The Washington Nationals have been waiver wire warriors so far in the 2026 offseason. Within the last few days, the new front office led by Paul Toboni has been shuffling their final couple 40-man roster spots, and made yet another move in an effort to repair their abysmal 2025 bullpen.
Heading into this season, it does not really appear as if the Nationals have a firm plan for their closer role. The last few years, they have trotted out righty Kyle Finnegan as their late-inning guy, which even culminated in an All-Star appearance for him back in 2024, but he was traded to the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline last year.
To finish out the 2025 season, the Nationals turned closing opportunities over to young flamethrowing lefty Jose A. Ferrer, and he was supposed to be the guy heading into 2026 for the Nationals in the ninth inning. He had been touted by many outlets as a popular breakout pick heading into this season, but he was of course traded to the Seattle Mariners in the Harry Ford deal.
While this trade might have the opportunity to work out for both sides, and genuinely might be viewed as a win-win in a few years from now, the void it has left for the Nationals has still not been filled. Seattle of course has MVP candidate Cal Raleigh as their long-term catcher, but the Nationals still have not adequately replaced the loss of Ferrer.
That could be part of the reason why the Nationals claimed righty George Soriano off waivers from the Miami Marlins, as he does have a slight amount of late-inning experience that could prove to be valuable for a team that has very little of it on their roster.
Soriano owns a career 5.95 ERA and 1.475 WHIP in 72 games at the big league level, but has also struck out 36 batters in 36.2 innings, showcasing at least some swing-and-miss ability although not quite at the level that you would want to see from a leverage reliever. His entire big league career has been spent with the Marlins so far, and he will look to battle to make the Nationals' Opening Day roster.
He will be taking the place of infielder Tsung-Che Cheng, who was not even a part of the organization long enough to get his own article about the transaction that took place when the Nationals claimed him before he was designated for assignment back at the end of last week on January 30th.
What do you think of the George Soriano addition by the Washington Nationals? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.