Washington Nationals 2025 Season

THE LEAD

Third base for the Nationals has been a black hole since the day that Anthony Rendon got his bag from the Angels and left town (although, hilariously, the Angels have had more different starting third basemen over the past six seasons than the Nats have). That has continued in 2025, with Paul DeJong (46 wRC+, good defense, on the IL), José Tena (91 wRC+, mediocre defense that at least is better than last year), and Amed Rosario (119 wRC+ as the weak side of a platoon, cover-your-eyes awful defense) getting most of the time at the hot corner this year. Last night Brady House, the team’s top hitting prospect, pulverized his tenth home run of the season (111 mph exit velocity) and collected another hit - plus two walks, including a bases-loaded game-winner in the tenth - to push his season line to .285/.341/.500. Even with Tena hitting the ball pretty well over the last several days, it should be time to promote House (who is a stellar defender at third base as well), perhaps as soon as this coming Tuesday against the Cubs.

 Washington Nationals 2025 Season

Game Recap

For the first five innings the Nationals looked like they had on Tuesday, swinging early into quick outs and allowing an opposing starter without lethal stuff (Emerson Hancock in this case) to cruise against them. Fortunately MacKenzie Gore was just as untouchable through those same five innings, striking out five - including his 500th career K - and walking none while allowing a pair of harmless singles. Then came the sixth inning, which went a little off the rails.

In the top half, Hancock started losing his command despite a very low pitch count, walking José Tena and CJ Abrams around a strikeout of Daylen Lile. Seattle opted to bring in their one lefty reliever to face James Wood, who promptly doubled to the left field corner to bring home the first runs of the game, then stole third. He was stranded there when Nathaniel Lowe struck out and Keibert Ruiz hit a fly ball to the warning track that absolutely would have left the yard a day before when it was twenty degrees warmer.

In the bottom of the frame Gore found himself working with a lead for the first time in almost two weeks since his strange outing in Camden Yards. Leody Taveras fouled his first pitch off the chest protector of plate umpire Andy Fletcher, with Ruiz immediately signaling for a trainer. After a couple minutes, Fletcher remained in the game but almost immediately took a spiked curve to the groin. Perhaps distracted by losing his rhythm, Gore allowed singles to Taveras and Ben Williamson, the number eight and nine hitters, which got Jim Hickey to come pay a visit. Fletcher then rang up leadoff hitter JP Crawford on a fastball that was definitely over a ball’s width off the plate, and the normally cool and collected Crawford immediately took issue, getting himself ejected and dropping a plethora of f-bombs that could clearly be heard on the MASN telecast (he had a point). This time the delay didn’t faze Gore as much, as he got Julio Rodríguez to whiff on a slider for his 100th K of the season and the second out of the inning…and then grazed Cal Raleigh’s thigh on a 2-2 pitch to load the bases for Randy Arozarena. Gore dug himself a 2-0 hole, then blew three fastballs right by Arozarena to end the inning and his night.

Tasked with holding the 2-0 lead, Jorge López instead walked the leadoff hitter, then allowed a couple of singles, a stolen base, and threw a wild pitch to allow the Mariners to tie the game in the seventh, and Nathaniel Lowe got thrown out on an aggressive send in the eighth (why wasn’t Nasim Nuñez pinch running?) to keep the game at 2-2. That eventually sent the game to extras, where the Nats frequently struggle. Last night, however, after most of their fans had fallen asleep, they had perhaps their best performance of the Davey Martinez era in extra innings, scoring the ghost runner (Tena) on a wild pitch and a Lile sacrifice fly before the top of the order went double, intentional walk, single, reach on error, double, home run (Josh Bell) to make it 9-2, and the Mariners could only muster one run off of Kyle Finnegan in their half of the tenth for a 9-3 Nats win.

 STORY TYPE

Get Off The Merry-Go-Round

Because I’m a sicko, I spend a fair amount (okay, way too much) time on the discussion forums over at TalkNats commenting and debating with a bunch of other diehards about all things Nationals. In light of the Lerners’ decision to stand pat and not spend any serious money this past winter to help a young team with some talent take the next step, there has been plenty of discussion about how the Nats should trade MacKenzie Gore - a Scott Boras client and thus highly unlikely to sign any kind of extension prior to free agency - this summer while he still has two-plus years of team control remaining (Gore is scheduled to hit free agency after the 2027 season). The thinking generally goes that if the owners are unwilling to spend to compete or at least come to any consensus on doing so - which appears to be the case now and could easily last through the 2026 season, the last year that Stephen Strasburg’s contract will count against the payroll for tax purposes (not that the Nats are even within $100 million of the tax line) - why not flip the 26-year-old budding potential ace and NL strikeout leader now while you can get the biggest haul for him, a la Juan Soto three years ago?

Here’s why; trading Gore now would be a giant signal to the remaining fanbase that the team is not just punting on the remainder of the 2025 season by trading far and away its best pitcher but also 2026 and possibly 2027 - unless they believe that Travis Sykora (the most likely candidate) or one of the other young arms in the minors who either have been, are currently, or very well could be top 100 prospects by the close of this season (Cade Cavalli, Jarlin Susana, and Alex Clemmey, respectively) will be as good as Gore or close to it at the major league level in 2027. The odds of any of those four reaching that level that soon are long indeed; the list of starting pitchers in the 21st century who were elite or close to it right out of the gate is maybe twenty names long. Cavalli missed two full years, is already six months older than Gore, and 2027 will hopefully be his first year without some kind of innings restriction. Before he got hurt with the kind of injury that usually presages Tommy John surgery and thus a year or more of missed time, Susana was struggling with his command at AA Harrisburg, and a lot of people believe that he will end up in the bullpen rather than the rotation. Sykora and Clemmey, meanwhile, are three levels away from the majors today, so counting on either of them to be not just major leaguers but borderline All-Stars in 2027 (as Gore is now) would be foolhardy - a lot can happen between now and then.

At some point soon the Nats are going to have to take some cracks at being competitive with the players they have while augmenting their core through free agency with bigger signings than Trevor Williams and Josh Bell and Michael Soroka. Yes, Gore’s clock to free agency is ticking, but the Nats have extremely low odds of replacing him with someone as good quickly (certainly if they’re not willing to spend, which is the whole impetus for people wanting to trade him now in the first place), and as Keynes said, in the long run we’re all dead. Don’t rush to fill existing/future holes by creating a pretty large one now. A fall 2026 Nats rotation without Gore would look something like Irvin-Cavalli-Parker-Williams-pick one of Gray/Lord/Herz barring some TBD free agent - how many of those names beyond Irvin are you comfortable with starting a playoff game? Any? Mike Rizzo shouldn’t cut off his nose to spite his face; while the Nats should always listen to offers, a healthy Gore will still have a ton of trade value fourteen months from now if the Nats are still spinning their wheels in this rebuild. Trading him this summer would be jumping the gun. And if the approach to ownership is such that we really have to talk about trading every good Boras client as soon as they hit arbitration because the team will never keep them anyway (so, going through this same song and dance in 2028 with James Wood and Dylan Crews), then yet again: sell the team, Mark.

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Speed Reads

📌 1/3 Season Awards Watch (Yahoo!)

📌 Law’s Top 50 Prospect Update (The Athletic)

📌 The Tigers Win Agaaaaain! (ESPN)