For Nationals fans, the 2026 season is already in the rearview mirror. But the playoff chase hasn’t completely lost its local flavor, with a few familiar names still hanging around the bracket - some of them easier to forget than others.
One of the more interesting ones is Alex Call, who was dealt from Washington to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 2025 MLB trade deadline. He ended up helping the Dodgers capture their second straight World Series title last season, going 4-for-11 in the 2025 postseason. This year, though, Kyle Tucker’s addition cut into his role, and Call spent plenty of time as a bench piece.
Over 88 games with Los Angeles this season, Call posted 38 hits in 163 at-bats. He finished with 9 doubles, a home run, 20 RBIs and a .233 batting average.
He’s not a star, and his postseason status is still uncertain because the Dodgers have not yet announced their NLDS roster. Josue De Paula could end up getting that spot instead.
Erick Fedde is another former National who has found himself in the spotlight. Drafted originally by the San Diego Padres before eventually signing with Washington after the Nationals took him in the first round of the 2014 draft, Fedde is appearing in the MLB Postseason for the first time. He spent parts of six seasons with the Nationals from 2017 to 2022 and went 21-13 with a 5.41 ERA during that stretch.
After that, Fedde spent a season in the KBO before returning to the United States and moving around to different teams. Now back in a second stint with the White Sox, he contributed two scoreless innings in Chicago’s Wild Card series sweep of the Houston Astros.
He didn’t allow a hit, gave up one hit-by-pitch and struck out three. The White Sox have been one of baseball’s biggest surprises in 2026, and Fedde is right there with them.
Then there’s Derek Hill, a name that may take a second to register for Washington fans. He appeared in just 13 games for the Nationals in 2023, but he’s now with the Philadelphia Phillies, who were set for a win-or-go-home Game 3 against the Atlanta Braves with a spot against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS on the line. At the time of writing, that game was only hours away, leaving open the possibility of another former National still alive in October.
Hill’s time in Washington was brief and quiet. In those 13 games, he went 8-for-47 with a double and an RBI, which goes a long way toward explaining why his Nationals stint is easy to overlook.
And while these three are the focus here, they’re not the only former Nationals still involved. Blake Treinen is among the others, and so is Craig Stammen, now the manager of the San Diego Padres, who are set to face the Brewers.
In Other News...
Nationals Still Have One Roster Problem They Cant Ignore
Bullpen meltdowns in October have a way of hanging over a club long after the calendar flips, and the Nationals are still living with that reality as they continue their rebuild. The conversation around relief pitching has only gotten louder after the Wild Card round featured late-inning failures for teams like the Braves and Phillies, the kind of misses that can turn a series in a hurry and put every pitcher under a brighter microscope.
For Washington, the issue is less about one bad night than a larger roster problem that has followed the organization through its rebuilding phase. Paul Toboni has already put the responsibility on the front office for the bullpens shortcomings, which is the right kind of ownership, but the harder part is turning that admission into a workable relief corps. Until that changes, the Nationals will keep facing the same uncomfortable question every contender eventually has to answer: who can be trusted when the game is on the line? [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Crews Just Made The Nationals Long-Term Call Much Harder
Dylan Crews spent much of his first two major league seasons trying to find the version of himself the Nationals expected when they brought him up, and the progress never came cleanly or all at once. After a rocky start and a stint in Triple-A Rochester, he did show stretches that hinted at why Washington has remained invested, with better moments surfacing at different points in the summer and again near seasons end.
Even so, the bigger picture still leaves the Nationals with a difficult call. Crews did not put together the kind of sustained offensive season that settles a young player into an everyday role, and the uneven production leaves his place in the long-term plan open to interpretation. For a club trying to build around its young core, that kind of uncertainty is exactly what makes his next step worth watching. [Read more 🡒]