Washington Nationals enter 2026 with more questions than answers

When I say I’m a die-hard Washington Nationals fan, I mean die-hard.

I didn’t know this about myself until about 2024, when, in the midst of another season of finishing at or near the cellar of the division, I realized I was very excited about this young team.

Well on their way to finishing the season with just 71 wins for the second consecutive season, the 2024 Nats were a team you could be excited about… if you were a die-hard fan.

James Wood was finally called up, and he looked like a phenom out of the gate. CJ Abrams made his first All-Star appearance at 23 after a blistering first half of the season made him look like a franchise centerpiece. Dylan Crews, the 2023 number 2 overall pick behind Paul Skenes, debuted. Yea the pitching wasn’t great, especially out of the bullpen, but MacKenzie Gore started 32 games with a 3.90 ERA (he was the only starter with a sub-4 ERA).

And still, with all of those positives, the team ended up winning exactly 71 games for the second consecutive season. And I was still very optimistic about this team.

In my mind, we were one top-tier free agent signing away from at least threatening for a Wild Card spot. Yeah, the NL East is stacked at the top, but if the Marlins can be in the playoff hunt in September, then damnit why can’t we?

But if 2024 was about irrational optimism, 2025 was a cold splash of reality.

Once again, instead of adding top-tier free agent talent to a talented young team, the Nats ownership group decided that signing Nathaniel Lowe to a one-year $10 million deal and bringing back Josh Bell was a good enough offseason effort.

In the middle of a slog of a season where it was clear long-time manager Davey Martinez had lost the ear of his young team, the ownership group, led by Mark Lerner, decided not only to fire the World Series-winning manager, but it also let go of Mike Rizzo, who had been at the helm of the team for 20 years.

I expected Martinez to be fired, but only at the end of the season because he had at least earned that much respect. Rizzo’s firing came completely out of left field for me (though there are many Nats fans who would disagree) because he had done the best he could with an ownership group that just refuses to spend any money.

Rizzo built a talented young core, but that only takes you so far in Major League Baseball if you are handicapped by ownership.

Then this offseason, Lerner brought the youth movement from the field to the front office.

Photo by Rich Storry on Getty Images

(Photo by Rich Storry on Getty Images)Washington Nationals’ 2026 season may be my last straw

So you fire your World Series-winning manager in the middle of a season that is going nowhere. That’s fine.

You also fire your long-time GM despite denying him the tools he needs to build a successful team. That’s also fine.

But then the team did something curious. It hired 35-year-old Paul Toboni to be its president of baseball operations (essentially the GM), making him the youngest PBC in the league.

Toboni then hired Blake Butera to be the manager. Never heard of Blake Butera? Well, the 33-year-old is now the youngest manager MLB has had since Frank Quilici over 50 years ago.

I wish both men nothing but success, but from the outside looking in, it appears as though ownership got rid of the adults in the room and replaced them with first-timers they could control.

Fans online are praising Butera and Toboni’s emphasis on advanced analytics (oh brother) and their devotion to player development, but all I can see (at least for now) are two novices who are replacing two older guys with World Series rings.

And just like that, my die-hardness expired.

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(I was actually looking forward to allowing my MLB.TV subscription to lapse this season, but then I re-subscribed to watch the World Baseball Classic, only to find out MLB.TV wasn’t showing the games live…)

Since the Nats won it all in 2019, I’ve looked forward to spring training every offseason. February could not come soon enough, because that meant baseball was returning.

This offseason wasn’t like that at all, for me. I only started paying attention this week to find out Dylan Crews was being sent back down to the minors, and Josiah Gray will be out, once again, for the foreseeable future.

Many of the pieces that made me excited about the team are still there, for now, but after another offseason where ownership didn’t spend any money to make the team better, and the front office traded away our best young pitcher because they don’t want to have to pay him in two years, that feeling is gone.

There are plenty of fans excited about the new direction, and I hope for all of our sakes they are right. But with the lockout looming in 2027, this feels like we’re heading into the lamest lame duck year ever.

I’ll watch because I enjoy the players and the game (and because I’m now stuck with an MLB.TV subscription I don’t really want), but the optimism, much like the Nats’ young lineup, just isn’t hitting like it used to.

This story was originally published by Lindys Sports on Mar 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Washington Nationals enter 2026 with more questions than answers

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