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Nationals Rumors

Nationals Select Eli Willits With First Pick Of 2025 Amateur Draft

By Mark Polishuk | July 13, 2025 at 11:47pm CDT

The Nationals have taken high school shortstop Eli Willits as the first overall selection of the 2025 draft.  The 17-year-old Willits (a product of Fort Cobb-Broxton High School in Oklahoma) is the youngest first overall pick in draft history.  Washington had the first pick for the third time in franchise history, and Willits will have a tough act to follow since the Nats’ previous two 1-1 selections were Stephen Strasburg in 2009, and Bryce Harper in 2010.

There wasn’t a clear consensus among draft pundits this year, so several potential names were floated for the Nationals in the top spot.  Another unexpected wrinkle emerged just a week ago when the Nats fired longtime president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo (as well as manager Dave Martinez), and assistant GM Mike DeBartolo was suddenly in charge of the front office after being elevated to the interim general manager position.  DeBartolo told MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman and other reporters that Willits was “the guy we wanted all along,” so it doesn’t appear that the sudden management change impacted the Nationals’ plans.

It is certainly possible that the pick was made with an eye towards the Nats’ overall draft pool, as Willits could be more apt to sign for less than the $11,075,900 slot price for the first overall selection.  A below-slot deal for Willits would free up space within Washington’s overall bonus pool ($16,597,800) for the Nationals to spread that money around on other selections, perhaps to entice some future picks later in the draft to sign rather than pursue college ball.

While Willits was a slight surprise at 1-1, the shortstop (the son of former Angels outfielder Reggie Willits) was still a highly-regarded prospect.  Baseball America and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel each rated Willits as the third-best member of this year’s draft class, Fangraphs and MLB Pipeline each ranked him fifth, and The Athletic’s Keith Law had Willits eighth in his rankings.

Evaluators feel Willits has a pretty high floor as a solid all-around talent, with his excellent speed standing out as perhaps his top tool.  Willits is viewed as having the defensive potential to stick at shortstop, and he has a plus throwing arm and good range for the position.  A switch-hitter, Willits is already a strong contact hitter with a good approach at the plate.  Perhaps the largest question is how much power Willits will be able to generate against Major League pitching, but McDaniel and BA believe he can reach the 15-homer range.

Willits doesn’t have the hype or superstar ceiling of Strasburg or Harper, yet the 17-year-old now fills a similar role as one of the faces of a new era of Nationals baseball.  The Nats haven’t had a winning season since capturing the 2019 World Series, and the firings of Rizzo and Martinez indicate how ownership isn’t pleased with the state of what has become a fairly lengthy rebuild.  Washington had the sixth-worst record (71-91) in baseball in 2024 but held the fourth-best odds heading into last December’s draft lottery, as the White Sox and A’s were both ineligible to draft within the top six.

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2025 Amateur Draft Newsstand Washington Nationals Eli Willits

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Poll: Who Should The Nationals Pick First Overall?

By Nick Deeds | July 11, 2025 at 2:00pm CDT

The 2025 draft is just a few days away, and the Nationals hit the jackpot over the winter when they won the draft lottery and were selected to pick first overall despite entering the lottery with just a 10.2% chance of nabbing the top pick. Since then, a disappointing season has led to the dismissal of longtime GM Mike Rizzo, meaning that interim GM Mike DeBartolo will be piloting the organization when it makes this weekend’s crucial pick. With hundreds of players set to be drafted to begin their pro careers in the coming days, who should the Nats stake their future on? A look at some of the top options:

Ethan Holliday

Holliday is an 18-year-old shortstop out of Stillwater HS in Oklahoma. Holliday has long garnered plenty of attention thanks to his family; he’s the son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday and the brother of 2022 first overall pick Jackson Holliday. Will the younger Holliday brother follow in the footsteps of his sibling and be selected first overall? There’s certainly a strong argument for it. Holliday is considered the top prospect in the draft by both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America.

A slugger who stands at a projectable 6’4”, Holliday receives rave reviews for both his batting eye and ability to generate easy power to all fields but does suffer from some swing-and-miss concerns at the plate. While he’s listed as a shortstop, few expect him to remain there long-term given his size and room to grow physically. More optimistic scouts see him as a player who could remain a plus defender at shortstop, while others see a future in the outfield or at first base. Holliday is generally viewed as the consensus top offensive talent in the draft, but his timeline to the majors might not be the best fit for a Nationals team that already has a big-league ready core of James Wood, CJ Abrams, and MacKenzie Gore earning service time in the majors.

Seth Hernandez

A 19-year-old right-hander from Corona HS in California, Hernandez is in many ways a pitching mirror of Holliday. The hurler lacks Holliday’s familial connections to the majors, but has drawn rave reviews from scouts for years and is viewed as a player with all the tools to be a prototypical ace. Hernandez has a four-pitch mix led by a mid-90s fastball that can touch triple-digits and a changeup that’s already universally viewed as a plus offering, alongside a curveball and slider that are both viewed as potentially above average pitches. Aside from Hernandez’s strong stuff, he also sports impressive control for his age and is viewed as having a strong makeup. Ranked as the #2 prospect in the draft by Baseball America and #3 by MLB Pipeline, Hernandez’s ace upside is more than enough to justify the Nationals considering him for the top pick even though he could have a long road to the majors as a prep pitcher.

Kade Anderson

The consensus top college player available in this draft, Anderson is a 21-year-old left-hander pitching for LSU. Anderson’s fastball typically sits in the low-to-mid 90s and maxes out at 97 mph, but the main draw of his arsenal is his trio of secondary offerings. Both his curveball and slider are viewed as above-average pitches, and while his changeup garners more mixed reviews, some scouts view it as the most impressive secondary in his arsenal and all agree it at least has the potential to be an average offering that helps keep right-handed hitters honest. Anderson also features above-average control and is viewed as a high-floor arm likely to be a starter in the big leagues long-term.

The fact that he’s already had Tommy John surgery is a potential red flag, although some teams may not be especially bothered by that in a sport where elbow surgery is increasingly becoming the expectation for pitchers. The #2 prospect in the draft according to MLB Pipeline and #4 according to Baseball America, Anderson is viewed as having the same ace-level upside as Hernandez but could be much quicker to the majors. That could be attractive to the Nationals, especially if they end up opting to go under-slot with their first pick to take bigger swings later in the draft.

Other Options

While the aforementioned trio of prospects figure to get the most attention this weekend, they aren’t the only players the Nationals could feasibly consider selecting first overall. Eli Willits is a prep shortstop who would be the youngest first-overall pick in history if selected, but Baseball America views him as the #3 talent in the entire draft and his well-rounded profile could make him an attractive under-slot option for the Nats. Jamie Arnold is a lefty hurler at Florida State who offers a more impressive fastball than Anderson, though he has just three pitches and hasn’t needed to use his changeup much as an amateur. Aiva Arquette is a shortstop at Oregon State and is viewed as the consensus top college bat in the draft, but is seen as having far less upside than someone like Holliday or even Willits despite confidence in his ability to stick at shortstop.

Who do MLBTR readers think the Nationals should take with the top pick in this year’s draft? Have your say in the poll below:

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MLBTR Originals MLBTR Polls Washington Nationals Ethan Holliday Kade Anderson Seth Hernandez

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Nationals Sign Francisco Mejia To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | July 10, 2025 at 1:48pm CDT

The Nationals signed catcher Francisco Mejia to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Rochester on Tuesday. He’d opened the 2025 season in Mexico and made his team debut yesterday, going 0-for-4.

Mejia, once one of the top prospects in baseball, has played 355 major league games and tallied 1098 plate appearances across parts of seven seasons. He’s a .239/.284/.394 hitter in that time, which he’s split between Cleveland, San Diego and Tampa Bay. Mejia looked to be breaking out with the 2021 Rays when he slashed .260/.322/.416 (107 wRC+) in 84 games, but he took significant steps back in each of the next two seasons, batting a combined .237/.262/.387.

After the 2023 season, Tampa Bay outrighted him off the 40-man roster, and Mejia became a free agent. He signed a minor league deal with the Angels but was cut loose early in spring training as Anaheim opted to instead focus on giving spring reps to younger catching options in camp. Mejia landed back with the Rays, was released again, and spent the bulk of the 2024 season with the Brewers’ Triple-A club in Nashville, where he hit .274/.348/.428 in 376 turns at the plate.

Now 29 years old, the switch-hitting Mejia opened the season in Mexico City playing for los Diablos Rojos in the Mexican League. He took 181 plate appearances and slashed .341/.363/.526 with five homers, 15 doubles and a triple. Mejia walked only five times (2.8%) but also fanned just 21 times (11.6%).

The Nationals have Keibert Ruiz as their primary catcher, but he’s currently on the concussion list and in the midst of another rough season at the plate, batting just .247/.277/.318. The 26-year-old possesses excellent bat-to-ball skills but possesses one of MLB’s lowest walk rates and has now seen his power decline in consecutive seasons. He’s signed through 2030 on an eight-year, $50MM contract extension that hasn’t yet panned out as hoped.

While Ruiz is sidelined, the Nats are going with Riley Adams and Drew Millas behind the plate. Adams is hitting only .135/.170/.260 in 100 plate appearances. Millas has only tallied nine plate appearances so far after batting .247/.306/.374 in 209 Triple-A plate appearances. The Nats took two catchers within the first three rounds of the 2024 draft, but neither Caleb Lomavita (No. 39 overall) nor Kevin Bazzell (No. 79) will be an option in the big leagues in the near future. Mejia will give them some depth at a time when none of the backstop options on the 40-man roster are performing at a particularly high level.

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Transactions Washington Nationals Francisco Mejia

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MLBTR Podcast: Firings in Washington, Bad Braves, And An AL East Shake-Up

By Darragh McDonald | July 9, 2025 at 11:58pm CDT

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 Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

  • MLBTR’s Top 40 Trade Candidates and the general market conditions (1:10)
  • The Nationals firing president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez (3:40)
  • Does this shake-up increase the likelihood of a MacKenzie Gore trade? (14:10)
  • The Braves losing Spencer Schwellenbach to the injured list as they keep losing games (18:30)
  • The Yankees lose another starter, with Clarke Schmidt likely to undergo Tommy John surgery (31:00)
  • The Blue Jays surging to the top of the American League East and what they might try to do at the deadline (33:45)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Could the Mariners get Josh Naylor from the Diamondbacks without giving up Harry Ford? (46:25)
  • The Rangers have a bunch of impending free agents such as Patrick Corbin, Jon Gray, Luke Jackson, Chris Martin and Shawn Armstrong. Should they trade them and could they get anything of note? (49:20)
  • What do the Mets do at the deadline? (52:25)

Check out our past episodes!

  • Depleted Mets’ Pitching, The Pirates Are Open For Business, And More! – listen here
  • The Braves Say They Won’t Sell, Jeimer Candelario DFA’d, And Injured D-Backs – listen here
  • Reacting To The Devers Trade And Aaron Civale – listen here

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

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire, Imagn Images

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Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves MLB Trade Rumors Podcast New York Mets New York Yankees Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers Toronto Blue Jays Washington Nationals Dave Martinez Mike Rizzo

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Trevor Williams To Undergo UCL Surgery

By Darragh McDonald | July 9, 2025 at 4:50pm CDT

Nationals right-hander Trevor Williams told members of the media today that he has a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament and will undergo surgery. He is expecting it to be internal brace surgery, though a full Tommy John procedure is still a possibility. He will therefore miss the remainder of this season and possibly all of 2026 as well. He’s already on the 60-day injured list. Spencer Nusbaum of The Washington Post was among those to pass the news along.

Williams, 33, made his most recent start on Wednesday of last week. The first game of a doubleheader against the Tigers, Williams had a less-than-ideal experience. He struggled in the top of the first but, with a long day ahead, the Nats left him out there to take a beating. Pitchers usually aren’t allowed to throw more than 3o to 40 pitches in a single inning but the Nats let Williams throw 54 in that frame, as he eventually got out of it with six runs having scored. He tossed two more innings after that.

Two days later, he was placed on the 15-day IL with an elbow sprain. Yesterday, he was transferred to the 60-day IL, which indicated the Nats didn’t expect him back for a few months. With the news of this surgery, he’ll be out much longer than that. The timelines for an internal brace procedure can be a bit shorter than with a full Tommy John, though it’s still usually about a year.

Williams has been part of Washington’s rotation since 2023. He signed a two-year, $13MM deal ahead of that 2023 season. The first campaign in Washington didn’t go especially well, as he posted a 5.55 earned run average over his 31 starts.

Last year, he showed significant improvement, though in a smaller sample size. He missed a few months with a flexor strain, limiting him to just 13 starts, but with a 2.03 ERA. There was surely some good luck in there, as his .267 batting average on balls in play and 80.2% strand rate were both to the fortunate side. Part of the reason he was able to strand so many runners is that only 4.2% of his fly balls left the yard, a massive drop from his 17% rate in 2023. But on the other hand, his 22.7% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 45.4% ground ball rate were all strong figures. His 2.79 FIP and 3.96 SIERA suggested he could post good numbers even with some regression in the luck department.

The Nats decided to bring him back to serve as a veteran back-end guy, an understandable move for a rebuilding club with lots of inexperienced starters. They gave him another two-year deal, with the $14MM guarantee amounting to a slight pay bump compared to his prior deal. Unfortunately, his luck turned far in the other direction this year. In 17 starts, he posted a 6.21 ERA here in 2025. His strikeout rate dropped to 17.4% and his grounder rate to 33%, but he still only walked 5.6% of opponents. His .347 BABIP and 61.6% strand rate both swung far to the unlucky side. His 4.08 FIP and 4.46 SIERA suggested some correction over the rest of the season may have been likely but that won’t happen now.

Williams will spend the rest of this year on the shelf and will start next year on the IL as well. Depending on his surgery and rehab, he could work his way into the mix during the 2026 season. Whether there’s a rotation spot for him there will depend upon what the Nats do this winter.

For now, they have a rotation consisting of MacKenzie Gore, Michael Soroka, Mitchell Parker, Jake Irvin and Shinnosuke Ogasawara. Soroka is on a one-year deal and likely to be dealt this month. Gore has been the subject of some trade speculation since the Nats are struggling to come out of their rebuild and he’s only controlled for two more seasons after this one, but there hasn’t been any real suggestion the Nats want to make such a move. Parker and Irvin are serviceable back-end guys. Ogasawara only has one major league start so far, which didn’t go especially well.

Josiah Gray had UCL surgery last summer and could perhaps be back in the mix later this year. Cade Cavalli is in Triple-A and could be back in the majors at some point. Prospects like Travis Sykora or Jarlin Susana could get into the mix down the line but both are currently injured and neither has reached the Triple-A level yet.

If the Nats want to accelerate the end of their rebuild, spending some money to bolster this rotation group would be a sensible plan for this winter. However, the future is currently murky, with manager Dave Martinez and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo having just been fired a few days ago.

Photos courtesy of David Frerker and Geoff Burke, Imagn Images

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Newsstand Washington Nationals Trevor Williams

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Nationals Sign Luis Garcia

By Mark Polishuk | July 8, 2025 at 4:10pm CDT

July 8th: The Nationals have now officially announced the signing of Garcia. Right-hander Eduardo Salazar has been optioned to Triple-A Rochester as the corresponding active roster move. Righty Trevor Williams has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Williams was just placed on the 15-day IL a few days ago due to an elbow sprain. It appears the Nats don’t expect him to return before September. Washington also recalled catcher Drew Millas and placed catcher Keibert Ruiz on the seven-day concussion-related IL.

July 6th: The Nationals have signed right-hander Luis Garcia to a Major League contract, the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden reports.  The deal will become official when the 38-year-old Garcia passes a physical.

It didn’t take long for Garcia to find a new landing spot, as the Dodgers only just released the veteran reliever on Friday.  Garcia signed a minor league deal with Los Angeles last winter and broke camp with the team, but his struggled during his time on the big league roster.  Garcia posted a 5.27 ERA and 12.7% walk rate over 27 1/3 innings, and spent about a month on the injured list recovering from an adductor strain.

There have been plenty of ups and downs for Garcia over his 13 MLB seasons, which isn’t surprising for a grounder specialist who relies a lot of batted-ball luck.  His most sustained stretch of success came fairly recently, as Garcia posted a 3.62 ERA, 23.4% strikeout rate, and 7.4% walk rate across 154 relief innings for the Cardinals and Padres from 2021-23.  Those results led to a one-year, $4.25MM free agent deal with the Angels during the 2023-24 offseason, and Garcia continued to pitch decently well before his production dipped after a deadline trade to the Red Sox.

Washington has one of the league’s worst bullpens, so there’s not much risk for the Nats in taking a flier to see if Garcia can bounce back from his rough showing in L.A.  If he really pitches well between now and the July 31 trade deadline, the Nationals could even look to quickly flip Garcia elsewhere for a low-level minor leaguer.

Once Garcia gets into a game with his new club, he will have pitched with eight different teams at the big league level over the course of his long career.  This is actually the second Dodgers-to-Nationals trip Garcia has taken — after beginning his career as an international prospect in Los Angeles’ farm system, the Dodgers dealt Garcia to the Nats way back in August 2009.  Garcia didn’t see any big league action during his year-plus in the Washington organization, and didn’t end up making his MLB debut until he was a 26-year-old pitching with the Phillies in 2013.  (By coincidence, Garcia pitched against the Nats in his first Major League game.)

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Boston Red Sox Los Angeles Angels Los Angeles Dodgers Philadelphia Phillies San Diego Padres St. Louis Cardinals Transactions Washington Nationals Drew Millas Eduardo Salazar Keibert Ruiz Luis Garcia Trevor Williams

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Nationals Name Henry Blanco Bench Coach

By Darragh McDonald | July 8, 2025 at 12:59pm CDT

The Nationals announced that Henry Blanco is now the club’s bench coach. Blanco was already on the staff as a catching and strategy coach. Also, Bob Henley has been added to the staff with the title of major league field coordinator.

The moves are domino effects of the club’s recent shakeup. On the weekend, they fired president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez. Yesterday, bench coach Miguel Cairo was given the position of interim manager, which created a bench coach vacancy. In essence, the firing of Martinez has led to Cairo taking his seat, Blanco bumping up to Cairo’s spot and now Henley slotting in to even things out and presumably take up some of Blanco’s previous duties.

Blanco, 53, played in the majors from 1997 to 2013. He immediately pivoted to coaching once his playing days were done, joining the Diamondbacks staff in 2014. He then spent three seasons on the Cubs’ staff as quality assurance coach, winning a World Series ring in 2016. Going into 2018, he joined Washington’s staff as bullpen coach, winning another ring in 2019. He pivoted to catching and strategy coach ahead of the 2022 season.

Henley, 52, got a brief major league run as a player. He appeared in 41 games for the 1998 Expos, the franchise which would later become the Nationals. He joined Montreal’s minor league ranks as a coach back in 2003 and stayed with the organization when they relocated to Washington in 2005. He worked his way up to the big league staff for the 2014 season. He stayed on the staff through various managerial changes but his last season was 2021. He stayed in the org but was moved to a player development role for the 2022 season.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images

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Washington Nationals Bob Henley Henry Blanco

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Nationals Name Miguel Cairo Interim Manager

By Darragh McDonald | July 7, 2025 at 1:30pm CDT

The Nationals announced that bench coach Miguel Cairo is now the club’s interim manager. He’ll take over for Dave Martinez, who was fired yesterday. The Nats are off today, so Cairo will make his debut as Washington’s skipper tomorrow in St. Louis.

Cairo, 51, played in the majors from 1996 to 2012. After his playing days were over, he did some front office and player development work. The White Sox hired him to serve as bench coach ahead of the 2021 season, under manager Tony La Russa. Late in the 2022 campaign, La Russa had to step away from the club due to a health issue. Cairo took over and served as acting manager for the remainder of the campaign. The Sox went 18-16 with Cairo at the helm.

Going into 2023, Cairo got some consideration for sticking around but the Sox decided to hire Pedro Grifol as the manager instead. Cairo spent that year working for the Mets in the minors, then got hired to serve as Washington’s bench coach going into 2024.

In-season managerial firings often lead to the bench coach taking over the reins. The Nats are looking to shake things up as they trend towards a sixth straight losing season. In addition to Martinez, president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo was also fired. Assistant general manager Mike DeBartolo is now the interim general manager.

With both the general manager and the manager currently having the “interim” tag, the future is quite hazy. The club has the top pick in this month’s draft. They will also have to navigate the deadline and play out the remainder of the schedule. Cairo will do his best to guide the Nats from the dugout until the end of September. Perhaps his performance in the coming months could help him with his job prospects beyond that, either with the Nationals or other clubs. It’s unclear at this time who will take over Washington’s bench coach job.

Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images

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Washington Nationals Miguel Cairo

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Nationals Fire PBO Mike Rizzo, Manager Dave Martinez

By Mark Polishuk | July 6, 2025 at 11:54pm CDT

The Nationals have made an in-season shake-up of their organization, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez have both been fired.  The Nats have confirmed the news, and announced that assistant GM Mike DeBartolo will be the team’s interim general manager for the remainder of the season.  An interim manager to replace Martinez will be determined tomorrow.

“On behalf of our family and the Washington Nationals organization, I first and foremost want to thank Mike and Davey for their contributions to our franchise and our city.  Our family is eternally grateful for their years of dedication to the organization, including their roles in bringing a World Series trophy to Washington, D.C.” managing principal owner Mark Lerner said in an official statement from the team.  “While we are appreciative of their past successes, the on-field performance has not been where we or our fans expect it to be. This is a pivotal time for our Club, and we believe a fresh approach and new energy is the best course of action for our team moving forward.”

The news comes on the heels of Washington’s 6-4 loss to the Red Sox today, which dropped the Nats to a dismal 37-53 for the season.  Only the White Sox and Rockies have won fewer games than the Nationals, who are on pace for their sixth straight losing season since winning the 2019 World Series.  James Wood and MacKenzie Gore are enjoying breakout seasons and CJ Abrams is delivering big for the second straight year, but virtually the entire rest of the Nationals roster has underachieved in what was supposed more of a step-forward season in the club’s rebuild.

Given this backdrop, it isn’t surprising that Nationals ownership has chosen to make a fresh start, even if the specific timing is a little surprising.  Some contractual language was also likely at play, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes that the middle of July loomed as a deadline for the organization to decide whether or not to exercise club options on Rizzo and Martinez for the 2026 season.  It was known that Martinez’s last extension contained a club option for 2026, and while the specific terms of Rizzo’s last extension weren’t publicly revealed, it makes sense that his deal would line up timeline-wise with Martinez’s contract.

DeBartolo has been with the Nationals organization since starting as an intern with the team in 2012, and he worked his way up the management ladder to the AGM position prior to the 2019 season.  While most teams promote from within for interim positions, keeping some continuity in place is particularly important in this case given how the Nationals hold the first overall pick in next weekend’s MLB Draft, plus the club has plenty of important decisions to make on the selling front for the July 31 trade deadline.

Rizzo’s tenure with the Nationals ends just short of 19 years, as he was hired as an assistant GM in July 2006.  Rizzo himself was named to an interim GM role when Jim Bowden resigned as general manager just prior to the start of the 2009 season, and Rizzo was promoted to the full-time GM job that August.  Washington lost 103 games in 2009 in the low point of another rebuild, yet Rizzo overall a successful rebuild and franchise overhaul that turned the Nationals into consistent contenders for much of the next decade.

Bottoming out helped the Nationals land the first overall pick in both the 2009 (Stephen Strasburg) and 2010 (Bryce Harper) drafts, so there’s some irony in Rizzo being fired so close to Washington getting to make another top selection.  Taking Anthony Rendon sixth overall in 2011 added to this new core of talent, though Rizzo and the Nationals already announced their intention to compete a little earlier when Jayson Werth was signed to a seven-year, $126MM free agent deal during the 2010-11 offseason.

This bold move from a last-place team was one of many headline-grabbing transactions Rizzo swung over the years, as the Nationals made more big free agent investments in such players as Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin.  Trea Turner was a major trade acquisition as a prospect who developed into a star infielder, and Juan Soto’s emergence from international prospect to immediate superstar added to the all-around roster creation that culminated in the 2019 World Series title.  That championship capped off a run of eight straight winning seasons for Washington from 2012-19, and four NL East crowns (though the Nats made it into the 2019 playoffs as a wild card team).

Martinez’s hiring was also a key element in finally getting the Nationals over the top.  The longtime former player and coach was a first-time skipper when he was hired following the 2017 season, and Martinez had big shoes to fill in taking over from Dusty Baker.  It took a while for things to fully click for Martinez, as the Nats were only 82-80 in 2018, and then got off to a 19-31 start in 2019 before turning things around in historic fashion.

Since the 2019 championship, of course, the Nationals have fallen into disrepair.  While the club was willing to let such notables as Harper and Rendon walk, the decision to re-sign Strasburg to a seven-year, $245MM contract proved disastrous, as arm injuries limited Strasburg to only 31 1/3 big league innings over the course of the deal, and forced the right-hander into premature retirement.  Strasburg’s issues proved symbolic for the Nationals’ struggles as a whole, and the club turned into another rebuild period.

Trading Scherzer and Turner to the Dodgers at the 2021 deadline brought Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz to Washington, but the 2022 deadline blockbuster deal that sent Soto to the Padres may well have built the foundation of the Nationals’ next era of winning baseball, even if Rizzo and Martinez won’t be present to see it.  The Soto deal brought Wood, Gore, Abrams, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana, all in one fell swoop, which already stands as an incredible haul even with Hassell or Susana yet to show anything at the MLB level.

That single trade aside, however, papered over some of the flaws in the Nationals’ rebuild plan.  The amount of talent coming through the draft and international signing market slowed to a crawl, and Rizzo overhauled his scouting and player developments a few years ago in an attempt to address the problem.  Ruiz was signed to an eight-year, $50MM extension prior to the 2023, yet the catcher hasn’t become the building block the front office had hoped.  Injuries to Gray and Cade Cavalli also hampered the club’s ability to re-establish its rotation depth, as Gore stands as the only clear-cut success story on the pitching front.

It should be noted that this year’s Nationals entered June with a respectable 28-30 record, so it seemed like some hope was the horizon for a potential return to at least the .500 mark, if not wild card contention.  However, an 11-game losing streak led to a 7-19 record in June, and Martinez reportedly upset the clubhouse when he seemingly put the blame for the losing streak on the players rather than the coaching staff.  Martinez now moves on with a 500-622 record to show for his eight-year run as Washington’s skipper.

As noted in my recent Nationals-centric Trade Deadline Outlook piece (for MLBTR Front Office subscribers), it seemed like Washington was likely going to play it safe at this year’s deadline, with a focus just on moving impending veteran free agents.  Today’s news may keep that speculative plan in place, if DeBartolo doesn’t want to rock the boat too much, or if ownership perhaps wants to save any bigger-picture decisions for the next president of baseball ops — whether DeBaroto himself in a promotion, or perhaps a new voice from outside the organization.

Whomever takes over the Nationals’ front office will inherit some tremendous young talents, since some of the heavy lifting has already been done with Wood, Abrams, and Gore in place for at least the next two seasons (Gore is a free agent after the 2027 campaign).  It could be that the hiring of a new top executive may extend the rebuild a little further if a new PBO wants to again shuffle the front office staff around and bring in some fresh blood, which may not be what Washington fans want to hear after six years of losing baseball.  There is also the lingering question of when the Lerner family is willing to start increasing the Nats’ payroll, or perhaps if the Lerners may still be considering a sale of the team after spending almost two years exploring the market.

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Newsstand Washington Nationals Dave Martinez Mike Rizzo

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Nationals Recall Shinnosuke Ogasawara For MLB Debut

By Nick Deeds | July 6, 2025 at 10:07am CDT

The Nationals announced this morning that they’ve recalled left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara. Ryan Loutos was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Ogasawara, who is slated to make his MLB debut when he starts against the Red Sox later today, on the active roster. Ogasawara’s impending debut was first reported by the Japanese outlet Sponichi Annex.

Ogasawara, 27, signed a two-year deal worth $3.5MM during the offseason. He did not make the club’s starting rotation out of Spring Training and was optioned to the minor leagues, where he made just three starts before being sidelined by an oblique injury. Ogasawara spent two months on the shelf before beginning a rehab assignment in rookie ball last month. Since then, he’s advanced to the High-A level where he struck out five in four innings of work while surrendering two runs. Despite his most recent start coming in the lower minors, the Nationals clearly feel he’s ready to step into the club’s rotation to help fill in for the injured Trevor Williams, who was sidelined by an elbow sprain on Friday.

Prior to joining the Nationals, Ogasawara had spent nine seasons pitching for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chunichi Dragons. His rookie season as an 18-year-old in 2016 was impressive as he posted a 3.36 ERA across 15 starts in Japan’s Central League, but he struggled at the highest level of NPB play over the next few seasons. He started to turn things back around in 2021, however, and from then on he posted ERAs of 3.64, 2.72, 3.59, and 3.12 across his final four years in NPB.

Impressive as that run prevention in recent years may be, there are some concerns. Ogasawara has struck out just 18.9% of batters faced during his time in NPB, and that’s dropped even lower in recent years as he posted a strikeout rate of just 13.6% for the Dragons last season. Among qualified starters this year in MLB, Ogasawara’s career figure in NPB would place him in the bottom 20 in terms of strikeout rate while his 2024 figure would place him second from the bottom ahead of only Padres righty Randy Vasquez. Vasquez has a 3.79 ERA this year in 18 starts despite shoddy peripherals, so it’s certainly not impossible to find success at the big league level with a low strikeout rate. With that said, it’s clearly an uphill battle to be a quality big league starter with that lack of strikeout stuff. The lefty’s 3.6% walk rate in 2024 should help matters, though, and it’s at least worth nothing that Ogasawara has actually struck out 24% of his opponents in the minor leagues this year.

Making room for Ogasawara on the active roster is Loutos, who was plucked off waivers from the Dodgers earlier this year but has surrendered ten runs (eight earned) in 7 1/3 innings of work for the Nationals across eight appearances where he’s walked (eight) more batters than he’s struck out (six). Loutos will return to Triple-A and continue serving as an optionable depth piece for the Nationals to call on when they need an extra arm for the bullpen.

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Transactions Washington Nationals Ryan Loutos Shinnosuke Ogasawara

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