Over the past few seasons, the Nationals have been one of the worst teams in baseball. After winning the World Series in 2019, the team quickly tore down the roster and looked toward the future—trading franchise cornerstones like Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, and Juan Soto. All the major contributors to the magical playoff run that saw the franchise win its first World Series title are gone.
With the core gone and young talent years away from making an impact, the Nationals were forced to suffer the pains of a rebuild. Over the past four seasons, they were the doormats of the National League. They have a record of 262-386 and have finished in fifth place in the NL East all four seasons. The past four seasons the Nationals have been out of it before Memorial Day. There hasn’t been much of a reason to pay attention other than to see who they might move at the deadline.
However, things are about to change in the nation’s capital. It seems like for the first time in a while there’s excitement surrounding the Nationals. Sure it looks to be another loss season. With PECOTA projecting the team to win no more than 74 games. Yet, despite these lackluster projections Nats and baseball fans should be keeping a close eye on them this season.
The Nationals Young Hitting Core in the Majors
As mentioned before, during the Nationals teardown of 2021-22, they were able to nab some of the most prospects in baseball. During those seasons, they always had at least three to four prospects on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list. Experts constantly praised their system calling it one of the best in all of baseball. Even with some of their best prospect graduating to the MLB, Bleacher Report still has them as a top 15 system.
The crown jewel of the new-look Nationals is outfielder Dylan Crews. Crews were long considered to be not only the best prospect in the Nationals organization but also one of the top prospects in all of baseball. He had a cup of coffee last season, but in 2025, we should see him play his first full season in the bigs. James Wood makes up the second half of Washington’s new dynamic duo. Like Crews, Wood has been a prospect we’ve been waiting for. He’s been a top-50 prospect the past few seasons, and after a decent first impression, he’s looking to build off it in his first full season.
Along with these two cornerstones, the Nationals have developed a nice supporting cast. CJ Abrams is entering his fourth season in the MLB. After being an all-star last season he looks poised to take another step forward. They also have Jacob Young and Luis Garcia Jr. Although both have been average, a big season will helps the Nats a lot.
MacKenzie Gore is About to be an Ace
As good as the hitting core is it means nothing if the pitching isn’t good. Thankfully for the Nationals, they developed an ace along with their hitting core. When the Nats traded Soto to the Padres, one of the main pieces coming back was MacKenzie Gore. Gore was the third overall pick in the 2017 MLB draft and was one of the top prospects in baseball. He even made a few starts for San Diego before coming to DC.
The reason for all the hype surrounding Gore was his reptar of pitches. He was seen as having three above-average pitches as a 20-year-old. A very hard task for someone that young to pull off. These pitches were his fastball, changeup, and slider. He attacks the batter with these three pitches, then saves his curveball as a put-away pitch. In 2024, he got 23.5% of his outs thanks to this curve.
Although he disappointed in 2022 and 2023, due to injuries and underperformance. He finally, put together a respectable season in 2024. Over 166.1 innings he pitched to a 3.90 ERA with 181 strikeouts to 65 walks, a 1.419 WHIP, and an ERA+ of 103. By far the best season of his career. If the trend of him improving year after year continues, 2025 is the season we see him reach his potential. A full-potential Gore plus the young hitting core will make the Nationals the most interesting team, despite the record.
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