As September creeps closer, the Nationals are again in that familiar spot: a sub-.500 season, an eye on what’s next, and a roster already showing signs of the future. Washington has started making those forward-looking moves too, from shifting CJ Abrams to second base to giving younger players like Jackson Kent a chance while veterans like Miles Mikolas or Zack Littell have struggled.
That’s why the next wave of September call-ups will matter. Maybe it’s Seaver King getting his first shot in the majors.
Maybe it’s an extra arm like Luis Perales. Nothing is set yet, but Nationals history gives us a good place to look while we wait.
Some of the franchise’s most memorable names arrived in September, and a few turned those late-season cameos into something much bigger.
Ryan Zimmerman sits at the top of that list, and it’s hard to argue otherwise. “Mr.
National” was the first player ever drafted by Washington after the move to D.C., and he made his big-league debut on September 1, 2005 as a pinch hitter, only months after being selected out of the University of Virginia. That first look was a strong one: Zimmerman posted a .988 OPS in 62 plate appearances during that September stint, a preview of the career that followed.
He played for the Nationals from 2005 through 2021, became known for his clutch hitting, and later became the first player in Washington Nationals history to have his number retired since the franchise relocated from Montreal. He finished as a World Series Champion in 2019 and remains one of the most beloved figures in team history.
Ian Desmond followed a different path to Washington, but his September arrival left its own mark. Originally drafted by the Montreal Expos in the third round of the 2004 MLB Draft, Desmond debuted for the Nationals on September 10, 2009.
“Desi” quickly became a favorite over seven seasons in Washington, giving the club steady play at shortstop and immediate production in his first taste of the majors. In 89 plate appearances, he hit 4 homers, drove in 12 runs, and put up an .879 OPS.
One of his biggest moments came on September 28, 2014, during Jordan Zimmermann’s no-hitter, when Desmond hit the game’s only run with a home run. Over his Nationals tenure, he hit 110 of his 181 career home runs, drove in 432 runs, and batted .264.
Victor Robles rounds out the group, and his September call-up brought a different kind of excitement. He was brought up in September of 2017 and spent parts of eight seasons with Washington from 2017 through 2024, before being designated for assignment and signing a major league deal with the Seattle Mariners.
Robles was part of the 2019 World Series Championship team, and his reputation as a prospect made his arrival feel like a big deal from the start. At one point, he was viewed as a consensus top 10 prospect in all of baseball and was discussed as the better prospect between him and Juan Soto, with some even placing him close to Ronald Acuna Jr. in those conversations.
His brief 2017 debut produced a .766 OPS, but his 21-game stint in 2018 is what really turned heads: .874 OPS, 3 homers, 10 RBIs, and 3 stolen abses in 66 plate appearances. Across his Nationals career, he hit 31 home runs, drove in 156 runs, and hit .236.
The bigger picture is pretty clear: the Nationals haven’t exactly built their identity around September superstars. The names that defined the franchise - Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, and Juan Soto - arrived in the middle of seasons, not at the end. Still, September has produced its share of fan favorites in Washington, and those late-season call-ups have helped shape the franchise’s story since the move to D.C. in 2005.
In Other News...
Nationals Get A Real Opening As Rangers Shake Up Their Lineup
The Nationals opened the series by getting shut out 5-0, with Cal Quantrill cruising through seven scoreless innings for Texas. Washington now gets another look at the matchup with Cade Cavalli on the mound, and there is at least a sense that the next game offers a cleaner path for the home side after a flat start against a Rangers club that dictated the game from the outset.
Texas, meanwhile, is giving the lineup a different look as it tries to keep the pressure on. Joc Pederson is set to lead off and handle first base, while Danny Jansen is getting a breather after being activated from the injured list, part of a reshuffled group that could change the tone of the series if Washington does not answer early. [Read more 🡒]
Cade Cavalli Is Giving Nationals Fans Real Reason To Believe
Cade Cavalli keeps giving the Nationals something they have been searching for all season: a starter who can take over a game and make it look routine. Against the Rangers, he threw six scoreless innings, struck out 11 and helped Washington cruise to a 6-0 win, continuing a run that has made his recent stretch impossible to ignore. Over his last 10 starts, Cavalli has posted a 2.12 ERA, and his scoreless-innings streak now sits at 17.
What stood out even more was how quickly he piled up the strikeouts, getting to 10 within four innings, a level of dominance only two other Nationals pitchers have matched since 2005. For a club that has spent plenty of time looking for signs that its rotation can be more than just serviceable, Cavalli is starting to supply them in bunches. The bigger question now is how long he can keep carrying that kind of momentum. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Have A New Reason To Watch Murakami Closely
The latest midseason hitter rankings are a reminder of how quickly the conversation can shift after the All-Star break, when a hot stretch starts to matter almost as much as the full season line. Yordan Alvarez, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Shohei Ohtani are all featured prominently because of the way they have been driving offenses lately, with Crow-Armstrongs jump from last year standing out as one of the biggest year-to-year gains in the group.
For the Nationals, the broader lesson is the kind of bat profile the front office and fan base have to keep tracking as the season moves on. These rankings are built around current form, not reputation, and they point to a pool of hitters who have found a groove at exactly the right time, while others are still trying to climb back into that conversation. [Read more 🡒]