2026 Profile: Washington Nationals

The 2026 Major League Baseball season will begin shortly. At Passion MLB, as has been the case for years, we are setting the stage for the season by introducing the 30 teams of Major League Baseball.

Today, the Nationals are on the menu.

2025 Season

The 2025 campaign was supposed to be the first year that the Washington Nationals' rebuild would begin to bear fruit, the year that the fruits of the Juan Soto trade in 2022 would finally translate into on-field performance.

Instead, the Nats had a disastrous season, as evidenced by their record of just 66 wins against 96 losses, which put them second to last in the entire National League.

Additions and departures

During the offseason, Washington acquired Zack Littel, Miles Mikolas, Ken Waldichuk, and Richard Lovelady on the mound.

On the position player side, young Harry Ford and Isaac Lyon arrived from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for the services of Jose A. Ferrer.

Gavin Fien, Abimelec Ortiz, Devin Fitz-Gerald, and Alejandro Rosiario did the same in the trade involving Mackenzie Gore. Joey Wiemer is also coming to the nation's capital.

Strengths and weaknesses

In terms of the Nationals' lineup, there are a few bright spots in a rather bleak landscape.

James Wood had a breakout year in 2025, hitting 31 home runs at only 22 years of age. However, he nearly set a record for strikeouts in a season with 221 (two fewer than Mark Reynolds in 2009), but he remains the only hitter on the team with a WAR above three.

James Wood says this year's group has been super open, and the good conversations have been flowing.

“We've done some good things so far.” pic.twitter.com/rAqzjc2KzO

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 5, 2026

Things aren't much better on the pitching side, with none of the Nats' starting pitchers expected to post an ERA below 4.00 or a strikeout rate above 20%.

The bullpen is even worse, with former New York Yankee Clayton Beeter likely the best arm in the group.

Expectations for the 2026 season

All this to say that we shouldn't expect much from the Nationals in 2026 and that the team's fans will have to be patient.

Washington is more likely to trade the two remaining players from the Soto deal, Wood and C.J. Abrams, at the trade deadline than to fight for a playoff spot.

With former Boston Red Sox executive Paul Toboni as the new president of baseball operations in a young front office, everything points to a return to square one from top to bottom in the organization.

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