Nationals’ Rotation Takes Blow—Ace Mackenzie Gore Exits With Left Shoulder Issue
In this story:
The 2025 season has been one to forget for the Washington Nationals. Despite having an exciting young core, they fired their general manager and manager and will likely finish in last place for the fifth time in the last six years.
It hasn't been pretty overall, but CJ Abrams is having another good year, and breakouts from All-Stars James Wood and MacKenzie Gore have been the most exciting aspects of the season.
Gore, the former number three overall pick, has had his best major league season in his young career. He's reached a career high in bWAR with 3.0, has a career high 10.6 K/9 and made his first All-Star team.
On Saturday, it was announced that Gore would be headed to the 15-day IL with 'left shoulder inflammation,' retroactive to August 27. Mason Thompson was recalled from Triple-A as the corresponding move. Thompson has a 13.50 ERA in six appearances this season.
Gore Expects To Return, but Has Struggled in the Second Half
Though it's a shoulder injury, which is usually scary, Gore doesn't think it's serious, according to the Washington Post's Spencer Nusbaum. Gore expects to be back after the 15 days.
The 26-year-old's season has been the tale of two halves. Gore was brilliant in the first half, throwing 110.1 innings with a 3.02 ERA and 11.3 K/9. It appeared he was on his way to earning Cy Young votes for the first time in his career and looked like the prospect he was once thought to be.
It has since fallen apart in the second half. In eight starts and 37 innings, the left-hander has allowed 31 earned runs (7.54 ERA), and has struck out only 35 compared to 20 walks.
A major part of the problem appears to be his pitch mix and how much his arsenal usage changes depending on the handedness of the batter.
Second-half struggles are now definitively part of Gore's game. In his career, his ERA lowers from 3.87 to 4.95 in the second half. His strikeout rate plummets as well, falling from 10.6 to 8.5.
Although Gore doesn't seem to be worried about the injury moving forward, he has had bad luck in that department throughout his career.
Third time in his big league career Gore has gone on the IL.
— Andrew Golden (@andrewcgolden) August 30, 2025
2022 — left elbow inflammation
2023 — finger blisters
Now this. He didn’t pitch in the majors again after his first two IL stints, https://t.co/b5YniBCCEo
Nothing has been reported by the club, so his timetable is yet to be seen.
MacKenzie Gore's future is still incredibly bright. He has the pedigree and stuff from the left side that make an ace in this league. He's still young, not only in age, but by innings. He's thrown 150 or more innings once in his career.
He's had some bad injury luck throuhgout his career. If this injury is indeed minor, he can raise the excitement level going forward by staying healthy and pithing well down the stretch.
