Washington Nationals

Washington Nationals

Paul Toboni speaks and acts like a modern president of baseball operations, with a first-day swagger and commitment to building a " scouting and player development monster." He said everything he should have said Wednesday morning, when he was introduced as just the third head of baseball in Washington Nationals history. Take him at his word, and it's easy to fall in line behind him and believe he'll update the front office and develop a thoughtful, organized, clear structure

The Washington Nationals' tumultuous 2025 season will finally draw to a close this afternoon, and for many of us fans who have endured the hardships of this season, it's a huge relief. It should be an emotional afternoon, as the Nationals have a chance to send longtime legendary announcer Bob Carpenter into the sunset on a high note, but now another layer has been added to the game.

It's been a disappointing season for the Nats for a few reasons. The expectation was for this team to take a step in the direction of competing in the National League, but it has instead struggled to win 60 games. The roster has struggled in all facets of the game, and a few players are making their final appearances in a Nats uniform this week.

While Monday's game did have some nice moments, such as the towering homer hit by Dylan Crews as he continues to finish the season strong, the team could not get out of the hole that scuffling ace MacKenzie Gore put them in early on. After Nasim Nuñez homered to lead off the game, it appeared as if the visiting team would be in business, but that proved not to be the case.

The Nationals announced today that left-hander MacKenzie Gore has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right ankle impingement.

In 2019, his first full season in the majors, Robles was plunked 25 times, second-most in the majors. He managed to finish eighth in hit-by-pitches in 2021 despite playing only 107 total games. In a half-season with the Mariners in 2024, Robles managed to get plunked 10 times in 262 plate appearances; for frame of reference, last season the Chicago White Sox were plunked 43 total times in 5,869 plate appearances.

" It's so inefficient. When there's that many people in the room, it's hard to come to decisions in an orderly fashion," said one source.

He has now started 11 games since July, and he has been consistently performing above expectation. Lord has only had 3 of those games mark 4+ earned runs, and 5 games of 3+ earned runs. Though recording zero shutouts, Lord did have four starts of 1 earned run, or less. He also went 5+ innings in seven of his eleven starts in that time. These are all great, consistent numbers.

"It takes two to tango but [the Lerners] aren't ready to sell," he said at CNBC Sport and Boardroom's "Game Plan" event on Tuesday, maintaining he still has a good relationship with the Lerner family, owners of the Nationals.

2024 had a lot of struggle bug-esque moments for the Braves, but one of the big ones was their inability to do... much of anything against Nationals starter Jake Irvin. The Braves and Irvin faced off four times, and while the Braves came away with two victories, the part where they hit against Irvin wasn't very fun. He dominated them in May (Braves won 2-0 late), had an okay start that the Braves lost in June, had a legitimately bad outing in August, and then beat up on the Braves again in September.

Murakami is a star for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball Organization. Throughout eight seasons in Japan, he has a .945 on-base plus slugging percentage and 262 home runs. Murakami has also become prominent thanks to his performance in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Murakami, notably, hit a two-run walk-off double against Mexico to send the Japanese team to the finals.

The Athletic reported earlier this week that the team has contacted several active members of other MLB clubs' front offices, including Cubs GM Carter Hawkins, Diamondbacks assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye, and Dodgers senior VP Josh Byrnes. The report also indicated that these are by no means the finalists for the position, though it did note that former Twins general manager Thad Levine has not, at this time, been contacted by the Nationals.

This week's mailbag gets into potential offseason targets for the Giants and Nationals, the potential free agencies of Trent Grisham and Ha-Seong Kim, and the Mets' current six-man rotation. Neil asks: Giants fan here. They are killing me with this Jekyll and Hyde act on offense this year. It's the .500 team I was expecting but they need more team speed and the OF defense gives me a headache. Who should they target in free agency?

The marathon that is MLB's regular season is nearing its conclusion, with three weeks remaining before the real fun begins in October. For a dozen lucky teams, this month is merely an appetizer of what's to come in the postseason, but for the majority of squads, now's a reasonable time to take stock of the year that was. Our latest power rankings take a look at each team's most valuable player over the duration of the regular season.

It's almost poetic that the player in the cover image for this article, Christian Franklin, who is a former prospect of the Chicago Cubs, is one of the main featured players ot my article for today. Over the weekend, The Washington Nationals won a series over the Cubs on the road in Wrigley field in shocking fashion, and Sunday's comeback victory was an instant classic.