It’s late July in the nation’s capital, and if you listen closely, you can hear the unmistakable sounds of a baseball team who is in the cellar and ready to sell off their top players. The Washington Nationals aren’t just having a bad season; they’re having the kind of season that forces a franchise to look in the mirror and ask some very hard questions. At 41-60, they’re not just buried in the NL East, a full 17 games behind the Phillies; they’re a staggering 14 games out of even a sniff of the last Wild Card spot. Their run differential, a brutal -105, tells you everything you need to know: this isn’t about bad luck, it’s about being fundamentally outmatched on a nightly basis.
The season of hope, if there ever was one, officially died on July 6th. That was the day the organization finally pulled the plug on the 2019 glory days, firing both the architect of that World Series team, Mike Rizzo, and its field general, Dave Martinez. It was a clear signal from ownership: the old way is over. A fire sale is coming. We all knew what that meant. Sell off the veterans, the expiring contracts, and collect some lottery tickets for the future. But no one was prepared for the name that has suddenly, shockingly, entered the chat.
MacKenzie Gore.
Yes, that MacKenzie Gore. The 26-year-old lefty who was supposed to be the anchor of the next great Nationals rotation. The guy who was the crown jewel of the Juan Soto trade. The newly minted All-Star who has finally, thrillingly, made the leap to ace-dom this year. He’s been one of the few reasons to even tune into MASN this summer, posting a 3.59 ERA that is belied by an even better 3.20 FIP, suggesting he’s been even better than his numbers show. He’s striking out a whopping 140 batters in just over 112 innings. And the most tantalizing part? He’s doing it all for a bargain-basement salary of $2.89 million this year and remains under team control through the 2027 season. He is, without exaggeration, one of the most valuable assets in all of baseball. And according to reports, the Nationals’ new interim General Manager, Mike DeBartolo, is listening to offers.
Now, DeBartolo has tried to soften the blow. He’s said that trading away high-quality young players is “not a focus of mine” and that he includes Gore in that group. But in the world of front-office speak, that’s a far cry from “he’s untouchable.” It’s an open invitation. It’s putting a price tag on the priceless. And this is where the change in philosophy from the Rizzo era becomes crystal clear. DeBartolo, who comes from an analytics background and proudly takes credit for his role in architecting the Soto trade back in 2022, is signaling a new, data-driven approach. To a modern front office, there are no sacred cows, only assets on a value curve. And Gore’s value will, in all likelihood, never be higher than it is at this very moment.
Why would you even consider trading a player like that? The logic, as painful as it is for fans to hear, is straightforward. The Nationals are not one player away from contending. They are years away. Most realistic projections don’t see their next competitive window opening until 2027, which just so happens to be Gore’s final year of team control. Add in the fact that Gore is a Scott Boras client, and the chances of him signing a long-term extension before testing free agency are next to nil. So, the front office is forced to view him as a 2.5-year asset. Does it make sense to hold onto that asset while the team around him is losing 90-plus games, only to watch him walk away for nothing more than a compensatory draft pick right when the team is supposed to get good? Or does it make more sense to trade him now, at the absolute peak of his value, for a massive haul of prospects whose own competitive timelines would align perfectly with a 2027-2028 contention window?
The market for a young, controllable ace is astronomical. Just look at what the White Sox got for Garrett Crochet last winter: two top-100 prospects, including a top-25 guy, for a pitcher with only two years of control. Gore has more control and is having a better season. The asking price would have to start there and might be even higher. Teams like the Chicago Cubs, desperate for a front-line starter and loaded with prospects, who Jeff Passan over on ESPN has already named as the “best fit.” A package from them would have to be built around multiple top-tier young players.
Here the thing, folks: The counterargument is just as compelling. You don’t trade young aces. They are the hardest commodity to find. The Nationals already have one. Trading him means you’re right back in the prospect lottery, hoping one of the players you get in return might one day become what MacKenzie Gore already is. It also sends a terrible message to the clubhouse and the fanbase.
If you trade Gore, who was the centerpiece of the Soto deal a couple years ago, you’re essentially admitting that the first stage of the rebuild failed and you’re hitting the reset button all over again. How are C.J. Abrams and James Wood, the other key pieces of that trade, supposed to feel when they see the organization ship out their co-star? It risks creating a culture of perpetual rebuilding, where no young star is ever safe.
With that… The decision rests on the shoulders of Mike DeBartolo. This is his audition for the permanent job. Trading Gore would be a bold, franchise-altering move that defines his tenure before it even officially begins. It’s a bet on his own front office’s ability to identify and develop talent. It’s a choice between building around the known quantity you have, or rolling the dice on a bigger, more sustainable future. For Nationals fans, it’s a gut-wrenching proposition. But in the cold calculus of a modern baseball rebuild, if a team meets the exorbitant asking price, the unthinkable might just become the inevitable.
If you cannot play with them, then root for them!