With the offseason approaching, the Washington Nationals have questions to answer at first base. Josh Bell will depart the team in free agency, leaving the team at a critical juncture at the position. The team's -1.0 FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement at first base this season ranks third worst in baseball, only ahead of the Rockies and Giants. There's a few approaches the team could take to fill the hole for the 2026 campaign. We'll look at one this week, and tackle the rest next Sunday.
Free agency
The infielder market this offseason is intriguing, but it's not incredibly compelling for a team struggling to find direction like the Nationals.
Looking first at domestic free agents, a couple names stand out at the top of the market for first basemen. Pete Alonso feels like a likely candidate to decline his player option with the Mets for 2026, and he was rumored to be a Nationals target in free agency last year. It seems he will be forgoing $24 million in the search for a longer-term payday entering his age-31 season on the heels of his best all-around offensive campaign in years. One would imagine that the Mets, pressured initially into bringing him back on his current contract, would feel it unwise to let the fan-favorite Alonso walk away for good, though; Nationals ownership, in the unlikely scenario they would even be willing to open the checkbook wide enough to sign the Polar Bear, almost certainly would be unable to convince Alonso that the District is a more attractive place to sign than Queens.
Behind him in the free agent class is the Mariners' deadline acquisition Josh Naylor. Naylor, already playing for his fourth Major League team, has turned his 2nd-percentile sprint speed and historically contact-oriented profile into an astounding 20-home run and 30-stolen base campaign in this, his sixth year of Major League service heading into free agency. The stolen base boom in a walk year isn't a new phenomenon, but it's the efficiency and regularity with which he's been able to accomplish them that's most telling. Naylor has been one of the most consistent bats in the league over the last four seasons, and he feels a little more in-reach for the Nationals than Alonso. Still, on the heels of a campaign that's seen him bring life to a Mariners squad that's all but certainly Postseason-bound, the Nats would by far be Naylor's only hopeful suitor.
From there, we reach potentially cheaper or lesser-known candidates. Ryan O'Hearn, an All-Star with the Orioles before being traded to the Padres at the deadline, has graded out excellently defensively at first base and has been about as consistent as Naylor over the past three years in the box. Carlos Santana, though entering his age-40 season, could be a viable low-cost stopgap if he opts to play next year, just two years removed from an age-38 showing with the Twins that saw him walk away with a Gold Glove and his highest full-season wRC+ since 2019.
Yoán Moncada is someone I'm keeping an eye on. Though he's never played first in the majors, he's been a third baseman exclusively since 2019 and could learn the position if needed. Moncada has played 80 games this year with the Angels after appearing in just 12 in 2024 with the White Sox, but he's held his own in the box when he does play. Among batters with at least 250 plate appearances, Moncada's 117 wRC+ places in the top 30% this season. His barrel and walk rates are still high, and a team like Washington could be an ideal location for Moncada to improve his stock and try to find a trade to a contender at the deadline.
There's also a couple potential KBO imports on the market. Baek-ho Kang, 26, is an unrestricted free agent after the 2025 campaign after accruing eight years of service time with the KT Wiz. Kang went on a tear from 2019-21, posting a wRC+ north of 150 across the three-year span and walking more than he struck out in 2021. He battled injury and personal issues in 2022 and '23, though, and has struggled to see his production at the plate rebound fully, though he's still running a 125 wRC+ this season.
Also a possibility is 29-year-old Sung-mun Song, who told Yonhap News Agency's Jee-ho Yoo of his intent to ask his Kiwoom Heroes to be posted following the 2025 season. Song has largely been a third baseman for his career, though he's spent some time at first and second as well. After struggling to find success from 2021 to '23, Song exploded in 2024 with a .340/.409/.518 slash line, and has turned up his power production in 2025, hitting 25 home runs in 139 games with a 155 wRC+. Sung-mun also stole over 20 bases in both years. He signed a 6-year, $8.6 million contract extension with the Heroes in August, but Song still intends to request a posting to Major League teams following the conclusion of the season. If posted, MLB teams will have a 30-day window to negotiate a contract with Song, plus a posting fee of a certain percentage of the contract's value to return to Kiwoom. The Heroes, as Yoo notes, have recently sent Ha-seong Kim, Jung-hoo Lee, and Hye-seong Kim to MLB. All three played in the league this year.
Next week, we'll look at other first base options, between trades and pre-existing internal candidates. Who do you want to be the Nationals' starting first baseman next year? Let us know on Twitter @DistrictOnDeck.
Information in this article was sourced from Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs, Spotrac, and MLB Trade Rumors.