The Nationals Need To Lean Further Into Their Rebuild

This wasn’t how the Nationals hoped their rebuild would play out. When now-former GM Mike Rizzo traded Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers back in 2021, the hope was that dismantling a stacked roster could lead to an accelerated turnaround. In the span of just over a calendar year, Washington traded Scherzer, Turner and Juan Soto, in addition to short-term veterans like Kyle Schwarber, Jon Lester, Brad Hand, Yan Gomes, Daniel Hudson, Josh Harrison, Josh Bell, Jeimer Candelario, Dylan Floro and Hunter Harvey.

It obviously takes years to fully evaluate the extent of any given trade, but it’s more than fair to say the slate of moves largely hasn’t panned out. Rizzo’s return for Soto/Bell has been terrific, with the Nats netting James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, Robert Hassell III and Jarlin Susana. The first four are current big leaguers — the first three are stars or close to it — and Susana is now a consensus top-100 pitching prospect. The trade of Lester brought back Lane Thomas, who was a solid regular for a few years before being traded to Cleveland last summer in a deal that netted the Nats current big league infielder Jose Tena and left-hander Alex Clemmey — currently their No. 3 prospect at Baseball America. It’s a nice return for one-plus seasons of Thomas.

The rest of the Nationals’ haul, however, hasn’t really panned out. Washington doesn’t have any above-average regulars to show for the rest of that slate of trades. If they’d focused squarely on low-level minor leaguers who were still bubbling up to the top of a stacked farm system, that’d be one thing …. but it’s not the case. Washington’s farm system ranks 21st in the majors, per Baseball America, and that’s after benefiting from the No. 1 pick in this summer’s draft. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranks their farm 22nd. The MLB.com team ranks them 23rd. For a last place team that’s been rebuilding for more than four years, that’s not sufficient.

Let’s dive into what the Nats received from that group of trades, what critical decisions lie ahead in the offseason, and how boldly they could act in order to turn things around.