as the MacKenzie Gore trade signaled that the Nationals are still years away from contention.

Major League Signings

• Zack Littell, RHP: One year, $7MM (includes $4MM buyout of a mutual option for the 2027 season)
• Foster Griffin, LHP: One year, $5.5MM
• Miles Mikolas, RHP: One year, $2.25MM

2026 spending: $14.75MM
Total spending: $14.75M

Trades And Claims

• Acquired five minor leaguers (SS Gavin Fien, RHP Alejandro Rosario, 1B/OF Abimelec Ortiz, IF Devin Fitz-Gerald, OF Yeremy Cabrera) from Rangers for LHP MacKenzie Gore
• Acquired C Harry Ford and RHP Isaac Lyon from Mariners for LHP Jose A. Ferrer
• Acquired RHP Andre Granillo from Cardinals for RHP George Soriano (Nats claimed Soriano off waivers from Braves earlier in the offseason)
• Acquired RHP Luis Perales from Red Sox for LHP Jake Bennett
• Claimed OF Joey Wiemer off waivers from Giants
• Claimed LHP Ken Waldichuk off waivers from Rays
• Claimed RHP Paxton Schultz off waivers from Blue Jays
• Claimed RHP Gus Varland off waivers from Diamondbacks
• Selected RHP Griff McGarry from Phillies in Rule 5 Draft

Option Decisions

• None

Notable Minor League Signings

• Cionel Perez, Matt Mervis, Sergio Alcantara, Trevor Gott, Drew Smith, Zach Penrod, Warming Bernabel, Tres Barrera, Levi Jordan, Bryce Montes de Oca

Extensions

• Cade Cavalli, RHP: One year, $870K (includes $7.5K buyout of $4MM club option for 2027)

Notable Losses

• Gore, Josh Bell, Paul DeJong, Jorge Alfaro, Ryan Loutos, Zach Brzykcy, Konnor Pilkington, Erick Mejia, Sauryn Lao

Acquiring young players is a key plank of any rebuild, but the Nationals took it a step further by also beginning a youth movement off the field.  Newly-hired president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is only 36 years old, new general manager Anirudh Kilambi is 32, new manager Blake Butera is only 33, and most of Butera’s new coaching staff are also under age 40.  (Bench coach Michael Johns is the relative greybeard of the group at age 50.)

This wasn’t an entirely intentional goal for Toboni or Nats ownership, as more experienced names like Brandon Hyde, Rocco Baldelli, and interim manager Miguel Cairo also drew interest in the managerial search.  The end result, however, is clear — the Nationals have brought a lot of fresh perspectives into the overhauled organization, following the 19-year tenure of former PBO Mike Rizzo and longtime manager Davey Martinez.

The Rizzo/Martinez era was highlighted by the Nationals’ 2019 World Series title, but the team has now posted six straight losing seasons since that championship year.  Heading into 2025, Washington had some buzz as a darkhorse playoff contender, as it seemed like the team’s young core was starting to gel and a full breakout might be in the offing.  Instead, the Nats were 37-53 at the time of Rizzo and Martinez’s firing in early July, and they finished with a 66-96 record.

Given the circumstances, it was never likely that Toboni was being hired to win in 2026.  The only question was how active Toboni might be in tearing the roster down, or standing pat to take 2026 as something of an evaluation year for the organization (similar to Scott Harris’ quiet first offseason as the Tigers’ president of baseball ops).  While Washington didn’t go into full fire-sale mode or anything, the decision was made to move one of the team’s more obvious trade candidates in Gore.

As Toboni plainly told the media after Gore was dealt to the Rangers, “we lost 96 games last year. To turn it around in one year and make the playoffs….not to say it can’t be done, but it’s a challenge.  What we want to do is make sure we build this really strong foundation, so when we do start to push chips in, we can win for an extended period of time.”

Gore is only arbitration-controlled through the 2027 season, thus making him superfluous to a Nats team that doesn’t look like it will be trying to compete within the next two years.  As one might expect, a controllable, 27-year-old southpaw who has shown some front-of-the-rotation upside drew a lot of interest, as reports indicated that up to half of the league checked in on Gore’s availability.  The Orioles, Royals, and Yankees were all publicly mentioned as Gore suitors, but it was Texas who sealed the deal with a five-prospect trade package.

The preseason top-100 prospect rankings from Baseball America and MLB Pipeline didn’t include any of the five players from the Gore trade, with Gavin Fien (the 12th overall pick of the 2025 draft) ranked highest of the group by both outlets as the fifth-best prospect in the Nats’ farm system.  According to ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, Toboni was very high on Fien last summer when Toboni was still working as the Red Sox assistant GM and running Boston’s draft room, except the Rangers took Fien just before Boston could make the 15th overall selection.

This may well have been the ace up the Rangers’ sleeve in winning the Gore bidding, and since Fien just turned 19, he also fits into what seems to be a longer-term blueprint for Toboni.  Abimelec Ortiz is the only player of the five who could conceivably reach the big league roster before 2028, and Ortiz may have a ceiling on his potential as a powerful but raw slugger who has struggled against lefties and may be limited to first base duty.

Given all of the interest in Gore, D.C. fans may have been a little dismayed that the team opted for a trade package that looks like quantity over quality, in terms of true blue-chip prospects.  Ironically, many Mariners fans had similar feeling when top-100 list fixture Harry Ford was dealt to Washington for Jose A. Ferrer in early December, as the Seattle fanbase felt a highly-touted catching prospect should’ve brought back more than “just” a relief pitcher.

Ferrer is a hard-throwing left-hander who projects as another high-leverage arm for a Mariners team that is trying to win it all in 2026.  Since he was controlled through 2029, Ferrer wasn’t viewed as an obvious trade candidate, yet Toboni may have been looking to sell high on a reliever who (despite impressive velocity) has shown to be more of a grounder specialist than a strikeout artist.

Ford was the 12th overall pick of the 2021 draft, but his potential as Seattle’s catcher of the future was quickly usurped by Cal Raleigh‘s rise to stardom.  While Ford will begin his 2026 season with Triple-A Rochester, his path to future playing time in Washington isn’t nearly as crowded, even though Keibert Ruiz is still under contract through at least the 2030 season.  Just three years removed from signing an eight-year, $50MM contract extension, Ruiz struggled both offensively and defensively in 2024-25, and the Ford trade may indicate that the writing on the wall about Ruiz’s status with Washington’s new front office.

Trading Ruiz will be difficult given his contract and lack of recent success, so even a decent first half (or however long it is before Ford to be called up) likely wouldn’t be enough to recoup much trade value.  While Ruiz is probably not going anywhere, the same might not be true of Jacob Young or CJ Abrams, who each drew trade buzz this past winter but now look to at least make it to Opening Day in a Nationals uniform.

Young is a fantastic defensive center fielder who hasn’t yet hit at the MLB level, so the Nats could look to move him if the team feels Young’s bat just won’t come around.  The Joey Wiemer waiver claim was probably more about adding outfield depth than the Nationals finding a potential Young replacement in center, but it does give D.C. an alternative if a center field-needy team suddenly came calling with a tempting offer.

Abrams and Gore were two of the principles in the blockbuster trade package the Nationals received from the Padres for Juan Soto in 2022, and like Gore, Abrams has been solid if not a true finished product yet at the big league level.  Abrams’ last two seasons have seen him hit well in the first half before tailing off badly in the second half, plus his shortstop glovework is well below par.

Such teams as the Royals and Giants were linked to Abrams’ market this winter, with both of those teams surely viewing Abrams more as a second baseman than a shortstop.  Since Abrams is arb-controlled through 2028, Washington isn’t in any kind of a rush to trade him immediately, and waiting a bit longer might be a preferable option for both the Nats and rival teams.  A consistent 2026 campaign from Abrams would both make suitors more comfortable in making a solid offer for the infielder, and the Nationals more likely to land their desired asking price.

More future-focused moves came in the form of Griff McGarry’s selection in the Rule 5 Draft, and the trades that respectively brought right-handers Andre Granillo and Luis Perales from the Cardinals and Red Sox.  Control problems stalled McGarry’s progress as a starter in the Phillies’ farm system, but the Nats could give him a look all year on the big league roster in order to evaluate the right-hander and fully secure his rights.  Granillo also issued a good deal of walks during his time in the St. Louis farm system, but he is a big league-ready reliever with 21 innings of experience in the Show.  Perales is a hard-throwing righty still working his way back from a Tommy John surgery, and Toboni is obviously quite familiar with Perales from their time in the Boston organization.

Since the Nationals still have a season to play in 2026, they also made some moves to more directly address the current roster.  Any of Zack Littell, Miles Mikolas, or Foster Griffin could find themselves on the move at the trade deadline as rental pieces, but for now, they’ll reinforce a D.C. rotation that badly needed some stability.

Littell could be considered the de facto ace, given that he had a 3.88 ERA and an elite 4.2% walk rate over 186 2/3 innings with the Rays and Reds last season.  However, Littell’s penchant for allowing home runs and his lack of velocity or strikeout power were all reasons why the veteran was still a free agent less than two weeks ago, and why he was available for a one-year, $7MM deal.  That’s still quite a decent price for even just an innings eater, and Nationals Park should prove to be a little friendlier to Littell than his homer-happy home stadiums in 2025.

Mikolas has a similar resume as a low-strikeout pitcher with excellent control and the ability to cover innings, and he has a longer track record in rotations since Littell only became a full-time starter in 2023.  Mikolas has posted only a 4.98 ERA over 529 1/3 innings since the start of the 2023 season, and his pinpoint control has only been able to do so much to paper over the right-hander’s diminishing effectiveness.

After posting a 6.75 ERA over eight MLB innings with the Royals and Blue Jays from 2020-22, Griffin revived his career with a 2.57 ERA across 315 2/3 innings with the Yomiuri Giants over the last three seasons.  The 30-year-old represents an intriguing wild card for the Nationals, and Washington’s ability to offer Griffin a clear-cut rotation job might’ve helped the Nats win the bidding amidst multiple teams interested in Griffin’s market.

The free agent trio with join Cade Cavalli (tabbed as the Opening Day starter) and Jake Irvin in the Nationals’ starting rotation.  DJ Herz and Trevor Williams are expected to make midseason returns from elbow surgeries and could slot into an rotation spot opened up by a pre-deadline trade.  Any of Josiah Gray, Andrew Alvarez, Mitchell Parker, swingman Brad Lord, Jake Eder, or Perales could all end up getting starts before 2026 is out, either due to injuries, trades, or because the Nats want to audition as many starters as possible.

Evaluation is really the key word for this year’s District squad.  This is a very young Nationals roster without a lot of Major League experience, and the bullpen in particular will be very inexperienced unless a minor league signing like Cionel Perez or Drew Smith makes the team.  Among the position players, even the more seasoned members of that group (i.e. Ruiz, Luis Garcia Jr.) are probably more focused on trying to re-establish themselves as quality big leaguers than they are being relative mentors to their younger teammates.

While Washington is probably going to have one of the worst records in baseball, this chaos can be a ladder.  There is plenty of room here for youngsters to step up and become part of future plans, and to put a couple of building blocks in place for the Nationals’ next winning roster.  It will also be interesting to see how Butera (the youngest Major League manager in over 50 years) adjusts to being a skipper in the big leagues, and if he can become the latest ex-Rays staffer to find success in another organization.