Washington Nationals interim manager Miguel Cairo (22) in action during the first baseball game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
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Problems on the field can be fixed in a variety of ways. Problems off the field are more complicated, especially at the ownership level. That makes today’s Washington Post report on the Washington Nationals’ messy leadership structure that much more disturbing.
The report, published by Barry Svrluga, Andrew Golden, and Chelsea Janes, detailed multiple inside sources criticizing the team’s leadership as “directionless.” It alleges that there are 10 members of the Lerner family making ownership-level decisions, preventing the franchise from having a unified voice. They haven’t employed a team president since 2010.
At 62-92, the Nationals have already guaranteed another last-place finish in the National League East, their fourth in five years. Since winning the 2019 World Series, they haven’t won more than 71 games in a season.
The Nationals fired president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez in July. They’ve been run by interim general manager Mike DeBartolo and interim manager Miguel Cairo since then, but they will need to make permanent hires in those critical roles early in the offseason.
Their next leadership structure may or may not have significant changes from the current one. Regardless of how that plays out, they need to rethink their rebuild to climb out of the basement.
The Nationals have three building blocks who were all acquired from the San Diego Padres in the Juan Soto trade. Shortstop CJ Abrams leads the team with 3.9 WAR (Baseball-Reference version) thanks to his 18 home runs and 31 stolen bases. Left fielder James Wood is hitting .254/.349/.461 with 27 home runs and 3.5 WAR. Left-hander MacKenzie Gore has 182 strikeouts in 157 2/3 innings, and he’s fourth in the league 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings.
Soto is one of the best hitters in baseball, but one could argue they’re getting enough value from Abrams, Wood, and Gore to justify the trade. However, no one else on the team has more than 1.6 WAR. That means the trade that sent Trea Turner and Max Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers has been a bust for the franchise. The best player they got in return was catcher Keibert Ruiz, who has a .595 OPS this year.
Washington had the top overall pick in this year’s draft, and they selected 17-year-old shortstop Eli Willits. They hope he’ll reverse a trend of unproductive first-round picks for the organization. The team hasn’t drafted a player in the first round who has produced 10 WAR since Lucas Giolito in 2012, and very little of that was with the Nationals. The last first-rounder they picked who generated at least 10 WAR for Washington was Anthony Rendon in 2011.
There isn’t much immediate help on the way for the big-league club. MLB.com ranked their farm system 23rd overall in August. Their best prospect is Willits, who is several years away from contributing. Other top prospects include pitcher Travis Sykora, who is out long-term following Tommy John surgery, and pitcher Jarlin Susana, who was also part of the Soto trade.
Noticeably absent from their top prospects are any players signed and developed by the organization as international amateurs. Between this and their poor record with top draft picks, it’s no wonder that the franchise has such a weak farm system and so few productive players in the majors.
The minor leagues are the lifeblood of any organization. Once the Nationals figure out who’s calling the shots, their next order of business needs to be addressing their scouting and player development apparatuses. Until they resolve their issues in those areas, it’ll be impossible for them to achieve on-field success.
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