The Washington Nationals have been one of the most interesting organizations to follow throughout the 2025-2026 offseason so far. After coming into this offseason with so much to accomplish, at this point, you could say the organization has done a great job of checking things off their list.
Washington had to effectively clean house entirely, letting go of a lot of their previous faces in the front office from the Mike Rizzo era, and let go of a lot of depth pieces in the upper levels of their minor leagues. After hiring Paul Toboni to be their new President of Baseball Operations, the race was on to bring in a slew of young up-and-comers around him.
Now, the front office is among the youngest in the sport but also has the potential to be one of the most innovative, as most of their high-ranking officials outside of Mike DeBartolo are under the age of 40. One of their most important items on their to-do list was to bring in a new coaching staff, which the Nationals accomplished by hiring Blake Butera and a ton of other young names that are exciting although unproven.
On the player personnel side, arguably their most important task of the offseason was to determine the future of MacKenzie Gore. After watching numerous contending teams pluck young starters from other bottom-feeder teams, the Nationals ended up getting their preferred package back from the Texas Rangers in a farm-altering haul for Washington last week.
But lost in the shuffle of all the Gore fallout was that the Nationals are continuing to be active in terms of minor league free agents, and they recently reunited with 2 more names that were both former draft picks of the organization back in the day. While both of these pieces are likely to serve as more depth than competing for a starting role, these could end up being guys that push for big league time at some point during the 2026 season.
The first signing was 31-year-old catcher Tres Barrera, a former 6th-round pick back in 2016, who debuted in the majors back in 2019 and received a World Series ring for his contributions to the title team. He received a little bit more time back in 2021 and 2022, when he appeared in 49 combined games between the 2 seasons. For his big league career, Barrera owns a .228/.313/.310 slash line with a .623 OPS to go along with 2 homers and 14 RBIs, but has spent significantly more time in the minors, having logged 2,065 games to date.
The other signing was 29-year-old righty reliever Bryce Montes de Oca, who was drafted 3 times in his professional career, including going in the 15th-round in the 2017 draft. While he didn't sign then, he has now found his way back to Washington despite not appearing in the big leagues since 2022. He has 3 career games in the majors and has pitched to a 10.80 ERA and 2.700 WHIP, although his numbers in the minors across 3 seasons include a 3.92 ERA and 1.552 WHIP in 85 games.
What do you think of the Nationals' most recent minor league deals? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.