Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore is one of the biggest names to watch as the Winter Meetings approach. The All-Star southpaw is Washington’s biggest trade chip, and they’re unsurprisingly getting plenty of calls.
Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic write that the Nationals have heard from upwards of 15 teams with interest. Buster Olney of ESPN relays that executives from multiple front offices expect a Gore trade to come together within the coming days. ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel wrote earlier this week that the Nats had a high asking price — as one would expect for a mid-rotation starter who comes with two affordable seasons of club control.
Gore, who turns 27 in February, took the ball 30 times this year and posted a 4.17 earned run average. That’s not all that impressive in aggregate, but he flashed the talent that once made him a third overall pick. Gore’s first half was excellent: 110 1/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball with a 30.4% strikeout rate. Things unraveled down the stretch. He was tagged for a 6.75 ERA in 11 starts after the All-Star Break. His strikeout percentage plummeted by 10 points as the whiff rates on his curveball and slider dropped. Gore struggled to throw strikes and twice landed on the injured list. He missed the first couple weeks of September with shoulder inflammation, then was scratched from his final start because of an ankle impingement.
The ankle is unlikely to be a concern moving forward. The shoulder could raise a little more alarm, but his velocity wasn’t much affected when he returned. His fastball averaged 94.8 MPH in September, only marginally below its 95.3 MPH mark for the season. Gore’s scattershot command and start-to-start inconsistency are the bigger questions. There’s nevertheless going to be ample interest in a lefty with plus stuff who pitched like a #2 starter for the first three months of the season.
Gore ranked as MLBTR’s top trade candidate entering the offseason. That reflected both his value and the likelihood that he’d be on the move. The Nationals don’t appear close to coming out of their rebuild. They fired GM Mike Rizzo midseason and are starting fresh with president of baseball operations Paul Toboni. Gore is two seasons away from free agency. The Nats almost certainly won’t be competitive next season and face an uphill battle to making the playoffs in 2027, making it difficult to envision Gore remaining in D.C. beyond next year’s deadline at the latest.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Gore for a $4.7MM salary in his penultimate arbitration year. That’s unlikely to climb beyond $8-10MM in 2027. An acquiring team would be getting two years of a mid-rotation arm for a total around $12-15MM. That’s a bargain even if Gore never reaches another level, but there are surely clubs that believe they can coax a better full season than he has shown so far.
The Padres reportedly made the strongest push to bring Gore back at last summer’s deadline. They still need controllable starting pitching, though a deal could be difficult to manage after they moved top prospect Leo De Vries to the A’s for Mason Miller instead. The Cubs were also linked to Gore at the deadline and remain on the hunt for a high-end starter.
The Giants, Yankees, Tigers, Red Sox and Rangers could all pursue a top arm in trade. The rotation isn’t necessarily a need for the Mariners, but they’re in win-now mode and have the kind of farm system that could allow them to jump in on any available trade candidate. The Orioles and Mets are also chasing rotation upside, but a huge trade with the Nationals could be complicated. The O’s and Nats have long had a contentious relationship related to their decade-plus long dispute over TV rights, while the Mets face the challenge of pulling off a trade within the division.
O’s should make this happen.
Only way that trade is happening is if Baltimore trades away it’s TV rights.
David Rubenstein settle the matter with the Nats. He gave them $300 mill. The Nationals not have the tv rights but it hasn’t been decided who will broadcast the games
Hopefully he goes to Boston for Raffaela, Mayers and Tolle.
Yea and add in Jesus,Mohammed and Santa Claus too. Red Sox have « surplus pitching » since the Oviedo deal .
Cubs, pretty please, with sugar on top.
I wonder how much he’d actually be worth.
Between the Dylan Cease and Garret Crochet trades hauls.
I guess that sounds about right.
Less imo, YBC. He’s got the stuff, but has never put it completely together for a whole season. Cease has obviously. Gore was downright terrible for a long part of last season. Ryan would cost more than Gore for example.
If the Jays are serious about contending and getting a championship during this window, they need to be in on this guy.
7 man rotation?
@TheBoatmen
Dodgers have a 15 man rotation and they just won the world series. Do the Jays really want to go with a 5-man again?
They almost lost it because of their bullpen. Both LA and TO are good with SP’s, both need RP’s. Jays also have options after the 1st 6, they have depth already.
Worked for the Dodgers.
Are you referring to Boston? Because that shoe fits
who would they trade?
Why? They have enough starting pitchers already. They need a big bat and some relievers.
2 seasons of a soso backend starter isn’t worth whatever prospects the Nats will want
Gore is a top level talent. He has #1/#2 stuff. The Nats will get quite a bit, if they trade him.
They should, anyway. Whether they do remains to be seen. Both in terms of whether they trade him this offseason, and whether they get a satisfactory return if they do.
Why? He’s homer prone, has control issues, from a results driven perspective he had a +4 ERA and he’s had a recent shoulder related injury. Unless a team is thoroughly desperate and overflowing with talent in both the major league level and minors then I can’t see it. There are better options that could just cost money.
@knicksfan You’re right, there are better options that “just cost money”. But none of those options will just cost $12-15M for two years. That’s why so many teams are in on him and the Nats will do well with the package they receive for him. A lot of teams that need pitching can’t afford the starters that just cost money or some that can would rather use those resources to upgrade elsewhere.
@Knicks He gave up 20 HRs in 2025, for comparison Skubal 18 and Crochet 24
Maybe they will but Gore has never (except a few weeks in early 2025) been a 1/2. Pick any career or full season stat category that you prefer and he is a good 3.
I’ve watched since drafted by SD as dubbed the “next Clayton Kershaw). He has control issues for one.
I’m not knocking him because he has value for sure. Any team that trades for him like he is a Cease / Crochet is overpaying unless something changes in 26/27 for consistency at a higher level. He isn’t a 22 year old prospect anymore for grading what he might become. He has a track record now and should be considered what his body of work has shown.
Sure, anything can change – a pitching coach, a new pitch, arm slot, therapy, etc.
Teams figure the Nats have been so bad at developing talent (which they have) that they can unlock something with him. Does anyone think that if he went to the Dodgers that he would not become an ace?
Coors – Stop it already.. A very surface level counter is that Cease and King and Vazquez provided a lot more during the past 2 years than Gore did for Nats (or would have done for SD.
SD still gets 2 draft picks (which no one has any idea what those may bring but to just act like it is zero which you are doing is wrong) – not to mention the revenue from sellout stadiums and playoff revenue.
That doesn’t even count what Soto produced for SD.
920falcon
Teams figure the Nats have been so bad at developing talent (which they have) that they can unlock something with him.
======================
OTOH, the Padres have a good record of unlocking talent, and they chose to trade him.
Preller was foolish to trade every player he’s dealt, with the exception of James Shields. The amount of talent San Diego would have under control at a fraction of their current payroll is crazy. And, they’d have a pipeline in tact in the farm system.
Yea. Soto took them deep into the playoffs
I’m confused. You suggested that Gore would have been a more affordable option.
That reads as if you think they should have not traded Gore (in the package for Soto).
Now, your point is that they should have kept Soto.
If they had kept the more affordable option – Gore, they would never have gotten Soto.
My original response can be applied to your point.
2 years of Cease, King and Vazquez (still more years to come), 1 year of Higgy and whatever Brito brings was more than Soto provided in 2024 at less $$.
The problem with trading top prospects for Gore is that he’s still mostly potential over results at this point. Both his career ERA and FIP are over 4.00. Whomever aquires him will only have two seasons for him to realize that potential.
And about that 6.75 ERA in the second half? Who wants to deal with that
Says up there who wants in. “…upwards of 15 teams…”
But at what price? I could look past the second half for the right price.
You mean after the all star break. The second half really starts in game 82.
Have you seen PCA’s 2nd half splits last season? Guessing teams would still take him though.
Just from my fantasy teams alone-Suzuki, ELDC, Wood, Cruz (not mine), and many others. I don’t remember ever seeing so many inconsistent players.
Cubs have prospects to get this done, hopefully Hoyer is kicking the tires on Gore.
I would like to know what was bothering him down the stretch, and his inconsistency from start to start is weird, but when this guy is ON, he is ON !!! Would love to see the Mariners get him, M’s have zilch starting pitching depth. Gore, Ketel Marte, and Donovan and the M’s will be good.
Although I’m into baseball in general, I follow the Nats most closely. So when the Nats have issues, I wonder if their problems are endemic to them or whether other teams suffer just as much from similar issues. The Nats recently have had several promising, if not downright budding star, players go gangbusters over the first half of the season, then crater in the second half. I suspect coaching as well as the inexperience of the players, to the extent to which these situations are unique.
That’s one reason it was good to move on from the Manager who declared that “it’s never the coaches…”
Scouting.
?
It is pretty common for most players to play well at the start, but once the summer rolls on, the dog days sees performance levels ebb. A lot of it has to do with endurance, conditioning, and pacing games. It’s esp. common with pitchers. In the past you’d give them a rest due to “dead arm” or some other condition for a few starts in August. A lot of mediocre starting pitchers can look like aces in April and May, but tail off eventually as the year wears on. Ofc the special ones like Skubal don’t tail off and stay dominant all year long.
Every position has its version of it. Catchers, OFs, infielders etc. but veteran players know how to maintain and pace themselves throughout the season due to their experience. One thing I always notice is SBs. A lot of high SB players tend to have their highest totals before the all star break, but a lot of them can almost disappear after the ASB. HRS can be similar too, but that may have more to do with scouting reports catching up to guys having breakout years.
Gore, Abrams, Wood all cratered in the second half. The three best players on the team. Abrams and Gore the last two seasons,
I’m a firm believer that management and coaching was a huge issue in this. Davey didn’t seem great for teaching the discipline required to pace yourself down the stretch.
He said they were busting their assess every day. That’s telling me the coaches sucked. Especially the hitting and pitching ones. Don’t understand Doolittle coming back.
Darnell Coles was rhe worst
I don’t think a Nats deal with the Orioles would have any connection to past MASN regional media rights disputes. It was really a diff ownership, regime, and league. The page has long turned. Feels like the writer is just reaching for something that connects the teams’ history, and that’s the most notable.
They may end up back on MASN. Don’t have a deal anywhere for this upcoming season,
Things unraveled down the stretch. He was tagged for a 6.75 ERA in 11 starts after the All-Star Break. His strikeout percentage plummeted by 10 points as the whiff rates on his curveball and slider dropped. Gore struggled to throw strikes and twice landed on the injured list. He missed the first couple weeks of September with shoulder inflammation, then was scratched from his final start because of an ankle impingement.
Well OK then. Good time to trade him.
The question is : How far away are the Nats from contending? If it’s years , then trading him for potetially solid controlable pieces makes sense.
Its funny because they NEED pitching to be competitive …all pitching starters and relievers… keep trading away their pieces. At some point they need to acquire FA good veterans you cannot win w just prospects! Ownership must own.
When you are trading all these pieces, you should be improving your development and stuff.
No sooner than 2028, if that.
Astros will never get Gore. He’s too expensive. The Astros could never afford his trade value, it would destroy their farm system and future. I’m thinking on the trade market, someone like Brady Singer is more affordable.
The wheels came off of the Nats during g the dog days, and they never got back on track.
Gore could be better in a stronger situation and organization. He’s got he stuff to be a good high end starter (not a #1). He seems to get lost in some starts, losing focus and control, and allowing too much traffic to get himself out of trouble.
Don’t get me wrong, I would want him on my team, but the price us going to be too steep with other more consistent starters that may shake loose
As stated by some above, he DOES have the stuff and can be absolutely dominant. As a Nats fan, he became discouraged and disheartened by the play around him and was vocal about it. He wants out and will be a stud for whoever gets him.