Who Were Five Worst Nationals Players by Top Sabermetric in 2025?
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It was a monumental year in DC, as the Washington Nationals had some of the biggest turnover in the history of the franchise. They fired Mike Rizzo to hire new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, who will bring in a new manager after the dismissal of Dave Martinez.
Those big changes could have contributed to what was nearly a 100 loss season, but most of that falls on the roster. While Washington has stars, the roster is very top heavy, with the bottom being worth negative bWAR in many cases.
Contributors from 2024's team took a big step backwards this season, but they weren't the only ones. Even a young player, who the Nationals hope will be a cornerstone of the franchise, had a rough go at it in his rookie season.
Mitchell Parker, -1.2 bWAR
Parker was about a league average pitcher in 2024, throwing 151 innings with a 4.29 ERA and 95 ERA+. However, in 2025 he was worse in every category and even got pulled from the rotation after 30 starts.
In 164.2 innings, the 26-year-old posted a 5.68 ERA with a 5.6 K/9 and -1.2 bWAR. Compared to 2024, he walked nearly a batter more per inning (3.2) and struck out 5.6 per nine compared to 7.9 last season. His WHIP showed a lot of the regression, going from 1.305 to 1.433 this season.
According to Baseball Savant, his whiff percentage dropped from 22.3 to 19.6, meaning hitters just weren't fooled by his stuff. His 5.68 ERA was the second most among all qualified pitchers, just behind his teammate, Jake Irvin.
Nothing went right for the left-hander in 2025 after what was an encouraging start to his career. If he can get back on track, there's still room for him in the rotation as it stands.
Eduardo Salazar, -0.8 bWAR
Salazar was selected off of waivers in 2024 and was great in 27.1 innings, posting a 2.96 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 0.5 bWAR is a short amount of time. The right-hander had earned a role in the bullpen for 2025, but was unable to take advantage of the opportunity.
In 29 innings, the 27-year-old alowed 29 runs and 27 earned runs, good for an 8.38 ERA. He walked 16 batters, which comes out to five per nine, but only struck out 23, a 7.1 K/9.
Salazar was optioned twice this season, once in May, and then another in July. He last pitched for Washington on July 5, and subsequently spent the rest of the season in Triple-A. He had a 5.05 ERA at that level.
In a bullpen bereft of trustworthy arms, Salazar had a real chance to lock up a spot as a reliable reliever going forward. That was not the case in 2025.
Brady House, -0.6 bWAR
As a first round pick, it's been expected that House would take over as the team's first full-time third baseman since Anthony Rendon. After hitting .305 in Triple-A, he was called up to do exactly that. It didn't come together for him at the big league level.
House played 73 games, hitting .234 with a .574 OPS, four home runs, 29 RBIs and a 62 OPS+. He was a well below average hitter in his first year, only adding on 11 more extra-base hits to the four home runs.
The alarming bit of his season was his lack of plate discipline. House's strikeout percentage this seaosn was 28.5 percent, while he walked just 2.9 percent of this time. He hadn't walked a ton in his minor league career, but it was more around seven percent. The rate at which he walked in 2025 is just not sustainable for a big league hitter.
This is by no means a call to move on from the 22-year-old. It was only 73 games and he still has a lot of room to develop over the next season or two. He's shown he has the bat in the minor leagues, so the upside is still there.
Zach Brzykcy, -0.6 bWAR
The right-hander got his first taste of the big leagues in 2024, allowing nine earned runs in 5.2 innings. This season, he had another rough go at it in a bigger sample size. In 23 innings, Brzykcy allowed 23 earned runs, walked 12 and struck out 24.
The 26-year-old was not able to limit base runners in 2025. Aside from his 9.00 ERA, he allowed 11 hits per nine and 2.3 home runs per nine, gving up six in his 23 innings. His WHIP, though better than '24, was still at 6.27 this season.
The good news was that Brzykcy was able to strike out more than a batter per innings, something the rest of the Nationals' bullpen wasn't good at. But, like with Salazar, he was just unable to seize a permanent role in a pretty lackluster bullpen.
He pitched two games in July and August before being sent down on August 5.
Trevor Williams, -0.6 bWAR
It was an extremely tough year for Williams, who was coming off of an excellent season that ended early to do injury only to need another surgery again in 2025. Williams season ended with an elbow injury that needed surgery, luckily not Tommy John.
The right-hander posted a 2.03 ERA in 13 starts last year and was headed to the best year of his career. He returned this season, but struggled for the duration of his season. In 82.2 innings, Williams posted a 6.21 ERA.
Williams struck out a lot fewer batters, posting a 7.1 K/9 after his 8.0 mark of last season. His WHIP also shot up to 1.536 and his ERA+ was just 66.
It's possible the veteran just never got healthy and pitched through it before his second injury. It's also possible that it was more of a regression to the mean after a career stint last season. Either way, Washington would love to have him back in order to eat some innings next year.
