Amidst the chaos of an incredibly busy trade deadline day that saw the Washington Nationals part ways with All-Star rental lefty Foster Griffin, the team also made a lower-profile swap with their Beltway Series rivals in the Baltimore Orioles. The Nats announced early Monday evening that the team had acquired minor league right-handed reliever Joe Glassey from Baltimore in exchange for outfielder Christian Franklin.
Nationals acquire Joe Glassey from Orioles for Christian Franklin
Franklin, who was ranked the Nationals' no. 29 prospect by MLB Pipeline prior to the trade, is 26 and had split time between all three outfield spots this year. Acquired from the Cubs in the Michael Soroka trade that also brought Ronny Cruz to the Nats organization, the 5'9" right-handed hitter hadn't hit for much power this year and had just a 101 wRC+ at Triple-A slashing .249/.375/.360. His Statcast numbers suggest higher raw power potential than he's displayed in the minors.
Franklin had his contract selected to the 40-man roster in November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. There wasn't really a path for him to the majors with Washington, and Orioles manager Craig Albernaz told MLB Network Radio Tuesday that he'd be coming right up to the bigs to make his MLB debut with the Orioles. The Nationals feature a wealth of outfielders, with All-Star James Wood (who, granted, might be hitting the injured list in the coming days) joining Dylan Crews, Daylen Lile, Jacob Young, and several others at lower levels. The Orioles, who moved on from Taylor Ward, had a gap to fill in their outfield.
In return, the Nationals receive 25-year-old Joe Glassey. Signed as an undrafted free agent in July of 2024, the right-hander spent four years at Illinois as a reliever before joining affiliated ball. Someone with the profile of an undrafted reliever generally doesn't garner prospect hype: there's not really any publicly accessible scouting reports on him, and tape is hard to find, though I did source him working a clean inning with a strikeout from July of last year.
The Nationals have acquired Minor League right-handed pitcher Joe Glassey from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for outfielder Christian Franklin.
— Nationals Communications (@NationalsComms) August 3, 2026
Perhaps we don't need a scouting report just yet, because the results speak for themselves. In 22 appearances with Advanced-A Frederick this year, Glassey struck out 42.4% of hitters faced. Command wasn't an issue, either, walking fewer than 7% of those batters. That generated a 2.86 ERA and 2.24 xFIP that earned him a promotion to Double-A Chesapeake on July 28, where he made two appearances--racking up three more strikeouts--before the Nats acquired him.
Joe fills a need for the Nationals, and it's one that baseball operations president Paul Toboni has been candid about through his actions at this year's deadline: deal from surplus hitting to flesh out an incredibly weak pitching core. Relievers, especially older ones, have a quicker path to the majors, and it's not impossible to think that Glassey could be in the bullpen on Opening Day next year--assuming there is an Opening Day--if all goes according to plan.
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