Nationals Appear Years Away From Being Contender in National League

How long until the Washington Nationals are ready to be a contender?

May 7, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Nationals designated hitter James Wood (29) singles against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Nationals Park. | Brad Mills-Imagn Images

It has been another losing season so far for the Washington Nationals who are desperately trying to snap out of this rebuild.

Coming into the year, hopes were somewhat high for the franchise with a lot of exciting young players that are starting to develop. While some players have taken a nice step forward in their development, others are off to slow starts and the team still isn’t quite where it would like to be.

Fortunately, some of the players who are performing well are guys that the team hopes will be building blocks for the future.

However, the Nationals play in one of the most challenging divisions in baseball, and it’s a division that doesn’t look like it will be getting weaker anytime soon.

How long until Washington can contend?

Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the Nationals showing some signs of improvement, but still years away from being a contender.

“James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, and CJ Abrams look like stars, but the Nationals as a team still feel pretty far away from contention. A big part of that is a disastrous bullpen, which has produced an NL-worst 6.55 ERA thus far," Kelly wrote.

Unfortunately, this assessment seems fair. This winter, there was a hope that Washington might look to make a splash or two with some bad contracts coming off the books, but instead, they added some veterans to one-year deals.

While the team is better on paper, they aren’t anywhere near being a contender.

So far, while the lineup has shown improvements to go along with the starting rotation, the bullpen has been a disaster outside of Kyle Finnegan.

Furthermore, while their All-Star closer is doing well, it would be shocking if he’s on the team after the trade deadline. More than likely, the Nationals are going to be out of contention come July, and Finnegan is arguably their best piece to unload if he’s pitching well at the deadline.

If they do end up moving him, the bullpen will only get worse.

However, in the long run, that is going to be the right move for the franchise. Until they look to start spending and bringing in some quality talent on multi-year deals, the franchise will continue to lean on their young players.

With the division being as good as it is, and the lack of talent, it feels like Washington is still at least a couple years aways from being a contender.

As the year rolls on, hopefully the bullpen will start to improve and help the organization get some more confidence with some wins under their belts.