I got a text from an old friend who I rarely chat with yesterday while out at dinner; Travis Sykora, seemingly out of nowhere, has to have Tommy John surgery.
What a dagger.
Sykora, of course, is our top prospect (or perhaps 2nd best with the addition of Eli Willits, who most prospect shops were installing above Sykora even before this news) and was a key near-term building block that this team could point to as a contributor that could help turn the tide on this 5-6 year “rebuilding” era. Now he’s suffered a mid-season UCL injury, which as we’ve now seen recently with Cavalli, Bennett, and Grey basically turns into a 1.5 season loss (the rest of this season and all of next).
My question is this: based on this injury, the team’s current form, the recent axing of the long-time GM, and the 2025 HS-heavy draft … are we about to see a sell-off and another bottoming out?
More and More I think the answer is yes.
The 2025 draft did not get one marquee player who can help this team in the near term; we could have drafted a polished college starter in Anderson and had him on the fast track to the MLB rotation by 2027, but we didn’t; instead we blew all our money on 17=18yr olds who might show up by next decade. Grey is out until next spring. Cavalli was out for nearly 2 years and is not looking like he’s come back in AAA. We’ve just lost Sykora. Susana has a sprained UCL now and is trying to come back, but he seems like a ticking time bomb. We lost Herz to TJ. Crews remains out (and, not for nothing hasn’t exploded onto the MLB scene).
It’s just too many things to work around, not if you’re not willing to spend money.
So what would this look like? A “sell-off?” Well; it would mean MacKenzie Gore out the door. He’s still got two years of control (as does Garcia, Grey, Adams, and Thompson) but he’s the prize. But he’s the one teams have to be asking about right now. If you’re not going to even try to compete for 3 more years, and you have a top-end arm in a league starved for them, and he’s represented by Boras (which means he’s never resigning), then … cash in. Cash in and sell high.
The team is 20 games under .500; what’s the point of a near Ace starter anymore? Trade him to a team with a thousand prospects, get a haul, and go from there.
Post publish update: after writing this, i see that WP’s Barry Svrluga basically wrote the same thing. Great minds think alike.
I sometimes wonder if I have a wildly different utility function than most fans. I want to make the playoffs and win championships but really I just want to enjoy following the team on a day-to-day basis. I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching Gore, even on a terrible team. And I care more about playing good/better baseball and being in the mix than I do about actually winning. I’d much rather a decade run of 90-win true talent teams than 4 years of 105 wins and 6 of 80.
I also don’t understand the vitriol about high schoolers who won’t be in the majors until 2029 – are you not planning on being a fan of the team in 2030? You need to discount future value due to uncertainty, but once properly discounted, I don’t understand the problem.
If the team thought Willits was the BPA, or if this total draft class was the one they thought had the best projected distribution of value, I am completely fine with the picks and largely indifferent to shape of the curve. We need pitchers and hitters. We need them in 2027 and in 2032. If somehow there’s an actual logjam at some point, you can trade from the surplus. What’s the problem? (And if the problem is that the Nats, specifically, are bad and drafting and developing, the fix isn’t to pick older players. It’s to overhaul the FO, which I believe has happened / is happening.)
The only outcome that would really piss me off is for Gore to be traded for an underwhelming package.
And every team has injuries. The only thing that makes me pessimistic about the future is the Lerners unwillingness to spend. The bar to be smart enough and lucky enough to succeed on a shoestring budget is too high. The team needs to be willing carry at least a league average payroll. If the Lerners won’t, none of this matters and I should probably stop spending so much time thinking about the team. If they will spend, then there’s still a path to contention, even if Sykora’s debut is delayed a year or two. At least his service time clock isn’t running.
SMS
29 Jul 25 at 11:01 am
SMS — good post.
While there is never a good time for TJ surgery, Sykora was about a year away anyway, and the Nats are/were unlikely to contend for a playoff spot in 2026. Assuming that there is a season in 2027, if Sykora has the standard return from TJ, he could be available by the middle of the 2027 season.
Also, Cade Cavalli is not and never was the prospect that Sykora is. Cavalli’s floundering does not concern me regarding Sykora’s ability to return from TJ surgery. There are so many examples of elite pitchers bouncing back from TJ surgery to excel for years afterward (FWIW, Kade Anderson had TJ, and he was on the short-list of overall #1 picks in the 2025 MLB draft). Fully expect Sykora to successfully return in 2027 and to pitch for the Nats that season (unless the simmering MLB v. MLBPA dispute cancels the season).
Also, I have heard that Josiah Gray will return before the end of the season. Has there been a setback?
Rumors floating around that the Cubs are pushing for Gore, and the Nats want Cubs’ 2023 1st round pick Matt Shaw in return (and another Cubs’ prospect). Shaw was a top 30 MLB prospect heading into the season, and after a slow start, he has started to rake for the Cubs (1.2 OPS since the ASB). Shaw can play 2B and 3B. Would be OK with a trade if the Nats also got an elite arm from the Cubs who would be expected to MLB ready by next season.
Pilchard
29 Jul 25 at 11:20 am
From a team-building perspective, the over-arching point of all front office moves is to acquire assets that (a) grow in value and (b) turn out to be worth more than you paid for them.
To me, it’s inconceivable that the new FO decided “our timeline to make the playoffs is further away than we thought so let’s draft younger players instead of older ones.” Rather, the new FO looked at what was available and executed a strategy based upon that availability. And the strategy makes sense even if I don’t think Eli Willits was the best of the various 1-1 options: pay 1-1 under-slot and use the savings on players outside the first round who need a well-above-slot bonus to sign. You can execute that strategy only with high school players who are younger by definition. If the best college player in this draft had been Stephen Strasburg and not Kade Anderson, then the Nats’ strategy would have been completely different, and that difference would have reflected the quality of the players available in the draft and not some internal view about the timing of the MLB club’s “window.”
Perhaps more to the point: a prospect does not become valuable only when he’s on a major league roster. Eli Willits could be a valuable asset to have long before he takes an MLB at-bat. Again, the point is to acquire assets that go up in value and are worth more than what you paid for them (think the opposite of Elijah Green).
All of this to say: I hope beyond hope that Sykora’s injury has nothing to do with whether Gore gets traded. If the FO likes one or more offers for Gore, then they should deal him (ideally after a bidding war causes someone like AJ Preller to over pay). My guess is that Gore stays put, and that would probably be my preference. But a good deal is a good deal, and I don’t have the same sort of fan attachment to Gore as I had to other Boras clients.
Sykora’s injury stinks, but it just reinforces TINSTAAPP.
Derek
29 Jul 25 at 11:28 am
Well, said, SMS. You too, Derek & Pilchard. I’m in SMS’s camp. I spent much of my adult life wishing that DC had a baseball team for me to root for. The idea of tearing the team, already the second youngest in MLB and getting younger by the day, down to the studs and restarting the rebuild to me feels like a recipe for becoming like the Pirates or the White Sox – teams in perpetual rebuilds that just roll one into another for decades.
That sort of “maybe one of our rebuilds will catch lightning in a bottle” approach may be fine for fans who don’t go to the games and can largely ignore the team unless/until it starts to look interesting. It’s much more painful for those of us who actually go to the games (I go to about 20-25 games a season) and have to watch the wheel of awful baseball go around and around.
John C.
29 Jul 25 at 12:00 pm
It was less than a month ago (https://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=19069) that Will (with my support) first suggested trading Gore. At the time, to put it mildly, the suggestion was not well received.
It didn’t take long for circumstances to change. So, Todd, welcome to the club. I couldn’t agree with you more. The Nats have to trade Gore, if at all possible. The long term future of the team depends on it. As FDR might have said if he’d been a baseball analyst: the only thing we have to fear is…fan impatience (and leaders who indulge it).
To be clear, that’s not to disparage those uninterested in another championship or at least unwilling to pay the short term price necessary to produce sustained competitiveness. It’s all just a matter of personal preference.
But if the Nats are serious about chasing another championship, and are willing to accept the need for short-term pain, there’s an obvious trade partner: the Cubs. The Cubs need someone like Gore to improve their rotation. And they have the prospects necessary to make a trade worthwhile.
The Cubs’ top prospect is Owen Caissie. He’s killing it in AAA. In June, his OPS was 1.040. In July, 1.163.
And let me add something from personal experience. My son and I were in Arizona for spring training and saw Caissie hitting batting practice up close on a back field. It was one of the most amazing baseball experiences I’ve ever had. The guy’s power is absolutely incredible. Hit after hit disappeared into the stratosphere. It was breathtaking.
Now, of course, that doesn’t prove anything. It was batting practice, with pitches tossed in by a coach. So take this for what it’s worth. But, for me, if the Nats ever let fans back into Nationals Park for Nats batting practice, just watching Caissie blast bombs will be more than worth the price of admission.
Beyond Caissie, the Cubs also have a top pitching prospect, Jaxon Wiggins. I can’t personally vouch for him, but per the Baseball America Podcast he has great stuff. And at AA his WHIP currently is under 1.00.
Put Caissie and Wiggins together, ideally with one or more other quality prospects, and this is a win-win that the Nats would be crazy to turn down. If the Cubs resist, throw in Finnegan. Throw in Soroka. Throw in Ferrer. Throw in whatever it takes. For those of us who care about the Nats’ long-term future, this must happen!
Bruce
29 Jul 25 at 2:06 pm
On Cavalli; i’ll push back slightly on the claim that he “is not and never was the prospect that Sykora is.” In Aug 2022 he was ranked as highly as #20 in all of the minors by Fangraphs and was in the 20s at various points by Baseball America. MLB got him into their top 40 at one point. This is about where Sykora sits right now in these major shops, soon to take a huge plunge downwards. I mean, if anything Cavalli was older and higher when he got hurt.
Josiah Grey’s status per https://www.mlb.com/news/nationals-injuries-and-roster-moves is, “he’s progressed to throwing bullpens.” Its July 29th; he had the surgery more than a year ago. So, I stand by what I said before in that TJ seems to now be a 1.5 season issue for players who get it on this team. Gray is throwing bullpens, he has two months to go from bullpens to sim games to rehab starts. Do we really think he returns this season? I don’t, and MLB’s “expected return” is 2026.
Todd Boss
29 Jul 25 at 2:33 pm
It’s a great point made earlier….what are we actually cheering for here? Are we rooting for prospect growth and farm system rankings, or are we cheering for a team that actually wins games at the MLB level?
It’s been a weird journey here in DC: acquire the team, it is awful for its for 7-8 years with bumbling decisions and a GM that had to be fired. Then suddenly we’re a 98 win team and are in and out of the playoffs for nearly an entire decade. Then poof, its gone and we’ve been 2nd division ever since, with little to no real signs of improvement since the covid year … and now this.
Injuries happen; this isn’t woe is us. if this team never lost Grey and Cavalli and Herz to TJ would we be better? Yeah probably, but only marginally. It takes payroll $$ to augment and replace a 1 win player with a 5-6 potential player to really make a difference. And we don’t have that rightn ow.
Todd Boss
29 Jul 25 at 3:47 pm
@Todd — what I’m rooting for is (first) an ownership group which knows its own plans, and (second) an ownership group which spends sensibly.
I think there was some grumbling in the press when Rizzo was fired that ownership was run by committee and wasn’t always following up on what it planned earlier. I don’t know if it’s true — could just be Rizzo or other folks badmouthing on his way out — but if true that is not a good way to run an organization. And in my mind that is an ownership group which keeps Gore now because they plan to contend and doesn’t spend later. To me, this is the worst outcome.
Of course, I’m pretty sure everyone’s preferred outcome would be keep Gore, spend like the NYY, and be competitive next year.
Matt
29 Jul 25 at 5:11 pm
Word was out before Rizzo/Martinez were axed that the Nats are run by committee (the Lerners and the Lerner in-laws), and that essentially they need unanimous consent on all big decisions (including selling the team), yet the members of the committee have different priorities and goals; so, nothing gets done.
The reporting on this has been so consistent and from so many sources, and in fact, the team has been run like its paralyzed, so don’t think there’s much debate on that point.
Given the time left before FA and Gore’s solid first half, don’t see his trade value ever being higher. Also, agree that the decision is not just whether to trade him, but also only move forward with trading Gore if the return is strong and close to MLB ready (e.g, some combination of Shaw, Caissie and Wiggins).
Pilchard
29 Jul 25 at 5:29 pm
There was a persistent story 10-12 years ago, maybe even mentioned by Boswell in print, that Ted Lerner was letting Mark run the sale of stadium naming rights. No deal was ever quite good enough for him. Sound familiar? (It has also cost the team tens of millions in revenue that had nothing to do MASN.) That story has been on my mind ever since 2019 to 2021 or so as Mark became more the face of ownership. Yes, I’ve seen/heard other stories about family votes and how many family members are involved in the decision-making, but ultimately, someone has to call the shots. No one is. The tragedy is — as Boz recently reiterated — that Mark and the rest of the family truly love the Nats. But right now, the Nats are the beloved family pet that no one is feeding because the family can’t agree on the right brand of dog food.
KW
29 Jul 25 at 5:43 pm
There’s a good discussion by many of our regular co-conspirators here over at Nats Prospects about how much the Nats are or aren’t to blame for the frequent occurrence of “Nats elbow,” as Luke calls it: https://nationalsprospects.com/2025/07/tuesdays-news-notes-303/
KW
29 Jul 25 at 5:47 pm
I reject the idea that the desire to be able to go to a ballpark and watch a team that doesn’t consistently lose 100 games as being “100% uninterested in another championship” or “unwilling to pay the short term price to achieve competitiveness.” I understood the need to blow the team up at the deadline in 2021 and, after he turned down a contract extension, to move Soto in 2022. The dispute isn’t as simple as “keep Gore or trade him.” It’s whether you trade Gore for whatever you can get or hold onto him UNLESS YOU GET A MASSIVE OFFER. I would argue that accepting a second tier offer isn’t much, if any, more likely to bring contention than keeping Gore and the young core (the Nats are the second youngest team in MLB) and building around it. Neither path is guaranteed. The White Sox went through eight years of rebuild, got one 93 win season, and went right back in the dumpster and look to stay there for the forseeable future as they’ve played at a .327 rate (a 109 loss/season pace) for the three years since. The Pirates had 20 losing seasons between playoff appearances, had three solid seasons but never won a playoff series (lost two WC series and one NLDS), and have been bouncing between bad and terrible in the ten seasons since. And they had the advantage of playing in terrible divisions.
We’re unlikely to ever know what offers, if any, the Nats do receive. Of course, the “TRADE HIM” chorus will simply assume that the Nats received a *massive* offer and walked away if Gore isn’t traded.
John C.
29 Jul 25 at 6:16 pm
I hope too many folks don’t faint, but I’m pretty much agreeing with John C. on both sites today. The Nats most definitely should not trade Gore unless they get a massive offer. And as John says, we’ll never know what that offer was if he doesn’t get traded. Frankly, at this point, I’m OK with how it goes either way. I enjoy watching Gore pitch, and he’s certainly the best hurler the Nats have by a country mile. Also, while people like to say that his value will never be higher, it won’t be THAT much lower in the offseason.
How does a massive deal happen? Well, you need a bidding war. If the Cubs are only bidding against themselves, the offer won’t be nearly as good. The Dodgers and Padres are always good suspects to get involved, and the Dodgers somehow have five players in Law’s new top 60 prospects. As much as Nat fans hate them, don’t sleep on the Phils or the Mets, neither of whom seem to have the pitching depth needed for a deep postseason run. Two-thirds of the Phils’ lineup is 32 or older, and Wheeler is 35. Among the teams mentioned, that’s the one that should be all in. In the AL, six teams are within five games of a wild card, meaning that a crazy 12 teams are in solid playoff contention/position.
Gore certainly is a value asset. Young, dominant, controlled starting pitching almost never comes on the market, to the point that it’s difficult to think of a comp trade. Of course he’s not as valuable as a generational everyday player like Soto was, but a significant return should be expected nevertheless.
KW
29 Jul 25 at 6:50 pm
I do sort of chuckle that the Sykora injury is seen as a tipping point. It’s just another brick in the wall. Even a healthy Sykora would not have been a rotation mainstay until 2027 at best — Gore’s last season under team control. For more immediate hoped-for help, Cavalli’s stall is a bigger deal, and Susana’s arm-health concerns and lost season of development are a setback nearly at the same level as Sykora’s. A 2027 rotation of Gore, Cavalli, Sykora, Susana, and Gray might have had some promise if all of those guys were healthy and reaching their ceilings. But that picture looks far different now than it did at the start of the summer. Perhaps that realization played into them punting for future field position in the draft. But that punt also increased the chances of a Gore trade as much or more than Sykora’s injury did.
For now, I’ll be contacting the UPS Store in Wilmington to send some bubble wrap over to the stadium for Alex Clemmey’s elbow.
KW
29 Jul 25 at 7:03 pm
On a much lesser trade note, I’m really intrigued by the return of Clayton Beeter in the Rosario deal. I remember the buzz around him in the 2020 draft, with insane K totals at Texas Tech coming back from TJ. As a pro he’s totally Nuke LaLoosh, or Henry Rodriguez.
All you need to know about him is in his Yanks’ AAA line from this year: 20.1 IP, 33 Ks, 16 BBs. I wonder how many players about whom it’s been said “if he can ever get his walks under control”. . . FanGraphs grades: fastball 70/70, slider 70/70, control 30/30. “His fastball’s combination of velocity and riding life makes it a potential plus-plus offering, and his slider has rare velocity for a pitch that essentially has curveball shape.”
KW
29 Jul 25 at 7:21 pm
I’m just disgusted that whoever is (isn’t?) running the Nats has decided that they have to be halfway decent on $80M.
If you said this rebuild wasn’t as good as the Harper/Strasburg drafts, you’d be right. But those teams also realized when they were fielding the new kids and added payroll to fill in the gaps.
This time around, they got…. Josh Bell, Michael Soroka, and those stiffs who already got released back in May.
If you got just a league-average bat at DH, had signed Chafin, Garcia, and Pilkington in January, and signed some corner-outfield depth, this team would be at least watchable. Sure, they’d still be sellers, but they’d have been OK for a lot longer, and also would have more to trade away than just Josh Bell and Amed Rosario.
Kevin R
29 Jul 25 at 7:46 pm
Yes, I’m laughing at all the jousting about a possible salary cap when what the players (and FANS LIKE US) should be demanding is a salary floor of at least $150M, and rising every year.
The NFL — which yes, has revenue sharing and no team TV deals — has both a cap and a floor. No team can spend more than 11% more than any other team. If your team sucks, it’s because Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen are running it, not because you’re spending less than a third of the better teams.
KW
29 Jul 25 at 8:02 pm
I may write a separate article on Harper/Commissioner issue, salary caps, floors, and revenues. Because I have some opinions.
Todd Boss
30 Jul 25 at 9:53 am
Nats-Angels trade:
LAA gets Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia (the pitcher)
WAS gets Jake Eder (LHP pitcher already on the 40 man) and a prospect.
Pilchard
30 Jul 25 at 1:28 pm
Wow. Small deal, sure, but that’s creating something out of nothing. Eder is nearing post-prospect territory, but this is like getting another Cavalli for 2 midseason waiver pickups.
Another datapoint in favor of the post-Rizzo FO, I’d say.
(Yes, I know Chafin wasn’t a waiver wire pickup, but grabbing a guy off a May opt out date is pretty much the same thing without the forced order of team precedence.)
SMS
30 Jul 25 at 1:45 pm
Sweet. Something for nothing. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6525404/2025/07/30/angels-andrew-chafin-mlb-trade/
Todd Boss
30 Jul 25 at 2:06 pm
We hadn’t made a trade with the Angels since 2016. wow. Anyone want to guess what that deal was?
Todd Boss
30 Jul 25 at 2:07 pm
https://www.milb.com/player/sam-brown-694848
Just updated big board with the two new players … check out Sam Brown’s birthday.
Todd Boss
30 Jul 25 at 3:20 pm
If the Nats do trade Gore, it’s absolutely going to shock the national media. I haven’t seen speculation that they might even be thinking about it. Yet nearly all of us seem to believe that they should at least think about it.
KW
30 Jul 25 at 4:11 pm
ESPN.com now has the potential of a Gore trade but rates the possibility at only 10%.
KW
30 Jul 25 at 4:42 pm
Some good posts here. When I first broached the idea a few weeks back, I wasn’t convinced that we SHOULD trade Gore, but more that we SHOULD entertain trading Gore, and basically put out word to let everyone know he’s on the trade market. If the right offers don’t come in, then don’t trade him now, but keep discussions going into the winter. Assuming Gore isn’t willing to sign an extension (and why would he, looking at the medium term future of this franchise and having Boras as an agent?), then he will need to be traded at some point, and the longer we wait the lower his trade value gets. So it’s strongly in the Nats’ interest to deal him sooner than later (especially as we’re witnessing yet another 2nd half drop off- it might discourage bidders like Finnegan). Sell high. And Gore’s stock was probably at it’s highest ever a couple weeks ago…
What would be the most harmful is to let Gore walk in October 2027 with a QO comp pick. Maybe we never get an offer of 3-4 top 100 prospects for him, but even one top 100 guy would be better than one QO comp pick.
Caissie and Shaw, on the other hand, sure would be an immediate boost at DH and a flexible infielder that we so desperately need at the moment, and would sync up timing wise with Wood/Crews/House/etc. much better than Gore.
Will
30 Jul 25 at 5:43 pm
On the Garcia/Chafin deal, what a fantastic deal. That we got anything at all of value from guys picked up off the waiver scrap heap 3 months and 3 weeks ago is amazing. But it just reiterates how the team/Rizzo failed so spectacularly this offseason (and in like half a dozen other seasons too, for that matter). Relief pitchers are a reliable way to acquire surprisingly valuable talent at the trade deadline. Why we signed so few relievers this winter was baffling to me, in what was clearly yet another rebuilding year. That the few relievers we acquired in the winter were uniformly comically bad was yet another strike against the poor strategy, and indicated some serious problems in our talent identification of arms.
I don’t really care if Eder and Brown don’t amount to anything, but in this phase of the rebuild we need to make a couple of these sorts of a trades every year, and it’s great that we were still able to salvage something in spite of the disastrous offseason bullpen construction.
Will
30 Jul 25 at 5:54 pm
Gore sure pitched today like someone who is distracted about his future.
Yes, a couple of more good hitters who are basically ready would go a ways toward making the team more watchable. The pitching side would be a wasteland, though. They would HAVE to spend for starting pitching. Cavalli seems to be proving once and for all that he’s not a future MLB starter.
KW
30 Jul 25 at 7:18 pm
The two trades made thus far were a great start. Still have some assets that could go: Soroka, Bell, Finnegan primarily.
On moving Gore … do you make the argument that NOW is the time, under the pressure of the trade deadline and the fan pressure to capture the moment and make a move to win now, or do you make the argument that the off-season, with time to do measured analysis of options and work towards a deal is the better time to move an asset like Gore? Honestly, I think the pressure and sense of urgency works to the nats favor right now. The Yankees could be a perfect fit; just out of WC race despite massive payroll, have a closer who is awful and a 4th/5th starter situation that’s an auto loss. Cubs mentioned prominently. Philly is in win now mode but doesn’t really “need” pitching. Seattle, Houston. Lots of options here.
Todd Boss
30 Jul 25 at 8:54 pm
Soroka to Cubs. Good on them for moving him. Of course him going to the Cubs reduces the chance that the Cubs would make a bigger move for Gore.
Whether they move Gore, I’m in “everything must go” mode for all of the expiring contracts. Take a couple of broken bats for them.
The one thing about moving Gore now is that there’s more likely to be a bidding war and overpay for him now than there would be in the offseason. Personally, I’m not really expecting it to happen but would be pleased if it does.
KW
31 Jul 25 at 5:38 am
Christian Franklin the AAA player added in the Soroka trade is AAA CF. Realize the Nats system lack talent overall, but if there is any place WAS has a possible surplus of close to MLB ready talent, it is in the OF, with Crews (about to return), Hassell, Lile, Schnell (rolling in July), Franklin and maybe even Pinckney.
Perhaps, the Nats deal Jacob Young today?
Pilchard
31 Jul 25 at 10:43 am
I don’t want to overstate it because, in absolute terms, the returns have been quite pedestrian, but I’ve been really impressed so far given the mediocrity that went out the door.
Pretty much every one of these deals has been better than I expected. Using FG’s grades, it’s already a 45, 2 40+s, a 40, a 35+ and an interesting lottery ticket (Martinez). And Pipeline mostly agrees, though they have Franklin a little lower and Cruz a little higher.
If we assume another 40 for Finnegan and a 35+ for Bell, that’s more than double the total haul I was expecting.
And I’d love to trade from Young / Call / Lile / Hassell if we can get a good return, and I agree that if it’s happening today, Young will be worth the most to a contender. But he’s pre-arb again next year and I’d be setting the price pretty high. Like a backend top 100, if it’s a one for one. You’d have to find someone who believes his bat is 80 wrC+ true talent, but I bet there are a few GMs in that camp, and I’d expect the 2nd highest eval on JY to be pretty strong indeed.
If that’s not what the market looks like, then I’m very happy to wait until the offseason to find destinations for these guys. Past those four, and now Franklin, there’s also Pinckney, Vaquero and Petersen (and Green if there are any takers). You’d be giving up the deadline premium, but you’d have more flexibility and some teams might actually be higher on Hassell or Lile than Young.
SMS
31 Jul 25 at 12:53 pm
Finny to the Tigers for two starting pitchers in A Ball; both drafted in 2024.
So, who will be the Nats team leader in saves from this point until the end of the season?
Crazy that it could be Konor Pilkington as he only saved two games for Rochester over almost 4 months.
Pilchard
31 Jul 25 at 1:15 pm
Agree with SMS; i honestly thought we were going to net practically nothing from the trade deadline, and this team has been able to get stuff back.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45869311/sources-tigers-trade-nationals-closer-kyle-finnegan
Todd Boss
31 Jul 25 at 1:32 pm
Agree with SMS on trading Young. I’d love it if they got something decent for him.
Given how much we’ve gotten so far for all the “meh” we’ve traded out, I now think the probability of a Gore trade is higher. I’d still prefer to keep him, but the FO does appear able to generate good trade returns (at least “good” in expectation).
Derek
31 Jul 25 at 1:44 pm
We hadn’t traded with Detroit since 2013!
Todd Boss
31 Jul 25 at 2:18 pm
Finnegan for Randall and Sales. Randall is a 22yr old 2024 3rd round pick who’s got a sub 4.00 ERA as a full-time High-A starter, while Sales is a 22yr old rotation starter in their Low-A. Heack yeah i’ll take that for a retread closer.
Todd Boss
31 Jul 25 at 2:23 pm
latest MLB trade rumors piece says we’re taking calls not only on Lowe and Bell, but also Garcia and Call. Awesome; sell them all!
Todd Boss
31 Jul 25 at 4:07 pm
Law on return for Soroka:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6526522/2025/07/30/michael-soroka-cubs-nationals-trade-ronny-cruz-christian-franklin/
KW
31 Jul 25 at 4:26 pm
The Nats’ last trade with the Tigers was a doozy: Robbie Ray, Steve Lombardozzi, and Ian Krol for Doug Fister. The word at the time, I think actually reported in the Post, was that the Tigers wanted Taylor Jordan but the Nats made them settle for Ray instead. OOPS.
Fister had one terrific season with the Nats, in 2014: 16-6, 2.41 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and got their only playoff win against the Giants with seven shutout innings by the Bay as he outdueled Madison Bumgarner. The Nats lost the other three games by one run apiece, including the brutal 18-inning affair in Game 2.
KW
31 Jul 25 at 4:42 pm
Nats get two prospects from the Dodgers for Call. LOL, one (Swan) is a 6-6, 240 pitcher who can’t hit the broad side of the barn. Rizzo may be gone, but his pitcher ideal remains. Linan is a mere 6-0, 185 but has much better results and is only 20.
KW
31 Jul 25 at 6:47 pm
shocked Bell not moved. I thought the Red Sox deal was a great fit with the Sox having a righty bat to platoon with him at 1st. I cannot fathom turning down any offer for him. Great person, and has said he loves the Nats, but it was imperative to open DH to create MLB at bats for the outfielders. Wood, Crews, Hassell, Lile, and Young will split 3 spots in the batting order rather than 4. They all deserve playing time. Well, Young shouldn’t be at the plate, and Lile shouldn’t be in the field, but you can’t split time that way.
JCA
31 Jul 25 at 7:10 pm
You know, in past years, I had some conflict between “back up the truck” and “you gotta keep at least a semi-competitive team for the fans to watch.” This year, I didn’t feel like they have a semi-competitive team and would have taken a couple of broken bats for Bell and DeJong. They get nothing from holding onto expiring contracts.
All in all, they did a good job of collecting a few lottery tickets in return for several mediocre guys. But nothing happened to change the trajectory of the franchise a millimeter. Since there was no real buzz about Gore, it’s safe to assume that talks concerning him never made it very far. And if no high-level prospects were in play, that’s fine. It takes two to tango.
KW
31 Jul 25 at 8:43 pm
I thought Bell would be traded but I’m not sure if I’d go quite as far as to say “shocked”.
He’s an at best replacement-level DH. Boston was probably his only market, and who knows if they ever actually made an offer.
Or maybe their offer was something like “Bell + $1M for some org guy” and either the FO felt Bell’s clubhouse presence was worth more or ownership wouldn’t OK sending cash in the trade.
It’s also possible that other bigger deals just took up the oxygen, either in DC or in Boston. It was going to be the Nats’ smallest or maybe 2nd smallest deal of the deadline, and likewise for Boston. Maybe it fell through the cracks.
I’m still very pleased with the overall return.
(I also don’t want players who don’t project to league average betting lines in the DH role. I don’t think that’s a farfetched goal for Lile and Hassell but they aren’t there yet. When Crews is back, one will be OF4 and the other will be getting reps in Rochester. Hopefully in the offseason, we can trade another name or two from our ML-ready OF depth.)
SMS
31 Jul 25 at 8:43 pm
I was never terribly optimistic that Bell would be traded, because I was never terribly optimistic that anyone would offer anything for him. Even with his solid run through June and July his March/April was so bad that even now his OPS+ is only 103 (101 wRC+). His OPS bottomed out at .495 (.133/.229/.267; blech) on May 1, and even as late as May 27 was only .544. When the Nats flipped in to SD in the Soto trade he went from a 152 (!) OPS+ to 73 in SD. He’s now three years older and inconsistent to boot. He has gone from horrific in March/April to good in May to bad in June to scintillating in July … up until the last week, when he was kind of meh. For a player who can only contribute with the bat, that’s just not good enough.
John C.
1 Aug 25 at 1:50 pm