Grading Nationals Front Office After Season Which Triggered Major Moves

The Washington Nationals had a brutal 2025 campaign, and the front office certainly had a hand in how difficult it became down the stretch for them.

May 20, 2023; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Nationals owner Mark Lerner on the field before the game between the Washington Nationals and the Detroit Tigers at Nationals Park. | Brad Mills-Imagn Images

The 2025 season was another difficult year for the Washington Nationals, finishing with a 66-96 record that leaves them last place in the National League East for the fifth time in the last six years.

Something needed to change, to put it simply, and 2025 was certainly a season for change with the franchise as they moved on from their manager, general manager, and even added a new President of Baseball Operations early in the fall.

The 2025 MLB Draft was under the supervision of this new regime to some extent, and that will factor into the grade. In addition, offseason moves will also count to some degree, given that they occurred within the last 12 months, and this is an overall grade for the entirety of the front office, not just the new group. So without further ado, let's take a look at how the front office performed this season.

How Did the Nationals' Front Office Do During the 2025 Season?

Brad Mills-Imagn Images

Starting off with offseason signings and additions, during the offseason their primary signings or re-signings came in the form of Mason Thompson, Konnor Pilkington, Michael Soroka, Trevor Williams, Josh Bell, Amed Rosario, Jorge Lopez, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, Paul DeJong and Kyle Finnegan.

Paul DeJong discusses his return from injury. pic.twitter.com/cSNmqf2gBp

— Nationals on MASN (@masnNationals) July 2, 2025

Of the bunch, three were traded away for prospects, one was injured much of the year, a few were less promising than expected, and maybe only two of the group were average to above average for Washington, which were Pilkington and Bell. So overall for their acquisitions grade through the offseason, they should get maybe a C-, they were able to get value through trades later on and with two of the signings somewhat, but ultimately, did not do enough to supplement the roster.

Then, as for trades, they sent out Alex Call, Amed Rosario, Luis García, Andrew Chafin, Kyle Finnegan, Michael Soroka. In return, they received Clayton Beeter, Browm Martinez, Jake Eder, Sam Brown, Sean Paul Liñan, Eriq Swan, Ronny Cruz, Christian Franklin, R.J. Sales and Josh Randall.

Overall, most of these trades will be neutral or long-term benefits for Washington, given that the vast majority of the returns they received were prospects or younger players who need time to get to the MLB level. Grading the trades as of now is difficult, given that many of these prospects got, at most, half of a season with Washington.

As for their draft, overall, everything went well for them, picking up multiple players who should be key pieces of the future, and finding value down the board as well. While there were no picks that were truly mind-boggling in either direction, they did a good job of finding talent that should be promising for them.

Overall, the grade given to Washington's front office for 2025 is a flat "C". Despite a promising draft and some good trades timing-wise, they did not make additions during the offseason aside from one or two that made an impact on their own roster for the whole season, and their trade return value left a decent amount to be desired.