#washington-nationals

#washington-nationals

The Nationals hoped the 2025 season would represent a step forward in their rebuild, but the opposite took place. The results were discouraging enough that ownership fired not only manager Davey Martinez but longtime president/general manager Mike Rizzo, who'd run the team's baseball operations for nearly two decades. A new front office regime will try to turn things around for a club that won more games in 2024 (71) than in 2025 (66).

The day we realized that Finnegan might be a fixture in a high-leverage relief role was when he struck out the side against the Angels. In a game early in 2022, the Nationals had a 4-2 lead in the seventh inning, but the top of the lineup was due up for the Angels. That meant someone had to face the star-studded trio of Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and former Nationals standout Anthony Rendon.

Mitchell Parker emerged in 2024 as a major surprise, debuting in the big leagues after just four appearances at Triple-A Rochester before going seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in just his second start at the MLB level. Things looked good from there--minus a July 13 disaster where he was unable to escape the first inning, Parker managed a 4.01 ERA in just over 150 innings as a 24-year-old.

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.

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

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.

" 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.

It looked like the Braves may get something going in the third. Ozuna and Alvarez had back-to-back singles to start, but the momentum was killed with a Profar GIDP and an Olson long pop up to SS. Waldrep picked up right where he left off. He struck out the first two hitters he faced in the inning and induced another ground ball. In these two strikeouts he did what seems to be successful, which is to pitch a bunch of splitters and then fool the hitter with a curveball as the out pitch.

"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.

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.

As alluded to, the Nationals made their choices for September call-ups last weekend, and brought up lefty Andrew Alvarez and infielder Nasim Nuñez, who combined to make a huge impact on the sweep of the Marlins. Alvarez joined catcher CJ Stubbs as the second Nationals battery in team history to make their MLB debuts simultaneously, and accomplished some team history in the process.

It is no secret that the Nationals are in a rebuild. Luckily for them, a head start is already underway with many young prospects already with the major league team. Some are already established, while others came up more recently. Three of them, in fact, are thriving as of recent, and they are not named James Wood. The key to the final two months was to see success in the youth, and it is happening.

Alfaro, a CAA client, is signing a major league contract, Golden adds. 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.