Nationals desperately want to be buyers, not sellers, next summer

PHOENIX – In his 16 seasons as Nationals general manager, Mike Rizzo has found himself on both ends of the trade deadline spectrum. He’s been a buyer many times. He’s been a seller with some frequency as well. He’s even had a few quiet Julys when he could stand pat and play out the rest of the season.

But he’s become way too familiar with the selling process the last four years. Every trade deadline deal the Nationals have made since 2021 – and there have been 13 of them in total – has involved the swapping of major league players for prospects.

Suffice it to say, Rizzo would much rather find himself adding than subtracting this time of year.

“It’s more fun, I know that much,” he said. “Way more fun grabbing All-Star players than giving away All-Star players. … This is challenging. This is a tough time for players, and we recognize that. But we think it’s a necessary time. I think this organization, this front office, did a remarkable job.”

The initial reviews of the Nats’ four deadline moves – Hunter Harvey to the Royals for Cayden Wallace and a draft pick used on Caleb Lomavita; Jesse Winker to the Mets for Tyler Stuart; Lane Thomas to the Guardians for Alex Clemmey, Rafael Ramirez Jr. and Jose Tena; Dylan Floro to the Diamondbacks for Andres Chaparro – have been positive.

Rizzo and his lieutenants turned two would-be free agents into a pitching prospect and a power-hitting corner infielder, and two quality players with an extra year of club control into a highly touted pitching prospect, a highly touted third baseman, two infield prospects and one of the top catchers in the draft.

And in not dealing Kyle Finnegan, Rizzo kept his All-Star closer not just for the remainder of this season but for a 2025 season he hopes will include meaningful save situations come September and perhaps beyond.

“We’re happy with the return,” he said. “The process, we felt, worked well for us. We’re really happy and excited about a lot of the players we got in return.”

Inside the Nationals clubhouse, there was less enthusiasm about the departures of four successful and popular veterans, albeit relief upon learning Finnegan was retained on deadline day.

Major league players don’t want to think too much about their chances of winning some unspecified day down the road. They want to think about trying to win right now. And if not right now, at least by next season. If a GM decides to sell in July, players start pointing fingers at themselves for putting him in that position to begin with.

“For all of us, we don’t like doing that,” left-hander MacKenzie Gore. “But the only way (being buyers) happens is if I play the way I’m capable of, what we’re capable of. We’re getting an opportunity here. And we are better than we were. But there’s still a lot of things we can work on. We have to take full advantage of these last two months as a group, come together and get some momentum going.”

Gore, of course, was one of the 27 prospects Rizzo acquired during the last four trade deadlines, one of the centerpieces of the Juan Soto mega-deal with the Padres two years ago. Since arriving in D.C., he has only known the Nationals as sellers. He, like everyone else on the roster aside from Patrick Corbin and Tanner Rainey, wasn’t here the last time Rizzo bought veterans at the deadline in July 2019.

For a few fleeting moments earlier this summer, there were perhaps visions of the 2024 Nationals going for it, trying to hang around in a wide open National League wild card race and add, say, a slugging first baseman to a lineup sorely lacking in power and perhaps another experienced reliever to further deepen what looked like a good bullpen.

The Nats, though, have gone 11-21 since June 23, falling from one game to 11 games under .500. Even the most optimistic participant had to concede a surprise pennant race wasn’t in the cards this year.

At 49-60, the Nationals would have to go 32-21 the rest of the way to finish exactly at the .500 mark. They have to go 27-26 to finish 76-86, which would represent a five-win improvement from 2023. If they go 22-31 from here on out, they’ll wind up with the same 71-91 record they had a year ago.

“We’re not going to quit. We just have to do it with some new faces now,” Gore said. “These guys are going to get opportunities, and they’re going to play hard. That’s what we’re going to have to do: Control what we can control and continue to compete. Because there’s been a lot of good things that have happened up to this point. We struggled more recently, but there’s been way too much positive stuff to happen for us to just kind of leave it at that.”

There has long been the feeling within the organization, both in the front office and in the clubhouse, that the pieces could all finally come together in 2025 and officially bring an end to the rebuilding process that began in July 2021. For that to happen, young players already in the majors have to take the necessary steps forward, top prospects still learning the game in the minors have to arrive on the scene and live up to their potential and ownership has to be willing to spend more money than it has in several years to plug whatever roster holes remain after all that.

And if that can all come to fruition, one year from now perhaps Nationals players will have convinced the front office it’s finally time to add, not subtract, at the trade deadline again.

“That’s the plan, right?” Finnegan said. “We’re going to continue to work to get to that point. And it’s going to be really special when, come this time next year, we’re adding pieces and getting excited to position ourselves for the postseason.”