{"id":19387,"date":"2026-01-23T10:43:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=19387"},"modified":"2026-01-23T14:10:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:10:33","slug":"so-is-that-all-we-could-get-for-mackenzie-gore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=19387","title":{"rendered":"So, Is that all we could get for MacKenzie Gore??"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GoreNats-wikipedia.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"546\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GoreNats-wikipedia.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18874\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GoreNats-wikipedia.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GoreNats-wikipedia-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">So Long Gore.  Photo wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s been rumored all off-season, and now a few weeks before Pitchers and Catchers report, our biggest trade asset MacKenzie Gore has been traded.  Announced last night, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2026\/01\/rangers-to-acquire-mackenzie-gore.html\">Nats moved Gore to Texas<\/a> for a package of 5 prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a quick look at those 5 prospects, with their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/nationals\/\">new Nats system rank<\/a> and other pertinent information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>shortstop&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=fien--000gav&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gavin Fien<\/a><\/strong>; 2025 1st rounder, Age 18. Our new #5 prospect  (was Texas&#8217; #2 prospect)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>right-hander&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=rosari002ale,rosari004ale&amp;search=Alejandro+Rosario&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alejandro Rosario<\/a><\/strong>; 2023 college 5th rounder, Age 24, AA last year, new #11 prospect<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>infielder&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=fitz-g000dev&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Devin Fitz-Gerald<\/a><\/strong>: 2025 prep 5th rounder but over-slot bonus, age 20, new #12 prospect<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>outfielder&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=cabrer000yer&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yeremy Cabrera<\/a><\/strong>: 2022 IFA, just 20, our new #17 prospect<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>first baseman\/outfielder&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=ortiz-000abi&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-01-22_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Abimelec Ortiz<\/a><\/strong>; 2021 NDFA, Age 3, on 40-man, hit AAA last year, new #24 <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>First glance? I&#8217;m sorry, but is this all we could get? One 18yr old 1st rounder, two 20yr olds in low-A, a AA starter who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/fantasy\/baseball\/news\/rangers-alejandro-rosario-finally-gets-tjs\/\">missed all of 2025 AND just had TJ<\/a> so he&#8217;s missing all of 2026 too, and a AAA utility guy? This is a major swing from a risk perspective, and the lack of additional higher-regarded prospects give me pause.  The discovery (post publishing) that the 2nd best prospect is out for the entire 2026 season is even more demoralizing here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m really disappointed with this return.  We didn&#8217;t even get Texas&#8217; best prospect in this deal.  Maybe that&#8217;s me overvaluing Gore.  On the one hand, Gore&#8217;s career numbers put him at a 98 ERA+.  But at the same time, we&#8217;ve seen him be completely dominant for stretches.  He&#8217;s valuable because he&#8217;s being paid a pittance for what he provides as a mid-rotation starter ($2.8M in first year Arb this year, $5.6M this year) and for 2 more  years of control.  He&#8217;s an innings eater who throws mid-90s from the left side; that&#8217;s worth a ton of the FA market and should have been worth more in trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When he didn&#8217;t go in the Winter Meetings, I thought the team should hold on to him until the Trade Deadline, when desperate teams who had lost starters to injury would be overpaying for mid-level starters.  I was wrong; the new FO pulled the trigger on a deal they liked.  I sense this was an underpay by Texas, but clearly the GM sees these younger guys and liked the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An additional wrinkle: we&#8217;ve spoken before about the logjam of young shortstops projected to play in Fredericksburg in 2026  &#8230; well we just added two more guys who need playing time.  We now add Fien and Fitz-Gerald to Willis, Feliz, Dickerson, and Mota, all of whom are likely projected to Low-A and who predominantly play SS.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does this mean for the franchise?  Insiders and those in the knew already knew this, but the signals have been strong that we&#8217;re on our way to bottoming out once again.  My &#8220;casual Nats fan&#8221; pinged me last night with an immediate reaction to this trade, asking why we were getting rid of our best pitcher and I had to break it to him; we&#8217;re going to be bad for a while, so buckle up.  This latter type of fan is the one who the Nats eventually will need to come back, to buy tickets, to bring the family for weekend games &#8230; but I sense a move like this, one which gets rid of one of the few players whose names they even know, is going to turn people off for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m always excited to get more prospects into the system, as a prospect-heavy analysis site.  Don&#8217;t get me wrong; can&#8217;t wait to do the spreadsheet work and try to noodle where I think these players will fit in my eventual top-100+ ranking that i&#8217;ll publish before the season starts.  But I hate trading away assets and not getting enough in return, which I believe happened here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>What do you think?  Am I over-valuing Gore?  Did we get appropriate return here?  Should we have waited til the Trade deadline 2026?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been rumored all off-season, and now a few weeks before Pitchers and Catchers report, our biggest trade asset MacKenzie Gore has been traded. Announced last night, the Nats moved Gore to Texas for a package of 5 prospects. Here&#8217;s a quick look at those 5 prospects, with their new Nats system rank and other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,4324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","category-natsgeneral","category-prospects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19387"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19392,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19387\/revisions\/19392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}