Throughout the offseason, one of the more awkward times of the year is the subject of arbitration for players and teams around Major League Baseball. Sometimes, there will be cases where it's really awkward, such as the case for the Detroit Tigers and their superstar ace Tarik Skubal.
Their case is a true first, as Skubal and his camp are seeking $32 million in salary for 2026, which would be a record awarded in arbitration. The Tigers filed at $19 million, which leaves the side $13 million apart as rumors of Skubal being traded to the highest bidder will only surely increase moving forward.
For the Washington Nationals, however, they have been a little bit more successful, as they came to terms with a few of their handful of decisions that they had to figure out before the offseason progressed too deeply. There also was one player that they did not agree with, and I will talk about that later as well.
A couple of the players who they just came to agreements with are very important pieces to the franchise's success, such as All-Stars CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore, but they also agreed with righty Jake Irvin, who is seemingly still not guaranteed a spot in the starting rotation following an abysmal 2025 season. Later on Thursday before the 8PM EST deadline, they also agreed to terms with second baseman Luis Garcia Jr., meaning they will only have to go to a hearing with one player.
That player is righty starting pitcher Cade Cavalli, who filed at $900K, while the Nationals filed at $825K. Since the sides are so close from a numerical standpoint, it seems pretty likely that they will be able to agree to terms before having to legitimately go to a hearing, as most teams would be able to do.
If for some reason they end up going to a hearing over $75K, which is a fair amount to the average person but not to a professional baseball organization, it would be an extremely bad look, but again, that appears unlikely at this point. Last year, the Nationals went to an arbitration hearing with trade acquisition Nathaniel Lowe before he even played a single game for the team, and while the Nationals ultimately won the case, it certainly was an interesting way to begin what ended up being a disastrous tenure for Lowe in DC.
Do you think the Nationals came to fair agreements with all of these players? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.