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Nationals Claim Sauryn Lao, Designate Darren Baker For Assignment

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The Nationals announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Sauryn Lao off waivers from the Mariners. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Rochester. Infielder/outfielder Darren Baker was designated for assignment in a corresponding roster move.

The 26-year-old Lao made his major league debut with Seattle this summer but has only pitched 3 1/3 innings in the bigs. He’s allowed three runs with a 4-to-1 K/BB ratio in that tiny sample of work but has otherwise spent the season in Triple-A Tacoma, where he’s pitched quite well. In 69 innings of relief with the Mariners’ top affiliate, Lao logged a 3.13 ERA with a hearty 25.9% strikeout rate against a 6.7% walk rate.

Originally signed by the Dodgers as an amateur, Lao is a former third baseman who’s still relatively new to pitching. He moved to the mound full-time in 2023 and has shown a quick aptitude for relief work. He’s posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each of his three minor league seasons since transitioning to the mound, and he hasn’t shown the type of command troubles that are common for former position players. To the contrary — he’s faced 748 hitters in his three minor league seasons and only walked 51 of them (6.8%).

Lao isn’t a flamethrower but sits at a roughly average 93.5 mph on his four-seamer. He pairs that pitch with a sinker that also sits 93 mph as well as a slider and changeup both in the mid-to-upper 80s. Since he was just selected to a 40-man roster for the first time this year, Lao is in his first minor league option season and will be optionable for two more years. If he can carve out a role for himself in D.C., the Nats can control him all the way through the 2031 season.

Baker, 26, is the son of Hall of Famer and former Nationals skipper Dusty Baker. He made his big league debut as a September call-up with Washington last year, going 7-for-14 with a pair of doubles. He’s spent the past three seasons in Triple-A with the Nats, regularly hitting for average but contributing virtually no power. Baker has only walked at a slightly above-average clip as well, leaving him with an overall .274/.345/.336 batting line in nearly 1300 Triple-A plate appearances. Baker runs well, evidenced by an 83-for-99 showing in stolen base attempts across 309 Triple-A contests.

Defensively, he’s spent the majority of his career at second base, with more than 2500 innings at the position. He’s also logged a bit more than 1000 innings in the outfield — 968 of them coming in left and 58 in center field. Washington selected him in the 10th round of the 2021 draft.

Now that Baker has been designated for assignment, he’ll head to outright waivers. He hasn’t cleared previously and doesn’t have the service time to reject a minor league assignment, so if he goes unclaimed he’ll stick with the Nats as a depth option.

Nationals Sign Jorge Alfaro

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2:00pm: The Nationals have announced the signing. Alfaro jumps right onto the big league roster, and Stubbs has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester to create a 26-man roster spot. Millas was transferred to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man roster spot. Unsurprisingly, that indicates that the fractured finger Millas suffered last week will end his season.

12:45pm: The Nationals have agreed to a major league deal with veteran catcher Jorge Alfaro, reports Andrew Golden of the Washington Post. The CAA client had been playing with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate but opted out of his minor league contract yesterday to become a free agent.

The 32-year-old Alfaro hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2023. He appeared in 82 games and tallied 326 plate appearances with the Brewers’ Nashville affiliate in 2025, hitting .244/.285/.430 with 15 home runs and a dozen steals. Alfaro walked in only 3.4% of his plate appearances with Milwaukee’s Triple-A club and also fanned at an alarming 36.5% clip.

Despite those troubling rate stats, Alfaro will get the opportunity to return to the big leagues with the Nats. Washington has lost both Keibert Ruiz (concussion) and Drew Millas (fractured finger) to the injured list in recent weeks. Riley Adams and CJ Stubbs are currently handling catching duty in D.C.

In parts of eight major league seasons, Alfaro is a .253/.302/.393 hitter (86 wRC+) through 1710 trips to the plate. He’s drawn negative framing and blocking grades in that time but has controlled the running game well, as evidenced by a career 27.5% caught-stealing rate.

Alfaro has spent most of his big league time with the Marlins, who acquired him alongside Sixto Sanchez in the trade sending J.T. Realmuto to the division-rival Phillies. Miami hoped that in Alfaro — a consensus top-100 prospect at the time of the swap — they’d secured a long-term answer behind the plate. He was indeed a regular in Miami for three seasons, but Alfaro’s bat never lived up to his prospect billing, and he’s since bounced around the league on a series of minor league contracts.

There’s little enough time left in the current season that Alfaro, who has 5.133 years of major league service, can’t reach six years before the calendar runs out. As such, he’ll technically remain controllable into 2026 via arbitration, although barring an unexpectedly productive September, it seems likelier that he’ll be outrighted at season’s end and again become a minor league free agent.

Nationals To Promote Andrew Alvarez For MLB Debut

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The Nationals are promoting left-hander Andrew Alvarez to the majors for his MLB debut tomorrow, interim manager Miguel Cairo told reporters (including MASN’s Mark Zuckerman) this afternoon. Alvarez is not yet on the 40-man roster and will need to have his contract selected before his scheduled start against the Marlins tomorrow. Alvarez’s promotion was first reported by TheNatsReport last night.

Alvarez, 26, was a 12th-round pick by the Nationals back in 2021. He’s been climbing the minor league ladder in the years since then and first reached the Triple-A level partway through the 2024 season. He made 16 starts at the level in the second half last year, but struggled a bit with a 4.58 ERA in 78 2/3 innings of work. He struck out just 17.7% of his opponents against a 9.6% walk rate, but in his second season at Triple-A this year his numbers have improved. In 25 starts at the level this year, Alvarez has pitched to a 4.10 ERA in 123 innings. His walk rate has mostly held steady at 9.8%, but his strikeout rate has jumped up to a much more respectable 21.5%.

Even with this year’s improvements, Alvarez is not looked at as much more than a back-of-the-rotation starter at the big league level. Alvarez is not ranked in the organization’s top 30 prospects by either MLB Pipeline or Baseball America, further emphasizing his somewhat limited upside. That shouldn’t be taken to mean he can’t be a useful piece at the big league level, however. He’s generated a solid 50.9% ground ball rate at Triple-A this year, and if he can continue to keep the ball on the ground without much regression in his K-BB% ratio, it’s easy to imagine him being a valuable up-and-down swing man or perhaps a number five starter for the Nationals going forward.

Looking ahead to 2026, the Nationals have a number of interesting arms capable of starting. MacKenzie Gore figures to lead the club’s staff next season, and Brad Lord is having an exciting rookie season that should earn him a rotation spot next year. Mitchell Parker and Jake Irvin pitched well last year but have looked more like back-of-the-rotation arms this year, while Josiah Gray and DJ Herz could also impact the rotation next year depending on how they look after returning from Tommy John surgery. Cade Cavalli could also impact the club given his former top prospect status, though his five starts in the majors this year haven’t exactly impressed.

With so many young pitchers jockeying for position in the club’s rotation mix headed into next year, Alvarez could have a real opportunity down the stretch this season to put himself into that conversation headed into Spring Training 2026 if he manages to impress throughout this September call-up. His first test will come tomorrow against a young Marlins club that has impressed this year, though injuries to players like Griffin Conine and Kyle Stowers have taken some of the teeth out of the club’s lineup.

Nationals Place MacKenzie Gore On 15-Day Injured List

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12:13PM: Gore downplayed the seriousness of his injury when speaking with MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman and other reporters, saying that he feels he can pitch again this season.  An MRI showed “nothing crazy” in Gore’s shoulder, according to the lefty.

11:49AM: The Nationals announced that left-hander MacKenzie Gore has been placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to August 27) due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder.  Right-hander Mason Thompson was called up from Triple-A to take Gore’s spot on the active roster.

Given the timing of the IL placement, it is fair to wonder if the Nationals will just shut Gore down for the remainder of 2025, since Washington has nothing to play for in the final weeks of a lost season.  This would be the third time in Gore’s four MLB seasons that an injury has kept him from finishing a season, as his 2022 rookie season was cut short by elbow inflammation and the Nats chose to shut Gore down in September 2023 due to blisters on his left hand.

More will be known about Gore’s situation when Nats interim manager Miguel Cairo meets with reporters later, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Gore has been trying to pitch through discomfort for a while, given how his production has cratered since the All-Star break.  The southpaw has a 7.54 ERA over his last eight starts and 37 innings, which came on the heels of a 3.02 ERA in his first 110 1/3 innings.

That first-half performance earned Gore his first career All-Star nod, and seemingly cemented him as a building block within what seems like a somewhat stalled rebuild in Washington.  Despite interest from multiple teams at the trade deadline, the Nats refused to move Gore, viewing him as a cornerstone player who is controlled through the 2027 season.

Today’s injury news might lessen any regrets teams had about not acquiring Gore, even if his two years of arbitration control give him value beyond just the 2025 campaign.  If this is indeed it for Gore this season, he’ll finish with a 4.15 ERA over 147 1/3 innings, with a very strong 27.7% strikeout rate but a subpar 8.7% walk rate.

The Nationals Need To Lean Further Into Their Rebuild

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This wasn't how the Nationals hoped their rebuild would play out. When now-former GM Mike Rizzo traded Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers back in 2021, the hope was that dismantling a stacked roster could lead to an accelerated turnaround. In the span of just over a calendar year, Washington traded Scherzer, Turner and Juan Soto, in addition to short-term veterans like Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester, Brad Hand, Yan Gomes, Daniel Hudson, Josh Harrison, Josh Bell, Jeimer Candelario, Dylan Floro and Hunter Harvey.

It obviously takes years to fully evaluate the extent of any given trade, but it's more than fair to say the slate of moves largely hasn't panned out. Rizzo's return for Soto/Bell has been terrific, with the Nats netting James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana. The first four are current big leaguers -- the first three are stars or close to it -- and Susana is now a consensus top-100 pitching prospect. The trade of Lester brought back Lane Thomas, who was a solid regular for a few years before being traded to Cleveland last summer in a deal that netted the Nats current big league infielder Jose Tena and left-hander Alex Clemmey -- currently their No. 3 prospect at Baseball America. It's a nice return for one-plus seasons of Thomas.

The rest of the Nationals' haul, however, hasn't really panned out. Washington doesn't have any above-average regulars to show for the rest of that slate of trades. If they'd focused squarely on low-level minor leaguers who were still bubbling up to the top of a stacked farm system, that'd be one thing .... but it's not the case. Washington's farm system ranks 21st in the majors, per Baseball America, and that's after benefiting from the No. 1 pick in this summer's draft. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel ranks their farm 22nd. The MLB.com team ranks them 23rd. For a last place team that's been rebuilding for more than four years, that's not sufficient.

Let's dive into what the Nats received from that group of trades, what critical decisions lie ahead in the offseason, and how boldly they could act in order to turn things around.

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Drew Millas Undergoes Finger Surgery

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August 29: Millas underwent season-ending surgery on his left index finger, interim manager Miguel Cairo tells reporters (including Bobby Blanco of MASNsports.com). He’s expected to be ready for Spring Training.

August 27: The Nationals announced today that catcher Drew Millas has been diagnosed with a fracture and dislocation of his left second finger. He had been removed from today’s game after Austin Wells made contact with his hand on a swing.

At this point, it’s unclear how much time Millas is expected to miss, but a stint on the injured list feels assured. That will inevitably lead to a roster move of some kind. Millas and Riley Adams are the only two healthy catchers on the 40-man roster right now.

Keibert Ruiz is currently on the concussion IL. His last game was July 5th and he still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. Just over a week ago, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com provided an update on Ruiz. He had begun doing some first base drills, not for a positional switch, but just to get him on the field and tracking baseballs without putting him at any real risk of exacerbating his situation.

The Ruiz injury opened up playing time for Millas and he had been making the most of it. He has a .313/.365/.458 slash line in 54 plate appearances this year. He likely wasn’t going to hit at that level forever but it’s nonetheless frustrating for him to have this injury get in the way of his progress.

The Nats are off on Thursday but will need to provide Adams with a backup by Friday. Their non-roster options aren’t terribly inspiring. Francisco Mejia in in Triple-A and has major league experience but he’s hitting .178/.222/.287 this year. CJ Stubbs and Brady Lindsly are also non-roster options but they have no major league experience and are also having poor seasons. Stubbs has a .148/.279/.240 line this year and Lindsly’s is .137/.267/.216.

Perhaps the Nats could look to find a catcher outside the organization. The trade deadline has passed but deals can still happen under certain conditions, such as for players on minor league deals that have not been selected to the majors this year. The Nationals could therefore try to trade for someone like Jakson Reetz of the Orioles, Payton Henry of the Phillies or Brian Serven of the Tigers.

It’s also possible that some catchers end up on waivers this week. Late August is a popular time for waiver activity. That’s due to the fact that a player claimed in September is not postseason eligible with his new club. For clubs falling out of contention who would like to save some money, this time of the year is the best to put a guy on the wire and hope another club grabs his contract. Though for the Nats, they may not want to spend thousands of dollars for a Band-Aid in a lost season.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Nationals To Select CJ Stubbs

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The Nationals are going to select catcher CJ Stubbs to the roster, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. He will take the active roster spot of fellow backstop Drew Millas, who suffered a finger fracture earlier today. The Nationals already have two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move will be required in that department.

Stubbs, 28, gets the call to the big leagues for the first time. The younger brother of Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs, CJ spent most of his career in the Astros’ minor league system. He was released in May of 2024 and then landed a minor league deal with the Nationals.

He has been a decent hitter in the minors at times but isn’t having a great season. From 2022 to 2024, he had a combined .202/.323/.404 slash line and 98 wRC+. But this year, between Double-A and Triple-A, he has a .148/.279/.240 line and 57 wRC+. His 11.6% walk rate is good but he’s also been striking out 37.3% of the time. Baseball Prospectus gives him strong grades for his framing on the farm.

The Nationals currently have three catchers on their 40-man roster. Keibert Ruiz has been on the concussion injured list for over a month and doesn’t appear close to a return. That left Millas and Riley Adams as the two active catchers. With Millas getting injured today, Adams was the only healthy backstop on the roster. Stubbs will step in, presumably in a backup role, and will make his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

Nationals’ Luis Garcia Jr. Taking Pregame First Base Reps

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Nationals second baseman Luis García Jr. has begun taking pregame drills at first base, writes Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. While the Nats don’t have any plans to get García imminent game action there, Golden writes that they could give him a look at some point as they plan ahead to 2026.

García hasn’t played anywhere other than second base since the end of 2022. He got a few months of shortstop run that year but clearly wasn’t cut out for that position. He’s not a particularly good second baseman either. Defensive Runs Saved has graded him negatively in three straight years. Statcast’s Outs Above Average gave him above-average marks in 2024 but has had him as a subpar defender in every other season of his career. Both metrics have him alongside Kristian Campbell and Brandon Lowe among the league’s three worst defensive second basemen this season. Statcast feels he’s been particularly poor at tracking balls hit up the middle.

Infield defense has been a team-wide issue for a few seasons. CJ Abrams grades as one of the sport’s weakest defensive shortstops. José Tena was a non-viable option at third base earlier in the year. Rookie Brady House is getting everyday run at the hot corner now and raised the floor with the glove, but he hasn’t hit enough to stake a firm claim to the job going into next season.

Statcast grades the Nats’ overall infield defense at -31 Outs Above Average. That’s not only the worst in MLB, it’s 11 outs below the 29th-place Angels. Washington ranked 25th in that category a year ago. The Nats have allowed an MLB-high .278 batting average on ground-balls despite ranking middle of the pack in hard contact. They need to be far better defensively if they’re to take a step towards contention in 2026.

García has been a solid but not elite hitter over the past couple seasons. He turned in a career-best .282/.318/.444 showing with 18 homers and 22 stolen bases last year. The slash line has regressed to a .260/.300/.397 mark this season, but his results have lagged more impressive batted ball metrics all year. García doesn’t seem dramatically different than he was a year ago: a slightly above-average hitter who shouldn’t be playing up the middle on an everyday basis.

The bat is probably too light for him to be an average or better regular at first base. That said, the Nationals don’t have an obvious in-house candidate to play there next season. The Nathaniel Lowe trade didn’t work. Josh Bell is an impending free agent. Even if Washington re-signs him on a one-year deal, his streakiness makes him a better bench bat than a regular. There’s nothing to suggest the Nationals are projecting García to make a full-time move there, but there’s little downside in getting him comfortable at another position.

Washington’s offseason plans won’t be known until they hire a permanent GM and manager. Mike DeBartolo and Miguel Cairo are currently holding those roles on interim bases. Whether they keep that leadership structure in place or hire externally, they’ll need to address the infield over the offseason. First base is the most obvious priority, but getting García some kind of versatility would provide more flexibility for a free agent run at Gleyber Torres or to explore trade possibilities at the keystone.

MLBTR Podcast: The Pohlads Aren’t Selling The Twins, Nathaniel Lowe, And Service Time Manipulation

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Are there some notable relievers who could be on waivers this month? Also, what happens to a player when he is on waivers? (44:55)
  • If I told you that the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker, would you believe me? (52:40)
  • What’s the craziest out-of-nowhere team to make the playoffs and could a team do it this year? (56:35)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, Imagn Images

Nationals Claim Julian Fernandez

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The Nationals have claimed right-hander Julian Fernandez off waivers from the Dodgers, per a club announcement. The Nationals had a 40-man roster vacancy and optioned Fernandez to Triple-A Rochester, so no corresponding moves were necessary. Fernandez had been designated for assignment by the Dodgers last week to make room for Buddy Kennedy on their 40-man roster.

Fernandez, 29, made his big league debut with the Rockies back in 2021. He surrendered eight runs on nine hits (including two homers) and four walks while striking out four in 6 2/3 innings of work during that brief cup of coffee, however, and was quickly sent back to the minors. Fernandez spent 2022 at the minor league level with the Rockies before signing a minor league contract with the Blue Jays. Getting out of the Rockies organization didn’t help much, however, as he posted a 10.61 ERA in 9 1/3 innings of work for the club’s Buffalo affiliate.

After 2023, Fernandez departed affiliated ball and pitched for the Mexican League’s El Aguila de Veracruz. He pitched extremely well for Veracruz, with a 1.82 ERA in 34 2/3 innings of work. He struck out 32.1% of his opponents while walking just 9.0%, and that was enough to get the Dodgers’ attention this past offseason. He signed with L.A. on a minor league deal and began the season at Triple-A Oklahoma City. He pitched quite well for that affiliate, with a 3.05 ERA in 35 outings made all the more impressive by the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League. His 28.7% strikeout rate wasn’t quite as high as it was with Veracruz, but an 8.8% walk rate was actually even better than in the Mexican League.

That was enough to earn Fernandez a call-up to the majors last month, though it proved to be a brief one. He made a single, two-inning appearance with Los Angeles where he surrendered two runs on two hits (one homer) and a walk while striking out one. The Dodgers optioned Fernandez to the minors where he continued to find success at Triple-A, but he was eventually squeezed off the club’s roster and now finds himself headed to D.C. after being plucked off waivers by the Nationals.

With Washington, Fernandez figures to get a more extended big league opportunity. The Nats shipped out a number of big league relief arms ahead of the deadline (including closer Kyle Finnegan), and now Fernandez joins a very unproven bullpen mix where he should get plenty of opportunities to prove himself capable of holding down a big league job. If Fernandez can establish himself with the Nationals down the stretch, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the club hold onto him as they look to rebuild their bullpen for 2026 and beyond.

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