Washington Nationals

Washington Nationals

The Nationals are set to hire Justin Horowitz as an assistant general manager, as first reported by Joe Doyle of Over-Slot Baseball. Previously the Pirates' director of amateur scouting, Horowitz will now work under Washington's new president of baseball operations, Paul Toboni. Toboni, like Horowitz, has a background in amateur scouting. In fact, Horowitz worked under Toboni in the Red Sox's amateur scouting department for several years. That's surely no coincidence.

Arguably the biggest obstacle the new front office will need to tackle and address moving forward is player development, which was called out as being subpar by ace lefty MacKenzie Gore before the end of the season. Anyone who watched or paid attention to the Nationals this past season at any level could tell that the team had talent, but lacked proper infrastructure to be able to adequately support high-end development.

The Washington Nationals are in the very early stages of establishing an entirely new front office. With their most pivotal offseason in a very long time just getting underway now, the Nationals and their fans know that there is a lot of work to be done in order to return the organization to its former glory as one of the most consistent competitors of the 2010s.

Mitchell Parker emerged in 2024 as a major surprise, debuting in the big leagues after just four appearances at Triple-A Rochester before going seven scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in just his second start at the MLB level. Things looked good from there--minus a July 13 disaster where he was unable to escape the first inning, Parker managed a 4.01 ERA in just over 150 innings as a 24-year-old.

Paul Toboni speaks and acts like a modern president of baseball operations, with a first-day swagger and commitment to building a " scouting and player development monster." He said everything he should have said Wednesday morning, when he was introduced as just the third head of baseball in Washington Nationals history. Take him at his word, and it's easy to fall in line behind him and believe he'll update the front office and develop a thoughtful, organized, clear structure

The Washington Nationals' tumultuous 2025 season will finally draw to a close this afternoon, and for many of us fans who have endured the hardships of this season, it's a huge relief. It should be an emotional afternoon, as the Nationals have a chance to send longtime legendary announcer Bob Carpenter into the sunset on a high note, but now another layer has been added to the game.

It's been a disappointing season for the Nats for a few reasons. The expectation was for this team to take a step in the direction of competing in the National League, but it has instead struggled to win 60 games. The roster has struggled in all facets of the game, and a few players are making their final appearances in a Nats uniform this week.

While Monday's game did have some nice moments, such as the towering homer hit by Dylan Crews as he continues to finish the season strong, the team could not get out of the hole that scuffling ace MacKenzie Gore put them in early on. After Nasim Nuñez homered to lead off the game, it appeared as if the visiting team would be in business, but that proved not to be the case.

The Nationals announced today that left-hander MacKenzie Gore has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a right ankle impingement.

In 2019, his first full season in the majors, Robles was plunked 25 times, second-most in the majors. He managed to finish eighth in hit-by-pitches in 2021 despite playing only 107 total games. In a half-season with the Mariners in 2024, Robles managed to get plunked 10 times in 262 plate appearances; for frame of reference, last season the Chicago White Sox were plunked 43 total times in 5,869 plate appearances.

" It's so inefficient. When there's that many people in the room, it's hard to come to decisions in an orderly fashion," said one source.

He has now started 11 games since July, and he has been consistently performing above expectation. Lord has only had 3 of those games mark 4+ earned runs, and 5 games of 3+ earned runs. Though recording zero shutouts, Lord did have four starts of 1 earned run, or less. He also went 5+ innings in seven of his eleven starts in that time. These are all great, consistent numbers.