The trade deadline is today at 6 p.m., and the Nationals have already had a busy deadline. They traded relievers Luis Garcia and Andrew Chafin to the Angels, sent Amed Rosario to the Yankees, and just flipped Michael Soroka to the Cubs. Will they do anything else? Here are three players who might not be as safe as they think.
1. Mackenzie Gore
Gore would be the Nationals’ best trade piece if they’re interested in moving him. He’s having a good year, although less so of one following a clunker against Astros yesterday. He has a 3.80 ERA and 148 strikeouts in 123 innings, and is under club control through 2027. Bennett Lehmann wrote yesterday on District on Deck that interim GM Mike DeBartolo might want to get back a big prospect haul that would show ownership he should be the GM beyond 2025.
Trading Gore would make some sense from a baseball perspective. The Nationals probably don’t have a great chance of competing in 2026 or 2027 unless they make significant additions to their roster, which doesn’t appear to be the direction the organization is heading in right now. It would be a bold move, though, and time is running out.
2. Josh Bell
On the surface, Josh Bell doesn’t look like a player who would bring back a lot. He’s a below-average defensive first baseman and has been almost exclusively a DH in 2025, and he’s having his third straight mediocre season at the plate after a strong 2022. With all that said, though, Grant Paulsen just posted on X that we should “expect” Washington to trade Bell, who’s drawing “significant” interest.
It would seem that, despite Bell’s lack of obvious value, some contenders see hidden potential in him, and believe that he can get back to his reasonably productive former self—although a really good team would probably still look at him as a bat off the bench at this point in his career. The Nationals traded Bell away in 2022 in the memorable Juan Soto deal, but this time Bell would be bringing back a lot less.
3. Luis Garcia Jr.
The Nationals have already traded one Luis Garcia, and now we’re waiting to see if they’re going to deal another. Paulsen wrote that the Nationals are listening to calls on Garcia and are looking for a “legit” return for him; Stephen Newman wrote on District on Deck that he was a bit worried about this demand by Washington. The fact that the Nationals are thinking about moving middling players like Garcia and Bell speaks to the tough situation they’re in.
They’re a rebuilding team and want to stockpile prospects for the future, but they’re so thin at the big-league level that they don’t have a ton of talent to trade away and recoup prospects in return. However, it makes a bit more sense that teams would have at least a mild interest in Garcia Jr. than Bell, mainly because Garcia’s expected stats this year are actually pretty good; his xwOBA and xSLG are both in the 76th percentile according to Baseball Savant. Also, he’s a lefty who’s much better against righties, so he’d fit nicely as a platoon bat at the bottom of a contender’s lineup.