Nationals Ace MacKenzie Gore Listed as No. 1 Trade Candidate of Offseason

Trade speculation keeps surrounding Washington Nationals ace MacKenzie Gore.

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The Washington Nationals have virtually everything in place to attack this offseason.

They hired Paul Toboni to become their new president of baseball operations. And then after he hired some front office executives around him while also keeping former interim general manager Mike DeBartolo in the organization, Toboni decided on the team's next manager by hiring Blake Butera.

With those pieces in place, the focus can be on what to do this offseason. While the expectations that they will be active in free agency are fairly low, there's still a chance they could shock the baseball world and land some high-profile roster upgrades.

However, there is also a chance Toboni comes in and guts things even further, trading away some of their best assets to get prospects back that will help them in the future. And if that's the case, the player who is seen as an obvious trade chip is ace MacKenzie Gore.

MacKenzie Gore Listed as No. 1 Trade Candidate

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Rumors and speculation has already run rampant regarding the potential that Gore is shopped, with many mock deals being thrown together in addition to former MLB general manager Jim Bowden stating the star lefty is going to be shopped around.

Because of that, Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors listed Gore as the No. 1 trade candidate of the offseason across the entirety of Major League Baseball.

"Every rotation-hungry contender in baseball should have interest, and many of them probably think that moving to a club that has more thoroughly embraced data and pitch development than what has been a more 'old school' Nationals organization did could be a catalyst for Gore's true breakout," he wrote.

MacKenzie Gore tonight:

6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K pic.twitter.com/Xj5alMyGWN

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 30, 2025

While the "old school" notion about the Nationals might have been true in the past, there's no doubt that's not the case anymore now that Toboni and his front office are place. That's why he could opt to keep the lefty around until his arbitration years runs out, using Gore to lead the rotation until some of their younger arms can backfill his opening when that time comes.

But Toboni's background is in talent development and scouting, so selling Gore at what could be his peak value would likely net him a monster return that would get Toboni his first wave of prospects into the organization.

"... moving Gore could provide a serious jolt to a farm system that's still in the bottom third of MLB despite being in year four of a rebuild," stated Adams.

It will be interesting to see what ultimately happens regarding Gore this winter. There were tons of teams who were eyeing him ahead of the deadline this year, so now that the offseason is underway, even more could jump into the sweepstakes if he is made available.