Recent Nationals castoffs are finding new homes on Minor League deals

After the loss of Ildemaro Vargas, who had already been DFA'd earlier this offseason, became official on Wednesday when he signed a minor league deal to return to the organization he started his career with, something became clear. Out of the many of the players that were members of the 40-man roster for the Washington Nationals in 2024, the ones who have left the organization have not been able to secure deals at the MLB level.

What does this mean for the outlook of the Nationals that all of the players who have signed elsewhere so far haven't been able to get a big league deal? It means that they had some legitimately bad players on the 40-man roster who aren't being sought after as coveted free agents, which makes some of the team's decision-making to not get rid of them earlier that much more interesting.

Outside of Vargas, the Nationals have seen 4 former players sign elsewhere on MiLB deals, with a pair of subpar relievers, a flash-in-the-pan first baseman, and a failed top prospect rounding out the "Fab Five" of Nationals castoffs. In case you couldn't tell the names I was hinting at, let's go ahead and dive into them.

For the pair of relievers, we have a pair of names who were likely held onto for too long by the organization, in righties Jordan Weems and Tanner Rainey. The latter was more understandable, as he was one of the few remaining members of the 2019 World Series team, and had worked his tail off for awhile in order to make it back to an MLB mound after multiple injuries. Weems had a solid ending to his 2023 season that gave him way too long of a leash in 2024, and he was downright awful to end the season with the Nationals before being shown the door. While both battled ineffectiveness in 2024, they are off to new teams, with Rainey joining the Pittsburgh Pirates and Weems headed to the Atlanta Braves.

As for the flash-in-the-pan first baseman, that would be none other than Joey Meneses, who is going to step in admirably to take over at first base for the Mets once Pete Alonso signs with the Nationals (no sarcasm detected). Once a fan favorite in DC, Meneses was downright awful in 2024, eventually resulting in the organization parting ways with him.

As for the failed top prospect, we have infielder Carter Kieboom, who was once regarded as one of the top prospect's in all of baseball, and was considered an untouchable prospect in the Nationals organization. He got chance after chance to prove he belonged in the show and it just never quite panned out in the Nation's Capital. He is headed to the Los Angeles Angels, where he will hope to factor into their never-ending rebuild and help Mike Trout get back to the playoffs.

Of course, I wish all of these players nothing but success in their future endeavors, and I can't say that there's a single name on the list below whose impact will be truly missed. Overall, it's remarkable how 4/5 of these players were on the 2024 Nationals at the same time, yet they can't get an opportunity with another club elsewhere, but at least that's all in the past.

Do you think any of these players will find success outside of DC? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.