We noted earlier this week how the Nationals have cleared a bunch of spots on their 40-man roster, losing several players to other clubs via waiver claims while outrighting several more to Triple-A Rochester, some of those players electing to become free agents in the process.
All of those moves leave the team with only 34 current players on the 40-man roster heading into the offseason, which means new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni has a lot of work to do to assemble his 2026 major league roster.
Toboni and his staff also have a lot of work to do to assemble their minor league rosters, which have already seen a host of slots open up following the recent departures of players.
A whopping 32 minor leaguers officially became free agents Friday, the date when all minor league players with enough professional service time have the right to leave their organizations. The Nationals aren’t the only club to experience a significant exodus, but that number is pretty staggering nonetheless.
Most of the names aren’t recognizable to anyone but the most hardcore of prospect hounds, but there are several notable ones sprinkled in there who played this season at Triple-A: Joan Adon, Juan Yepez, Nick Schnell, Jackson Cluff, C.J. Stubbs and Chase Solesky.
Adon, Yepez and Stubbs all played in the big leagues for the Nationals at various points in recent years. Adon totaled 132 1/3 innings in the majors over parts of four seasons, going 3-16 with a 6.66 ERA in 35 games (26 of them starts) and made the Opening Day rotation in 2022. Yepez took 249 plate appearances as a first baseman or designated hitter in 2024, batting .283 with 15 doubles, six homers, 26 RBIs and a .764 OPS but never made it back to D.C. this season. Stubbs made his MLB debut on Sept. 1 at age 28 and memorably caught Andrew Alvarez’s shutout, only to be sent back to the minors the next day.
Schnell was a former first-round pick of the Rays who joined the Nationals on a minor league deal and put up big numbers between Rochester and Double-A Harrisburg: 21 doubles, 11 triples, 23 homers, 84 RBIs, .799 OPS in 129 games. Cluff was the Nats’ sixth-round pick in 2019 and produced a .771 OPS in 103 games at Rochester while playing smooth infield defense. Solesky, originally drafted by the White Sox, made 23 starts for Rochester this season, going 6-5 with a 5.17 ERA and 1.495 WHIP.
None of these players, it should be noted, figured into the organization’s short- or long-term plans. Their departures don’t impact anyone’s attempts to build a 2026 major league roster.
But they did help fill out the Triple-A roster, and all of a sudden the Nats have a whole lot of holes that need to be filled to make sure Rochester has a team come April.
As any baseball executive will tell you, winning organizations don’t just need 26 major league players. They need 40 available major league players, then more minor leaguers who provide organizational depth and theoretically could be called up if a need arises. There are a lot of reasons why the Nationals have lost so many games in recent years, but a lack of viable players at Double-A and Triple-A to promote when others get injured or struggle is definitely on the list.
It's already been a busy offseason for Toboni and his newly assembled front office. It’s only going to get busier as they attempt not only to shore up the Nationals’ major league roster, but their minor league roster as well.