The Nationals’ 2026 turnaround came with a lot of new faces and a very different feel in the dugout and front office. Under president of baseball operations Paul Toboni and manager Blake Butera, Washington posted its best season since 2019, stayed in the playoff mix through July, and hung around the edge of contention until August before selling at the trade deadline. That 77-win finish won’t earn a banner, but it did give the organization a real foundation to build on.
Butera’s first year on the job leaned heavily into a Tampa Bay-style formula. He mixed platoons throughout the lineup and used openers and bulk relievers in the rotation to squeeze value out of a roster that didn’t have much elite talent. The approach helped the Nationals play .500 ball for four months and keep themselves in the race longer than most expected.
Toboni wasted no time putting his stamp on the roster. One of his earliest wins was the low-cost Foster Griffin signing, which turned into one of the more surprising All-Star seasons in recent memory.
Washington then flipped Griffin for four prospects at the deadline. Toboni also landed Curtis Mead on a late March DFA pickup, and Mead rewarded that move by becoming a middle-of-the-order contributor before being dealt to Boston for lefty Connelly Early.
Now the big question is what Washington wants to do financially this winter. The actual term of Stephen Strasburg’s contract is finally off the books after years of weighing down the payroll, but the Nationals still owe him $80MM in deferred salaries from 2028-30. They also remain committed to $15MM in deferred payments to Max Scherzer this July 1 and next, along with $4MM in deferred salaries to Kyle Finnegan through 2028.
As for the current payroll picture, Washington enters the offseason with no guaranteed contracts, no option decisions, and no free agents on the books. The club’s 2027 financial commitments sit at $13MM, including the $4MM signing bonus owed to Cavalli in November, and total future commitments are $77MM before deferrals.
Arbitration decisions will shape part of the roster. Josiah Gray, CJ Abrams, Richard Lovelady, Jake Bird, Jake Irvin, Ken Waldichuk, Jacob Young, and Mitchell Parker are all eligible, with projected salaries listed at $1.6MM for Gray, $10.2MM for Abrams, $1.7MM for Lovelady, $1.3MM for Bird, $3.4MM for Irvin, $1MM for Waldichuk, $2.3MM for Young, and $1.1MM for Parker. The non-tender candidates are Lovelady, Bird, Waldichuk, and Parker.
Even with those names on the board, Washington’s 2027 payroll outlook is strikingly light. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker has the Nationals at $57,313,443, which is dead last by a wide margin, not counting the deferrals.
The next closest club is the Marlins at about $82MM. Trevor Williams was the most expensive Nationals player last season who wasn’t retired, making $7MM, though he spent most of the year rehabbing an elbow injury before being cut after eight appearances.
In Other News...
Nationals Suddenly Face A Tough Abimelec Ortiz Decision
The Nationals are heading into the kind of offseason that exposes every weak spot at once. Behind Cade Cavalli, they still have two rotation spots to sort out, and the bullpen remains a lingering concern after setting an MLB record for blown saves. Even with those bigger-picture pitching issues hanging over the roster, the club is also weighing a move at first base as it tries to settle a lineup that never found much consistency.
Abimelec Ortiz is still very much in Washingtons plans, but the way he finished the 2026 season has left the organization open to alternatives. A short-term addition at first base would not necessarily signal a change in direction on Ortiz, but it would buy the Nationals some stability while they wait to see how quickly he can turn things around. For a team trying to balance development with the need to win more games now, it is one of the quieter but more consequential decisions on the board. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Took A Risk On Luke Williams For One Big Reason
Paul Tobonis first draft running the Washington Nationals was never going to be a simple best-player-available exercise. The organization clearly needed pitching, yet he spent three of his picks on position players, including third-rounder Luke Williams, a Pennsylvania high school shortstop whose athleticism stood out enough to override some of the obvious caution flags. The idea is straightforward enough: if a player has this kind of tool set, you can dream on the upside, even if the path to getting there is less than tidy.
Williams is expected to move to center field, where his speed and overall athletic profile could play, and he has already flashed some power in exhibition settings. The part that makes him such a swing-for-the-fences pick is also what makes him tricky to project, since he has faced limited high-level pitching and still has questions to answer about his approach at the plate. For a Nationals team trying to rebuild with both urgency and discipline, he represents the sort of bet that could look smart in a few years, or feel a lot riskier if the bat never catches up. [Read more 🡒]
Nationals Face A Real Jake Irvin Decision This Offseason
Jake Irvin has become one of the more familiar arms in the Nationals rotation since his 2023 call-up, and durability has never really been the question. The larger issue is what the club is getting for that workload. Over the past two seasons, Irvin has carried an ERA above 5, even as there have been signs of progress, including more strikeouts and a curveball that played well in 2024.
Now Washington has to decide whether that profile is worth keeping around at a projected cost of about $3.4 million. The possibility of tendering him a contract this offseason is tied not just to whether the Nationals still believe in his starters ceiling, but also to whether a move to the bullpen might make more sense if they want to keep his arm in the organization without committing to the same role. [Read more 🡒]