Two high-profile Washington Nationals players might be on the move this offseason.
A new piece on Sunday from MLB Trade Rumors staff writer Steve Adams identified two of the Nationals' current longest-tenured players, both acquired in the trade that sent Juan Soto to San Diego in 2022, as two of MLB's top 40 trade candidates this offseason--with one of them ranking at the very top of the list.
MacKenzie Gore
It may come as no surprise that when it comes to the trade market, Nationals All-Star left-hander MacKenzie Gore is viewed as one of the top prizes on the block this offseason. Accordingly, he ranks at the very top of Adams' top 40. Trade speculation swirled around Gore heading into the trade deadline this past season, but on the heels of two brutal drubbings in the span of three starts leading up to August 1, Nationals interim general manager Mike DeBartolo was unable to find a suitor he felt was fitting for Gore and the team stood pat on the 6'2" southpaw.
Gore, an All-Star for the first time in his career in 2025, was fantastic in the first half to the tune of a 2.96 ERA in 110.1 IP, but tumbled down his final 49.1 innings to end the year with a cumulative 4.17 earned run average. It's been the case all too often; Gore's career 4.91 second-half ERA is over a full earned run higher than his 3.87 career first-half ERA, and he's seen his strikeout rate dip while his walk and home run rates jump after the All-Star break for his career. 27 years old next year, MacKenzie still has time to figure it out--but the Nationals might be running out of time for him to do it wearing their uniform. With four years of MLB service under his belt, Gore is scheduled to reach unrestricted free agency at the conclusion of the 2027 MLB season, and it's unclear if the Nationals, who have finished with 91 or more losses in five straight campaigns, will be much closer to playoff contention then than they are now.
With a new regime taking shape underneath president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, nobody can yet be sure exactly how eager the organization is going to be to trade its top players, but the hard truth is that it might be a necessary evil for the Nationals. Stop me if you've heard this before--Gore is a Boras Corp. client, and Scott Boras as an agent is known for aggressively pushing star players he represents towards free agency in lieu of pursuing an arbitration extension. The Nationals have been burned by Boras, who also represents Juan Soto, in the past, though the trade of Soto ultimately benefited the franchise more than it harmed it. One can ultimately only speculate as to where the mindsets of Gore, Boras, and Toboni rest as the offseason kicks into gear this week.
CJ Abrams
The Nationals shortstop, an All-Star in 2024 who only missed making the team this year because of a loaded National League shortstop class including Francisco Lindor, Trea Turner, Elly De La Cruz, and Geraldo Perdomo, is a much more difficult case to quantify. Adams ranked Abrams at no. 23 on the list out of 40, implying that Abrams is much less of a lock to find a trade suitor.
Indeed, the Nationals' case for trading CJ this offseason is difficult: as tenuous of a shortstop defender as CJ is (he's been worth -37 fielding run value at the position across four major league seasons), the Nationals don't have too many prospects busting down the door to take over the position and the free agent market at shortstop is rather thin. As much as I love Nasim Nuñez and would like to see him find more playing time this season, it doesn't make sense for him to usurp CJ right now.
The rationale, though, is there. Abrams has three years of team control remaining and a shortstop with a 132 wRC+ in the first half last season (and a 128 wRC+ in the first half the year prior) to go with 109 stolen bases in three full Major League seasons all while being projected to earn less than $6 million in arbitration for 2026 is a valuable trade commodity. The Nationals farm is still relatively bare, and there's no telling if Abrams would still be under team control by the time the club is ready to finally start winning again.
As Adams points out, there's no sense of urgency when it comes to a hypothetical Abrams trade; three years of control is still a lot, and plenty of time for CJ to improve his stock even if they do intend to eventually trade him. One thing that plays into the team's favor is Abrams' agency: in an organization where many of the team's top players are Boras Corp. affiliated, CJ Abrams is represented by Roc Nation, which might make a hypothetical extension less... impossible, to put it one way.
Do you think the Nationals should trade Gore or Abrams? If they did, who would you want in return? Let me know on Twitter @TheOttSpot.