Rebuilding Washington Nationals for 2026

Rebuilding Washington Nationals for 2026

The Washington Nationals failed to take that next step into playoff contention in 2025. However, the pieces are in place that with an excellent off season, this team could surprise everyone in 2026. Hello, my name is Avery Taylor, and yes, this is how well a one-sizefititall hat fits my head. But in all seriousness, welcome to Rebuild October, a series where we rebuild a new team every day across the month of October. So whether you’re looking for your favorite team or just generally curious about how every team should approach the off season, this is the series for you. And let’s go ahead and dive into the nation’s capital. As you can see from the war by positions, the Nationals certainly have their strengths and weaknesses. Wood and Abrams form an excellent tandem, but the rest of the roster has yet to pull its weight. The pitching staff needs an overhaul, and the hitters could use some veterans where the youngsters are falling short. Before we can talk about who the team will be adding, we have to talk about who the team will be losing in free agency. As it stands, the Nationals are set to lose Josh Bell, Paul de Young, and Dererick Law into free agency. All of which bring value to the table, but are replaceable. For the Nationals, Law would be the most enticing player to bring back. But considering he won’t be healthy again till the second half of the year, it’s not a risk worth taking. As for prospects the team could look into for 2026, Arlene Susano was one of the hottest names in the prospect world. His four seamer touches 102 and his slider can wipe anyone off the map, but the walks are a bit of a problem. If he were a reliever, he could easily start the year in the major leagues and let that stuff eat. But considering the Nationals are building him as a starter, he’ll start the year in the minor leagues. Looking outside the top 100, there are a number of names the Nationals could see throughout the season. Jake Bennett, Christian Franklin, and Andre Lara will all have their time in the limelight, but the prospect we’ll be focusing on is Yandi Morales. Morales is ranked as the 19th ranked prospect in the national system. The corner infielder has his struggles with strikeouts, but brings some excellent pop and crushes left-handed pitching, which will earn him a platoon spot on the roster. Returning position players to the roster will be Riley Adams a catcher, Luis Garcia at second, Brady House back at third despite his struggles, Dylan Cruz in center, Dalon Low and Wright, Nazim Nunees as an additional infielder, Jacob Young as a fourth outfielder, and Drew Malas as a catcher. Robert Hassel and Cbert Ruiz are probably the biggest names not to be on the opening day roster. Both are a victim of underperformance with other players bringing more to the major league roster. Admittedly, Ruiz will probably get forced into the roster just because of his contract. But in this scenario, his lackluster performance will leave him just short. Before we can talk about the money the Nationals will spend on free agency, let’s talk about the money I’ll be spending on my wife for Christmas. For every subscriber I gain across the month of October, I’ll be adding 50 cents to Kylie’s Christmas budget. We’ll be starting at $150 and go from there. So, every subscriber counts. Thank you so much in advance. And let’s get back to DC. With a need at first base versus righties and at DH, the Nationals return to free agency. At first base, the Nationals will grab Donovan Solano. Solano has some very extreme reverse splits with an OPS close to 900 versus righties. The right-handed bat will also keep the lineup from getting too left-hand dominant. And then at DH, we’ll have the Nationals grabbing Randall Gridic. Rick is a left-handed pitching masher, and if he can continue to prove he doesn’t hit right-handed pitching all that well, then we could definitely platoon with Young and shift Wood or Lyall to DH for better defense in the outfield. For the rotation, they’ll get some reinforcements back from injury in the form of Josiah Gray, who alongside Mackenzie Gore should form a solid duo at the top of the rotation. Joining them will be promising young talents Cade Gavali and Andrew Alvarez. For the fifth spot in the rotation, the Nationals will look into free agency and grab a high upside player. That player is going to be Dustin May, coming off a rough season with the Boston Red Sox. The hope for May comes in that he’ll be two years removed from his lost 2024 season. For pitchers, sometimes it takes a full season to get their feel back. With the Nationals, he would essentially get his chance to show he still has some juice. As for the bullpen, it needs a fairly large overhaul. Ferrar, Henry, Becker, and Puland will remain in the pin from the previous season with Brad Lord moving down from the rotation to the bullpen. The remaining three additions will have to come from free agency. The first of which comes in the form of Jordan Romano. You might be asking yourself, how does a reliever with an eight RA fix anything? That’s an excellent question, but Romano isn’t as bad as the RA would indicate. He still strikes out a fair amount of batters. He just isn’t getting the same results on balls put in play. He’s giving up an unprecedented amount of homers and hits. And if those self-correct, this could be an excellent buy low situation on the right-hander. The second addition to the pin is Raphael Montero, who is a bit more stable than Romano. He’s consistently around a mid-4 RA and with any improvement in the walk category could be really solid. He gets contact onto the ground and gets a fair amount of strikeouts. So, this is a really good reliever in the making. And the final addition to the bullpen and the roster is Ryan Yarborough. This rotation is a combination of young pitchers and players coming off injury that is necessary to have a quality long reliever. And Yarborough fits that role nicely. And that’s going to do it for the rebuild. This team still has a lot of growth to make noise in the National League East, but they have the talent and pieces to do so. They just need these former top prospects to really hit their stride and the organization to come along with the right set of complimentary pieces. Hello, post editing me here with day three update on the subscriber count. We started the month at 2360. Yesterday, that number grew to 2364 and today it is up to 2368. Again, to some people, a gain of four subscribers a day doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but to me that’s four people and another four yesterday that decided to join this community, decided to click subscribe. Maybe for my wife, maybe for me, I don’t know. But, you know, you decided to join the community and that’s really all I could ask for. I thank you guys so much for watching these videos day in day out. I know there’s a good few of you that watch these videos every single day, and I appreciate the heck out of you guys so much. So, please continue to show up. Thank you guys for the support, and I hope you guys have a wonderful day.

The Washington Nationals failed to take that next step in 2025, but the pieces are still in place to see a massive jump forward. All it takes is the right offseason for this team to ignite, and take things to the next level in a loaded NL East.

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