The Nationals entered 2025 with visions of winning for the first time in six years. Or, at minimum, showing significant improvement in their won-loss record and coming as close to actually winning as they had since hoisting the World Series trophy in October 2019.

That, of course, never came to be. Not even close. The 2025 Nats regressed, finishing 66-96, five games worse than each of the previous two seasons. And their fate was sealed during an abysmal stretch from early-June through mid-July when they went 8-26, lost 11 in a row at one point and ultimately fired both general manager Mike Rizzo and Davey Martinez.

Now, with that ultra-disappointing season behind them, with a new president of baseball operations set to be introduced Wednesday morning and a new manager likely to be named in the coming weeks, it’s natural to start wondering about the answer to an age-old question: Will this team be ready to win at last in 2026?

Within the clubhouse over the weekend, the answer was resoundingly in the affirmative.

“Yeah, no doubt,” outfielder Dylan Crews said. “Every single guy here has tools and has desire to win and to go out there and produce and just have that winning mentality. Obviously, we’re young. … We’ve got some things we need to work on. But I definitely look at these guys and think that we’re a winning-caliber team.”

Not that you’d expect anybody to openly say they don’t believe the team can win next year, but the argument in favor of that outcome was grounded in the pure talent that exists within the clubhouse, all of it still quite young and (theoretically) still on the upswing.

Executives, coaches, players and other observers from opposing teams all shared a similar sentiment when watching the Nationals play this season: There’s real talent already in place. Who wouldn’t want to start with a core group that includes Crews, James Wood, Daylen Lile, CJ Abrams, MacKenzie Gore and Cade Cavalli?

“We have so much good, young talent here, and a really good group of guys with good chemistry,” right-hander Jake Irvin said. “The sky’s the limit, genuinely, and I think that everybody in here knows that. We’re really excited.”

The young core can look talented on paper, but of course it means nothing if the young core doesn’t also produce on the field. And that wasn’t consistently the case this season.

Wood and Gore had All-Star first halves but faltered over the final three months. Abrams fell into the same category, producing an .836 OPS before the break and a .633 mark after it while committing nine errors over his final 29 games. Crews had his moments along the way but ultimately finished with a .631 OPS while missing nearly half the season with an oblique injury. Lile and Cavalli made major impressions down the stretch but have yet to prove they can do it over the long haul.

Beyond that, there’s a serious depth issue with the roster as it currently exists. Only five of the 28 players who closed out the year on the active roster (Wood, Abrams, Gore, Brad Lord, Jacob Young) produced more than 1 WAR. Ten players finished below Replacement Level with negative WARs (Irvin, Paul DeJong, Jorge Alfaro, Andres Chaparro, Brady House, Konnor Pilkington, Orlando Ribalta, Jackson Rutledge, Shinnosuke Ogasawara, Mitchell Parker).

Sure, this team could use another big bat or frontline starter. But arguably even more than that, it just needs a bunch of competent big leaguers who can perform in their own specific roles.

The Nationals also need to make a complete 180 in the fundamentals game, converting way more batted balls into outs and drastically reducing the number runners they have thrown out on the bases. Some of those improvements can come with the acquisition of better players, but a lot more can come with the acquisition of a better coaching staff that helps the returning players get better in those critical areas.

Maybe it’s too much to ask this 66-win team to ascend into a 90-win team overnight, especially with a new president of baseball operations who may be more focused on a long-term vision than short-term success.

Then again, Paul Toboni and Co. need only look at this year’s final standings, with an 83-win Reds team making the postseason and a 79-win Marlins team still mathematically alive into the final week of September, to come to the conclusion it may not take as dramatic a improved record as you’d think to make the 2026 Nationals competitive again.

“I think there’s a lot to look forward to,” Wood said. “I’m sure people are probably sick of hearing that, but I really feel good about the group we’ve got in here. I feel like we’ve got guys who are capable of playing at an elite level. I think next year if we can just bring it all together and find a groove and keep rolling with it, I feel like we could be a really good team.”